Hon. Chantal Petitclerc: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Senator Gold, gender-based analysis plus, or GBA+, is an essential tool that the government introduced in 1995 in the development of its policies, programs and legislation. That said, as far back as 2009 and again in 2015, the then auditors general identified barriers to its implementation.

Just last week, the Auditor General noted that the previously identified and still unresolved problem of collecting and using disaggregated data explains why so little progress has been made in fully integrating GBA+.

Senator Gold, can you explain why these gaps in disaggregated data collection persist? As you can appreciate, without that data, it is difficult to effectively address systemic inequalities.

Senator Petitclerc: Senator Gold, in our role as legislators, it is important for us to have access to all the tools we need to do our work in a thorough and professional manner.

Would it be possible to provide us, on a regular basis, automatically or systematically, even a summary of the comparative analyses conducted as part of the development of government bills every time they are brought to our attention?