Status of Women Committee on Feb. 15th, 2007

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

You have four minutes.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Oh, my goodness, a wealth of time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Do you want to share your time with somebody else? That's fine, too.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

No, I do have more questions.

Oh dear, perhaps I have gone through them all.

Is there someone...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

There is one thing I really think you have not translated into tangible stuff for us. Everyone has been asking you about the different statistics. You've given us statistics. You've told us 58% of women are employed. Let's look at the age group of 25 to 54. I'm an accountant by trade, so I'll say there's a 30-year gap and a 30-year spread. Looking at the current situation of seniors, we hear about abject poverty. You've given us statistics, statistics, statistics. What do those statistics really translate into?

Perhaps I'll just let you think through that, and you can give us your answer in your closing remarks, and I will give Ms. Smith a couple of minutes to ask her questions.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you so much.

I just want to go back to the issue of the high- or low-income rates among near seniors because of their being in the sandwich generation. We have a huge glut at that particular age group. Could I just ask Ms. Glover to comment on the kinds of things we're finding right now in that particular area, both financially and socially?

[Barbara Glover]

I'm a labour-market person, so I'm not well equipped to answer social questions, but I just want to say on the labour market, it's true that women 55 to 64 are not working, either as much as younger women or as much as men. Of course I don't have that table. I have 10,000 tables in front of me, but not that one. But I think it's going to be less than 50%. I just found it: 55-plus.... I have a funny ratio, which is the ratio of women to men, which isn't that....

So the starting point for the problem is that women of that age work much less than men, and I don't think it's 50%. In a minute, somebody is going to hand me a great table I know, but I won't be able to read all the numbers.

I think someone should answer your question, which is about the social impact and the explanation of the income. If Virginia or Statistics Canada could answer that....

Just in terms of the employment, it looks as if it's 30%, only one-third. I'm reading this fast, but it looks as if one-third of women 55 and over are participating in the workforce.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Ms. Mathyssen realized what her question was. We'll give you back your time.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

I found it.

I was meeting with a group of women this morning and I'll direct this question to HRSD and anyone else who can jump in. The federal government has extended maternity leave to one year. But most child-care centres will not accept children until they're 18 months old. Does the federal government have a role? Because this creates quite a gap in terms of stress and a financial gap too. Has any consideration been given to the fact that this is a reality in terms of what women are facing?

[Virginia Poter]

There's certainly awareness that there is a gap. You may be aware that the provision of child care is a provincial jurisdiction, and the maternity leave provisions under EI are federal. I'm unaware of any plans underway right now to look at extending EI, but we could endeavour to find out about that for you.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Okay, that would be great.

Are there any other comments in that regard?

[Sylvie Michaud]

The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth may provide you with some information on that issue. This survey has been around since 1994 and was sponsored by Human Resources and Social Development. It focuses on the development of children. It contains information on various aspects. There may be some specific questions in this survey that could help you.

If you want more information on the issue, I can give you the name of the manager to contact: Jacqueline Mayda.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Ms. Mathyssen, would you like to give some time to Mr. Dhaliwal, if your question has been answered?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Mr. Dhaliwal, you've got two minutes.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

When it comes to those women who have already retired, all the under-tasked women, immigrant women, and aboriginal women, do you see a positive trend in the improvement of their status?

[Monica Townson]

I'm not sure I have the information on that to see how well they've been doing. Sometimes it's difficult to get the statistics broken down by particular groups, ethnic groups, or whatever. People at Statistics Canada may have that information, but in my experience, it isn't always available. So it's difficult to measure whether there has been an improvement among certain groups of women.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Do you see any improvements to their economic status in the future?

[Monica Townson]

A lot will depend on whether they've been participating in paid employment. Some ethnic groups have lower rates of labour-force participation than Canadian-born women do. The labour force people here may be able to add to that.

[Barbara Glover]

Yes, certainly recent immigrants are participating less in the labour market. Of course that has an impact, not only now but in the future, in terms of their well-being.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

So when you say “impact”, are you looking in the negative direction, or are you looking in the positive direction when it comes to economic security?

[Barbara Glover]

I think Statistics Canada had an excellent publication last week on what's happening in terms of immigrants and poverty. Of course the story is not one that any of us would want to see. Immigrants in the current decade have faced considerable challenges in the labour market. They are doing considerably more poorly than previous cohorts of immigrants who came to Canada. I've forgotten the name of the report, but it's perhaps Poverty and Immigration or something.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

I'd like to thank the witnesses for being here, for participating, and giving us of your time and knowledge. If you have any additional material you'd like to submit to us, you're welcome to.

As is my normal practice, I will give you two minutes, as a group, for closing remarks.

Ms. Townson, would you like to go first?

[Monica Townson]

Yes.

Just to summarize, you mentioned that we had all given you statistics. I guess statistics can be dry sometimes, but on the other hand, we need those statistics in order to demonstrate where the issues and difficulties are and so on. I think it's important to look at those, not to be thinking, well, I know so and so, and that person is having these and these difficulties, so that must apply to everybody. Anecdotal evidence, in my experience, is not a good way to develop policy. We do need the statistics to support the arguments we'd like to make.

The other point I would make is that while the situation of senior women today has improved dramatically over the last twenty or thirty years, that improvement will not necessarily continue. It's important to look at the situation of women who will be coming up to retirement in the future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Ms. Glover.