Status of Women Minister Patricia Hajdu answers a question during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 15, 2016.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The Status of Women committee is calling on the Liberal government to make sure every policy is analyzed to see how it impacts women and girls before it heads to cabinet for approval.
The report on gender-based analysis tabled today urges the federal government to introduce legislation by next June.
Ottawa committed to using gender-based analysis in 1995, but the auditor general revealed in February that only a few departments and agencies are using the tool to study how policy decisions might affect women and men in different ways.
The report also found there is no mandatory requirement for subjecting policy, legislation and program decisions to gender-based analysis and that when departments do go through the exercise, the results are often incomplete or inconsistent.
Status of Women Minister Patricia Hajdu says taking gender-based analysis seriously is one way for the Liberals to show they mean business when it comes to promoting gender equity.
Hajdu says Status of Women is also devoting some of its newly increased budget to helping other departments use the tool.