Cost Estimate of Bill S-209: An Act to Amend the Department for Women and Gender Equality Act

The passage of this act would require the government to prepare a statement on potential effects on women for bills introduced in either House of Parliament by a representative of the Crown and all bills that are referred to a committee.

The PBO interprets this to mean that a Gender Based Analysis+ (GBA+) statement, similar in nature to those included in the 2019 GBA+ Budget Annex, would be prepared by the government for all qualifying bills.

Existing capacity for GBA+ statements was calculated based on the number of statements prepared for the 2019 GBA+ Budget Annex and the number of full-time equivalents (FTE) assigned to GBA+ at Finance Canada.  The additional work that would be required on an annual basis was estimated using the number of qualifying bills from the past three parliaments.

The projected cost represents the increase in personnel capacity that would be required to create the additional GBA+ statements based on the percentage increase in total statements required annually.

This estimate of additional work takes into account that line departments perform GBA+ on most policy matters and share the results with the employees who draft the GBA+ statements.

PBO estimates the cost of this requirement to be $350,000 in 2020/2021.

The PBO anticipated no other costs associated with this bill.

The data used for this estimate is of high quality. The projection assumes the number of bills introduced by the government or sent to committees remains consistent over time and does not account for a potential behavioural reaction.

There is, however, uncertainty as to if the government would use existing capacity to handle the increase in work. If existing workers are reassigned it may decrease the cost.

• Estimates are presented on an accruals basis as would appear in the budget and public accounts.
• Positive numbers subtract from the budgetary balance, negative numbers contribute to the budget balance.