Status of Women Canada gets $41 million to ease workload

OTTAWA — The Liberal government is giving Status of Women Canada more money to pay for the extra workload that comes with its focus on gender equality.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that advancing gender equality is a priority of his government, which includes running their proposals through gender-based analysis, which looks at how a certain policy might affect men and women, or boys and girls, in a different ways.

The agency responsible for carrying out much of that work has been struggling from cuts the previous Conservative government made to its budget more than a decade ago.

That is about to change, as the economic update released Tuesday earmarked $41 million to increase capacity at Status of Women over six years.

“The new funding is yet another indicator that our government takes gender equality very seriously and is determined to make it a reality,” said Celia Canon, a spokesperson for Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef, who was not made available for an interview.

That begins with $4 million this fiscal year and ramps up to $8 million annually on an ongoing basis.

That is a significant increase to its budget, which was about $36 million last year, including about $20 million in grants and contributions to organizations working on gender-related issues.

The Finance Department said the money will go toward things like boosting the capacity for engaging with provincial and territorial governments, stronger communications, better strategic policy support and measuring results.