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Planning and Reporting

Results-Based Status Report on the Implementation of Section 41 of the Official Languages Act 2009-2010

Status of Women Canada


Table of Contents


General Information

Status of Women Canada
MacDonald Building
123 Slater Street, 10th  Floor
Ottawa , Ontario
K1P 1H9
cfc-swc.gc.ca
Minister responsible:
The Honourable Rona Ambrose
Senior official(s) responsible for implementation of Part VII of the OLA:
Suzanne Clément
Coordinator/Head of Agency
Status of Women Canada
Mandate:
The mandate of Status of Women Canada (SWC) is to "coordinate policy with respect to the status of women and administer related programs." SWC is a federal government organization that promotes the full participation of women in the economic, social and democratic life of Canada. It works to advance equality for women and to remove the barriers to women's participation in society, putting particular emphasis on increasing women's economic security and eliminating violence against women.
National coordinator responsible for implementation of Section 41 of the OLA:
Yannick Raymond
Regional Director
Ontario Region
E-mail: Yannick.Raymond@swc-cfc.gc.ca
Regional Coordinators
Rubina Malik, A/Regional Director
Pacific, West, Prairies/Northern Region
Suite 1001, Highfield Place
10010 106 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta
T5J 3L8
E-mail: Rubina.Malik@swc-cfc.gc.ca

Yannick Raymond, Regional Director
Ontario Region
MacDonald Building
123 Slater Street, 10th Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 1H9
E-mail: Yannick.Raymond@swc-cfc.gc.ca

Jill Varley, Regional Director
Quebec/Nunavut Region
1564 St. Denis Street
Montreal, Quebec
H2X 3K2
E-mail: Jill.Varley@swc-cfc.gc.ca

Nicole T.  Bujold, Regional Director
Atlantic Region
109-1045 Main Street
Moncton, New Brunswick
E1C 1H1
E-mail: Nicole.Bujold@swc-cfc.gc.ca

Action Plan Highlights

Status of Women Canada (SWC) promotes the full participation of women in the economic, social and democratic life of Canada. This strategic outcome flows from SWC's mandate and is strengthened by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canada's adherence to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

In fulfilling its mandate, SWC is committed to contributing to the vitality of official language minority communities, assisting in their development, and fostering the full recognition and use of both English and French in Canadian society. SWC continues to work in collaboration with key partners, including Canadian Heritage, Canadian organizations and other stakeholders to carry out its legislative obligations under the Official Languages Act (OLA). SWC provides support for projects that help facilitate the full participation of official language minority women in the economic, social and democratic life of Canadian society.

The implementation of section 41 of the OLA is carried out in the context of SWC's broad mandate and within a framework that identifies community needs and expected results. SWC uses different mechanisms, such as program delivery, gender-based analysis, communications, consultative activities, policy work, and continues to work with official language minority women's (OLMW's) organizations, collaborates with key stakeholders within the federal Public Service, and other levels of government and communities in order to meet its responsibilities under section 41 of the OLA.

The key elements of the SWC Multi-Year Action Plan 2006-2009 are identified as follow:

Community Needs

SWC continues to monitor and identify the needs of OLMW through various consultation mechanisms. The key community needs fall under four areas:

  • Access to government programs, services and information: access to health and social programs and services, information on relevant federal, provincial/territorial programs and information materials (e.g. reports, tools, research publications).
  • Financial, material and technical assistance: funding and professional technical assistance for projects designed to address issues pertaining to OLMW.
  • Greater participation in official language minority communities and the efforts to achieve the full participation of women: to become full and active participants in their own communities and to advance women's participation in the economic, social and democratic life of Canadian society.
  • Opportunities to contribute to the public policy process: greater recognition, by departments and agencies, of the presence, realities and issues of OLMW, as well as mechanisms to facilitate their participation in the public policy process.

Activity Categories and Expected Results

The main activities in the Action Plan fall under the six categories identified for section 41. The activities under each category are designed in the context of expected results that, in turn, contribute to the SWC outcomes under section 41 of the OLA:

Awareness
  • Some of the main expected results under this category include enhanced and more visible leadership and a greater management role in supporting section 41, increased staff awareness about the legislation, knowledge of SWC obligations under the Act, increased exchange of information among directorates and greater integration of the section 41Action Plan in the corporate planning and reporting activities.
Consultation
  • It is expected that the availability of timely and accurate information to staff will increase, SWC planning and reporting exercises will be supported by data pertaining to section 41 and SWC staff are aware of new and emerging issues affecting the target group.
Communications
  • Some of the expected results under this category include improved communication between SWC and its partners, particularly OLMW, who will be informed of SWC programs, services and activities via different communication mechanisms.
Coordination and Liaison
  • SWC expects to broaden and improve its existing partnership with different stakeholders at different levels and benefit from the best practices and lessons learned from others in enhancing its strategy to implement section 41.
Funding and Program Delivery
  • In delivering the Women's Program (WP), SWC will seek to ensure access to its grants and contributions by OLMW's organizations to carry out projects that promote the full participation of women in the economic, social and democratic life of Canadian society.
Accountability
  • SWC expects to see heightened awareness of OLMW issues among accountability function teams and officers.
  • SWC will ensure that its strategic planning process, including the priority setting exercises, integrates the needs of OLMW.

The following pages provide the 2009-2010 contexts within SWC and the key results in the following six activity categories: awareness, consultation, communications, coordination and liaison, funding and program delivery, and accountability.

Summary of Key Results - 2009-2010

Context

SWC works to advance equality for women and to remove the barriers to women's participation in decision making roles in society, putting particular emphasis on increasing women's economic security and prosperity, eliminating violence against women, and increasing women's representation in political, governance and community bodies i.e. positions of leadership in all sections.

To advance equality for women, SWC works with federal departments and agencies to ensure that the gender dimensions are taken into account in the development and implementation of policies and programs by conducting gender-based analysis and supporting research.

Through the Women's Program and its two components, the Women's Community Fund and the Women's Partnership Fund, SWC plays a vital role in supporting projects undertaken by Canadian community based non-governmental organizations.

The Women's Community Fund is grant and contribution funding for eligible projects at a local, regional and national level designed to have a direct impact on women in their communities. The expected outcome of this Fund is increased awareness among women in identifying and removing barriers to their participation in their communities.

The Women's Partnership Fund is contribution funding for collaborative projects that involve federal departments/agencies, other levels of government and non-governmental organizations. The expected short-term outcome of this Fund is increased partnerships with other federal departments, levels of government, NGOs and the private sector (through partnership projects that directly support women in their communities); and, increased awareness among women in identifying and removing barriers to their participation in their communities.

The WP is delivered through five regional SWC offices:

  • National: Ottawa office serves national organizations.
  • Edmonton office serves British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Yukon.
  • Ontario: Regional office is located in Ottawa and serves the province of Ontario.
  • Montreal office serves Quebec and Nunavut.
  • Moncton office serves the 4 Atlantic Provinces: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The results identified under the Multi-Year Action Plan 2006-2009 for Section 41 are linked to the strategic outcome of SWC. As such, OLA results are consistent with and complement the SWC strategic outcome. In implementing section 41 of the OLA in 2009-2010, SWC used its different roles and activities, including program delivery, communications, consultation activities, policy work and gender-based analysis. As SWC continues to make progress in implementing section 41 of the OLA, the results achieved annually contribute to the corporate outcomes as well as to the horizontal results of the Government of Canada, under the legislation.

Status of Women Canada is currently finalizing its 2010-11 to 2012-13 multi-year action plan for section 41 of the OLA.

The following section highlights the key results achieved in relation to the various initiatives carried out in the reporting year.

Awareness

In 2009-2010, SWC remained committed to meeting its responsibilities under section 41 of the OLA through the continued implementation of its Multi-Year Action Plan. SWC's Champion of Official Languages and the National Coordinator, section 41 played an important role in increasing awareness among employees and management. Both the Champion and National Coordinator made a presentation to the Executive Committee concerning the OL Status Report 2009-2010. Strategic, operational and project planning takes into account the situation of OLMC. SWC employees understand their responsibilities to OLMCs. New employees receive information concerning section 41 and are encouraged to ask questions and to speak with their colleagues about OLMCs. Senior management and staff received timely information on the OLA and on the situation of OLMCs. The regional office of Quebec/Nunavut prepared an article on some special initiatives, which will be published in the next issue of Bulletin 41-42, spring 2010 (Volume 16, Number 1).

Consultations

SWC met with many OLMC organizations which resulted in some organizations requesting and obtaining funding approval. Examples of relevant organisations that received funding in the 4th call are: Oasis Centre des femmes (Toronto, Ontario), Fédération des femmes acadiennes de la Nouvelle-Écosse (Dartmouth, N.S.), Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité de Terre-Neuve-et- Labrador (St-John's, N.L.). OLMCs are part of the regular clientele of the SWC regional offices and, through various consultations by phone, E-mail, teleconferences and face-to-face meetings, are able to make their views, concerns and priorities known to SWC. Information/training sessions held in 2009-2010 provided opportunities to establish new contacts and maintaining existing ones.

Communications

SWC utilizes different communication mechanisms to inform OLMW, including its Web site, toll-free numbers, teleconferences and e-mail. Similar to the Atlantic Region, the Quebec Region has developed a Communications Plan that takes into consideration the needs of OLMC, including a workshop and information sessions. Invitations have been extended to OLMC to meet with the Women's Program personnel. SWC staff participate in OLMW's AGM's and Strategic Planning meetings to learn more about OLMW's organisations and their needs.

Coordination and Liaison

SWC continued to work with partners to meet the priorities of OLMCs. For example, the Quebec Region participated in the meetings of the Quebec Federal Council, including an expanded meeting celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Official Languages Act, the one-day meeting dealing with the Aboriginal issue in Quebec, and regular meetings of the Aboriginal Table. In the Atlantic region, meetings were held with about 29 federal partners as well as provincial partners such as the N.B. Population Growth Secretariat and the federal/provincial/N.B. Francophone community Discussions Committee. SWC used its interactions with other federal departments and agencies, levels of government, stakeholders, NGOs, etc. as an opportunity to reflect and promote the bilingual character of Canada, and to ensure all communication products and interactions are accessible to both official language groups.

Funding and Program Delivery

In 2009-2010, OLMW benefited from the services, outputs and outcomes obtained through projects funded by the WP.

SWC approved funding totalling $1,527,641.00 and provided technical assistance for 10 projects, designed to facilitate the participation of OLMW in Canadian society by addressing their economic and social situations as well as their democratic participation through non-governmental Canadian organizations.

As well, OLMW benefited from other SWC-supported projects that had a direct impact on women in their communities. These projects produced outputs and outcomes that contributed to the SWC Action Plan and the results expected under the OLA. These projects will impact over 2,328 women directly, and over 27,845 women indirectly, thus contributing to positive outcomes for women in Canadian society.

Accountability

There was integration of SWC's s.41 Action Plan in the corporate planning (Report on Priorities and Planning) and reporting/accountability (Departmental Performance Report) activities. There was also a regular review of files as they related to OLMCs, to ensure that SWC was meeting its responsibilities and accountabilities as they relate to OLMW, and also ensure SWC planning documents such as the Report on Plans and Priorities takes OLMW into account.

Communication Plan

Distribution List

  • SWC staff
  • Members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages
  • Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Official Languages
  • Commissioner of Official Languages
  • Key Official Language Minority Community Organizations at national, regional and local levels

Signatures




Yannick Raymond
Ontario Regional Director
Status of Women Canada
Telephone

Date




Suzanne Clément
Coordinator/Head of Agency
Status of Women Canada

Date