Supplementary Information Tables

As part of the departmental reorganization to enhance the strategic policy function, the Strategic Policy sector established a Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) Centre of Expertise (CoE). The role of the CoE is to build internal capacity and ensure that GBA+ is being applied correctly across the Department. The CoE provides information, guidance, and support, as well as training upon request, on conducting comprehensive GBA+ assessments. The CoE also acts as the point of contact for DFO with the Department of Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) on all matters relating to the GBA+ Action Plan and WAGE GBA+ Implementation Survey, and is led by the departmental Gender Focal Point with the support of one other full-time equivalent (37.5 work hours per week).

In addition, the Director General for Strategic Policy and Priorities was appointed to the role of GBA+ Champion to work with the CoE to help promote GBA+ related initiatives and bring together a community of practice approach to the GBA+ function within DFO.

Finally, the Canadian Coast Guard is taking action to implement the Government of Canada's commitment to gender equality, diversity, and inclusion. In December 2019, a new Personnel Branch was created to bring all of the Coast Guard's ‘people’ functions together, focusing on recruitment and retention, learning and training, career management and development, and wellness.

The Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation Directorate at DFO began a review of collaborative management and commercial programming to introduce additional performance measures to track gender-based employment statistics aimed at pursuing opportunities to increase employment for Indigenous women.

In addition, DFO began to advance proposals to negotiate treaties and reconciliation agreements. Each proposal will consider and incorporate GBA+ considerations, drawing on existing information and gathering new information through department-wide collaboration. These efforts will help strengthen and consolidate departmental capacity to implement treaty and reconciliation obligations with Indigenous Nations across Canada where DFO manages the fisheries.

The long-term benefits of achieving agreements, implementing treaty obligations, and conducting meaningful engagement will contribute to narrowing the economic gap between Indigenous Nations and non-Indigenous Canadians, reducing health risks associated with living in communities with low socio-economic outcomes, enhancing self-determination with respect to fisheries management, and ensuring that treaty rights and benefits of fisheries agreements (treaty or reconciliation) are distributed equally to men and women.

Budget 2019 proposed to amend the Income Tax Act to allow farmers and fishers whose corporations sell their farming products or fishing catches to a private corporation in which they have an interest to obtain relief from deduction multiplication rules in respect of the income from such sales, provided the individuals deal at arm's length with the purchaser. Since farming and fishing businesses are typically located in rural areas, this measure benefits residents of those geographical areas.

Bill C-68 received Royal Assent on June 21, 2019. Under the amended Fisheries Act, the Minister may consider “the intersection of sex, gender, and other identity issues” alongside Indigenous, community, and other social, economic, and cultural factors for Canadians in the decision-making process for the management of fisheries.

DFO was among the first departments to legislate the consideration of GBA+ factors in decision-making. The Department will continue working to integrate GBA+ considerations into decision-making and minimize existing inequities, and focus on more specific assessments of differential impacts.

The British Columbia, Atlantic, and Quebec fishery funds support projects focused on innovation; clean technology adoption; infrastructure investments that improve productivity, sustainability and safety; and science partnerships. In the first year of implementation, these funds were used to begin work to enhance the long-term sustainable growth of the fish and seafood industry, which will have both direct and indirect positive economic impacts as it will create or sustain many jobs available to those living in coastal regions, including women and Indigenous peoples, and notably in many rural and coastal communities.

In line with its strong commitment to GBA+, the Department has worked and will continue working to integrate sex, gender, and other identity considerations into decision-making to avoid reinforcing existing inequities, and also undertake analysis to inform more specific assessments of differential impacts.

The Department continued efforts to strengthen GBA+ analyses, including improved data and reporting capacity.

Under the Blue Economy Strategy, a number of indicators associated with GBA+ have been and are continuing to be taken into account, such as measuring for impacts on health, community, fairness, and sustainability. While economic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product and job growth are important, there is a need to take into account a wider variety of indicators to measure the inclusivity of the Strategy.

In 2019-20, the Coast Guard's Diversity and Inclusion Secretariat led transformation initiatives and acted as enablers of change toward more inclusive, compassionate, and respectful workplaces. Other supporting measures included regular communications from the Commissioner on GBA+ topics (in speeches and messages to staff), targeted social media campaigns, and participation in national initiatives such as the Day of Pink and Pride Parades across the country. These ongoing activities are supported by the Department's Diversity and Inclusion Co-Champions, who include the Director General of Coast Guard Personnel, as well as the Department's National Network for Diversity and Inclusion.

The Coast Guard is working to ensure that its members have safe, practical, and inclusive uniforms. Work to modernize uniforms is being undertaken alongside other federal public service security and defence organizations, with a view to establishing common guiding principles, as well as leveraging best practices, economies of scale, and whole-of-government innovation.

In 2019-20, the Canadian Coast Guard continued to conduct GBA+ analysis across its business lines, including in ship design and in the way it manages its seagoing personnel, with a view to increasing the participation and retention of a greater diversity of people within the seafarer workforce. Coast Guard launched a review of its crewing factor with greater consideration to supporting family units, implemented a wellness strategy, and developed career planning tools for its workforce.

Specific attention continues to be placed on applying a GBA+ lens to the Coast Guard's national recruitment and retention strategy and on providing equal opportunities for women and gender-diverse individuals in hiring and promotion.

The Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) was established in 2005 as a 15-year, three-phase program to assess and remediate federal contaminated sites. The goals of FCSAP are to reduce risk through liability-reducing activities, thereby ensuring the health and safety of Canadian communities and restoring ecological integrity.

In 2019-20, the process of renewing the FCSAP Program revealed that there are positive impacts on a variety of demographic groups, including people of Indigenous status, women, children, and communities impacted by contamination, such as coastal and remote communities. Northern, rural, and Indigenous communities particularly benefit from FCSAP because these communities are disproportionately impacted by contaminated sites due to their reliance on hunting, fishing, and foraging for food gathering purposes, which is further exacerbated by food insecurities. Animals and plants harvested for food accumulate contaminants, which can affect the health of those consuming them.

The FCSAP Program was renewed in 2019-20 for an additional 15 years (2020-21 to 2034-35). The findings of the GBA+ analysis, including existing inequalities in the workforce demographic and local community participation, will be monitored during the program implementation.