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Public Services and Procurement Canada
Gender-based analysis plus–2023 to 2024 Departmental Plan

Institutional gender-based analysis plus capacity

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has a gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus) responsibility centre situated within its strategic policy unit to provide oversight, direction and promotion of GBA Plus across the department.

PSPC’s GBA Plus community of practice supports the consistent, rigorous and robust implementation of GBA Plus across the department's programs and services. The community of practice includes representatives from all of the department's branches and regions. Representatives from the GBA Plus community of practice share information, exchange best practices and meet several times annually to discuss issues related to the implementation of GBA Plus at PSPC.

Together, the PSPC GBA Plus responsibility centre and community of practice:

Highlights of gender-based analysis plus results reporting capacity by program

In this section

Core responsibility: Purchase of goods and services

The gender-based analysis plus information related to the program under this core responsibility is detailed below.

Procurement Program

This program collects sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity. The program applies GBA Plus within the context of procurement policy and tools development. To support PSPC procurement officers with integrating GBA Plus into procurements, a detailed methodology was established in 2021 to 2022. In 2023 to 2024, a GBA Plus in procurement microlearning video and learning module will be launched.

Over the course of 2023 to 2024, PSPC will continue to integrate GBA Plus more broadly in its procurement-related processes, most notably through the implementation of a Supplier Diversity Program, which will outline approaches to increase supplier diversity in PSPC-led procurements. Procurement modernization and inclusivity initiatives will continue to target improved opportunities for under-represented groups to participate in the federal government supply chain, and the removal of barriers to participation, including for persons with disabilities. PSPC will also continue its efforts to provide its clients with additional opportunities to procure goods and services from Indigenous-owned or Indigenous-led suppliers. As an example, significant work is underway to identify Indigenous-owned or Indigenous-led businesses that hold contracts or have qualified within existing procurement instruments, as well as to incorporate Indigenous participation plans into upcoming procurements.

Under the Procurement Program, data is now being collected on suppliers through a questionnaire embedded within the Electronic Procurement Solution (EPS), in support of efforts to increase the participation of Indigenous peoples and certain under-represented groups in federal procurement, where possible. The information gathered through the EPS will allow businesses that belong to 1 or more equity-deserving groups to self-identify as:

The EPS, which will transition to steady-state operations in 2023 to 2024, is a critical tool with respect to enhancing the department’s procurement data holdings, and its capacity to measure and assess gender and diversity in its procurement activities.

In addition, PSPC is also continuing to work with partners across government to support analyses, as required. As an example, PSPC and Indigenous Services Canada collaborate on identifying Indigenous suppliers that could partake in government procurement activities going forward, with the goal of diversifying Canada’s supplier base and promoting economic development for these communities. PSPC is also actively engaged with the network of departments and agencies responsible for implementing programs related to increasing supplier diversity.

Core responsibility: Payments and accounting

The gender-based analysis plus information related to the programs under this core responsibility is detailed below.

Federal Pension Administration Program

This program collects data to monitor and/or report program impacts by GBA Plus.

The program is collecting data via client service feedback surveys. The program provides pension services through the Government of Canada Pension Centre and the program secure employee portal. The client service feedback survey initiative enables the program to assess member satisfaction regarding these service delivery channels. The most recent survey was among 1,268 pension members, between August 3 and September 14, 2022.

Respondent information can be broken down by age and gender. Further demographic diversity-related data, such as identifying as a member of visible minority, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+, or Indigenous peoples, is also collected via this initiative. The program is well-placed to expand capacity to report and identify trends across these diverse population groups, as additional surveys are planned for the near future. The client service feedback data will help guide evaluation of current services and identify opportunities for improvement and innovation.

Government-wide Accounting and Reporting Program

This program does not collect data to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

The Public Accounts of Canada is the annual financial report to Canadians covering the fiscal year of the government, ending March 31. The Receiver General (the Minister of Public Services and Procurement), as the government’s accountant, is responsible for preparing and publishing the report. Sections 63, 64, and 65 of the Financial Administration Act provide the Receiver General with the authority to maintain accounts, to prepare the Public Accounts and to request financial information from departments and agencies.

As part of the provision of its public accounts services and in line with its mandate, the Receiver General does not gather demographic information on individuals.

Federal Pay Administration Program

The program collects sufficient data to enable it to monitor and report on the program impacts. The program currently collects data from the Phoenix pay system:

This allows the program to analyze the pay cases queue by these demographic factors. It additionally reports on demographics of the program employees, which allows the program to monitor indirect benefits. The program also tracks Public Service Employee Survey (PSES) questions relating to pay issues and reports on them.

While participation in the PSES is voluntary and self-reported, the additional demographic data it collects (such as race, gender, sexuality and disability) can give the program further information on how groups are affected by the pay administration program. It should be noted that this data cannot be correlated with case data. The program plans further analysis on escalation cases, pre-cases, and access to service using the demographic data currently available.

Payments Instead of Property Taxes to Local Governments Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

The program issues payments to taxing authorities under the authority of the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act. Local governments receive payments in recognition of the services they provide to federal property located in their jurisdictions because the Government of Canada is exempt from taxation. The objective of the program is to provide fair and equitable administration of payments to taxing authorities on behalf of federal custodian departments and agencies. Taxing authorities are managing the payments to fund municipal programs, services and infrastructure, as such, PSPC cannot assess the impact on gender and diversity with regards to the program payments.

Cape Breton Operations: Human Resources Legacy Benefits Program

Cape Breton Operations (CBO) collects sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

CBO maintains a database of all recipients of the Human Resources Legacy Benefits Program, who are predominantly lower income senior males located in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Payments and Revenue Collection Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

The Receiver General is a service provider to Government of Canada departments and agencies that manage individual programs. Those departments and agencies determine the entitlement of recipients to benefits, or the requirement for Canadians to remit funds to the Government of Canada. The Receiver General does not gather demographic information on these individuals as part of the provision of its payment services.

Core responsibility: Property and infrastructure

The gender-based analysis plus information related to the programs under this core responsibility is detailed below.

Federal Accommodation and Infrastructure Program

This program collects data to monitor and/or report program impacts by GBA Plus.

The program provides accommodation services to federal organizations through a portfolio of office facilities and commonly used assets, which also includes the stewardship and management of heritage assets. This program includes the management of a diverse portfolio of federal facilities.

PSPC plays a key leadership role in ensuring a more inclusive workplace. Several initiatives are underway to support Government of Canada priorities with regards to accessibility and diversity. For example, the accessibility in the built environment initiative, implemented in close collaboration with persons with disabilities, conducts technical accessibility assessments of a portion of government buildings and establishes a process to determine the feasibility of accessible built environment adaptations. PSPC will continue to conduct technical accessibility assessments on its nationwide Crown-owned and lease‑purchase portfolio and as a result, will be able to identify accessibility improvements to bring base building elements in conformity with the 2018 Accessibility Standard and address new legislative requirements under the Accessible Canada Act. In 2023 to 2024, in collaboration with stakeholders, PSPC will advance pilot projects to identify opportunities and the feasibility of improving the accessibility in the PSPC built environment to exceed the minimum codes and standards.

In addition, PSPC will continue to support inclusive workplaces. The May 2021 PSPC-issued functional direction on all access washrooms assists project and property managers in applying a consistent implementation approach across our portfolio. In the development of this functional direction, GBA Plus informed the proposed option, which includes direction to implement at least 1 of the following options in each of its Crown-owned buildings, which will be part of the upcoming data collection strategy:

PSPC will evaluate its approach to inclusive washroom design in partnership with employee stakeholders and other subject matter experts to develop a progressive and consistent direction to ensure safe and dignified access to inclusively designed washrooms.

Real Property Services Program

This program collects data to monitor and/or report program impacts by GBA Plus.

The program provides real property services (project delivery and property management) to government programs that have custody of real property assets. Client programs are situated in other government departments as well as within PSPC.

PSPC will integrate social procurement objectives into each new strategic sourcing real property initiative. This will ensure a coordinated approach to developing and implementing flexible service delivery solutions that employ modern comptrollership, encourage greater competition, and foster participation from under-represented groups, such as women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, racialized people and others.

In 2023 to 2024, PSPC will monitor and report on the number (or percentage) of new service contracts for managing large facilities that include accessibility standards, indigenous and diversity components.

Parliament Hill and Surroundings Program

This program collects data to monitor and/or report program impacts by GBA Plus. The program employs a GBA Plus lens to continue creating inclusive built environments. The Long Term Vision and Plan for both the Parliamentary Precinct and Laboratories Canada aims to increase socio-economic participation in the federal procurement process by developing broader strategies to increase skills development, as well as apprenticeship and employment opportunities for Indigenous peoples and firms by implementing mandatory Indigenous benefits plans as part of the contractual requirements for all major projects. In 2021 to 2022, PSPC conducted a GBA Plus review to ensure that projects under the Parliamentary Precinct and Laboratories Canada programs are implemented in a manner that accounts for the experiences of diverse groups of people.

The program will continue collecting data for reporting on gender and diversity in 2023 to 2024, identifying results to be achieved, developing performance indicators and methodologies, and providing evidence to comply with Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada and departmental requirements and other reporting requests that may occur in the future.

In 2023 to 2024, PSPC will continue to examine existing practices and create next steps to improve GBA Plus for the Parliamentary Precinct and Laboratories Canada long term vision and plans.

The program will continue to ensure GBA Plus is entrenched in its project management practices by ensuring projects provide benefits to Canadians through the application of benefits realization plans, which also include specific targets for sustainability and accessibility.

Cape Breton Operations: Portfolio Management Program

Cape Breton Operations (CBO) collects sufficient data on a portion of the portfolio program to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity. The portfolio program encompasses the land divestiture program and this program has prioritized sales to First Nations through a portfolio based consultation agreement. Records are maintained for all land sales through Nova Scotia Property On-Line. Other areas of the portfolio program include facilities management and the mine water treatment program.

Efforts will continue to further assess the gender and diversity impacts of these programs. CBO plans to continue efforts to diversify the supply chain. PSPC Atlantic’s Procurement Assistance Canada (PAC) team is identifying opportunities to diversify CBO’s supply chain. The goal is to increase the number of equity-deserving groups (Indigenous, women, racialized Canadians [including black Canadians], persons with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQIA+) that could provide services to CBO. Once PAC’s analysis is complete, there will be an assessment to determine if PSPC Atlantic can engage these diverse companies in contracting opportunities to provide services to CBO. The data collected as part of this pilot project and the sought outcomes to increase representation in Government of Canada contracting practices will help address systemic inequalities, not just related to gender, but to a variety of identity factors including race, ethnicity, and mental or physical disability.

Core responsibility: Government-wide support

The gender-based analysis plus information related to the programs under this core responsibility is detailed below.

Linguistic Services Program

This program collects data to monitor and/or report program impacts by GBA Plus. The Translation Bureau continues to work towards increasing the number of Indigenous freelancers, growing the number of combinations of Indigenous languages, strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities and building partnerships with Indigenous organizations. The Translation Bureau will further promote reconciliation though culturally appropriate trainings to encourage relationship building. The Translation Bureau also continues to work with partners to provide sign language interpretation in American Sign Language (ASL) and Langue des signes québécoise (LSQ) at high-visibility events.

The Translation Bureau will explore additional services to ensure access to information to Canadians who are deaf, deafblind and deafened, and whose primary language of communication is ASL or LSQ and further develop partnerships with teaching institutions to support the training of the next generation of sign language interpreters. The progress of these initiatives is followed through PSPC’s Accessibility Plan.

It will also regularly update the Guide on equity, diversity and inclusion terminology and promote the Guidelines for inclusive writing to ensure that Canadians have access to the latest linguistic resources on gender-inclusive writing in both official languages.

Communication Services Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

The program (advertising, public opinion research, Canada Gazette, publications and the copyright media clearance program) provides advisory and technical services to government departments and agencies, which plan and implement initiative.

Two of the program business lines, copyright media clearance program and public opinion research, support clients on an ongoing basis to ensure their environmental analysis activities take into consideration a range of elements related to GBA Plus.

PSPC is also working in conjunction with partners to enhance the accessibility components of its tools and websites and ensure that the publications on its website are in an accessible format.

Government-wide Corporate Services Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

Services under this program do not collect sex or gender information as they are primarily digital based services bound by regulations and legislation. Considerations for GBA Plus could be related to accessibility when it comes to user-experience.

Service Strategy Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

There are no actions or associated timelines to enable future monitoring or reporting of the program’s impacts by gender and diversity. The program is not currently planning any future GBA Plus monitoring or reporting.

Document Imaging Services Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

This program converts paper-based materials to electronic formats. The users of the documents are client departments and agencies, which plan and implement related initiatives.

Canadian General Standards Board Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

The Canadian General Standards Board administers the standards development process and publishes National Standards of Canada, which are written by technical committees of experts from across the country. Historically, national standards were written largely as product specifications. However, there are standards that have a greater impact directly on people versus products, such as translation services, personnel certification, or responsible business conduct. The National Standards System as a whole (led by the Standards Council of Canada) has been actively working towards ensuring that the system can better incorporate gender neutral terminology, involve a more diverse selection of technical committee members, and be inclusive in the overall approach to developing national standards. The Canadian General Standards Board is actively participating in these discussions with a goal of implementing best practices as the outcome.

The Canadian General Standards Board is not a regulatory body and the national standards published are voluntary in nature, meaning that a regulation or code may reference Canadian General Standards Board standards (federally, provincially, municipally). Tracking where Canadian General Standards Board standards are referenced is a vast exercise and one that the Canadian General Standards Board and the entire National Standards System is working to improve upon.

Asset Disposal Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

The collection of GBA Plus data is not relevant to the seized property management as the program focuses on services determined by law enforcement, therefore PSPC cannot currently assess the impact on gender and diversity with regards to this program. However, GCSurplus has improved data collection methods and continues to identify new opportunities to inform and assess impacts of program changes. The program will continue to identify opportunities for consultation to ensure that program changes are inclusive and meet the needs of stakeholders.

Security and Oversight Services Program

This program does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.

The program has closely examined the need to collect gender-based information as part of the personnel security screening process to ensure that it is collecting the correct level of data required for program delivery purposes. This required engagement with representatives from the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat as they are the current owners of the data collection tools and forms. As a result of this consultation, the program recently added a non-binary gender category (for example “another gender”) to the security assessment application forms. The Controlled Goods Program also intends to put in place a new information technology solution that will enable the program to obtain data for information that is currently collected, but for which metrics cannot be calculated, for example, age.

Core responsibility: Procurement ombudsman

The gender-based analysis plus information related to the program under this core responsibility is detailed below.

Procurement Ombudsman Program

This program collects sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity. The Office of the Procurement Ombudsman (OPO) is a neutral and independent organization of the Government of Canada that works collaboratively with federal departments and Canadian businesses to promote fairness, openness and transparency in federal procurement.

OPO is committed to advancing GBA Plus initiatives in procurement by:

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2024-06-12