Evidence of meeting #10 for Status of Women in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was income.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
I wonder if you could speak to the issue of accidents on the farm as a result of this. What supports are there now in terms of EI or CPP?
11:45 a.m.
Women's Vice-President, National Farmers Union
I don't think there is too much. Many farmers are self-insured for accidents, and that's another expense: they buy insurance. We're self-employed. I'm not 100% sure; we never did.... I was self-insured with a company.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you kindly, Ms. Brady.
I don't think we have time for a second round, because we only have about 10 minutes left in this thing, and I thought maybe you might spend that time getting lunch.
I just wondered if I could ask you a question, Ms. Brady. You said that farmers are considered seasonal workers. In one part of your brief, you mentioned that they are considered seasonal workers. You said that the EI program considers farmers to be employed from April to October. Are you considered a seasonal worker by EI, or are you considered a part-time worker?
11:50 a.m.
Women's Vice-President, National Farmers Union
I think EI considers that farmers will never be unemployed between the months of April and October, so they will never be eligible for EI between the months of April and October.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I'm sorry, I just wanted to clarify that, because fisherpersons also fish at certain times of the year. Thank you very much.
I also wanted to ask you another question. It's very interesting that you said that most farmers are reliant upon off-farm income. You talked about small and medium-sized farms being reliant 90%, and of course for large farms it is 52%. However, farms with gross revenues of over $500,000 annually depend on off-farm income for 25% to 34% of their income. That's an astounding statistic. Is the off-farm income earned by these various farmers eligible for unemployment insurance?
11:50 a.m.
Women's Vice-President, National Farmers Union
It is, but because the farm income is considered income, they are not eligible for EI. They are insurable earnings, but they are not eligible. In our case, we had income on the farm that was taken against it, but it was not necessarily income if the expense level was higher than what we actually received.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
It was a very interesting presentation. Thank you.
I thought perhaps we could use the little space of time we have to get ourselves some lunch, then we can move into our in camera part.
Ms. Brady, please feel free to help yourself to some lunch. But we will have to ask you to leave the room at noon so we can start our in camera meeting. I'm sorry.
We will suspend for a few minutes while you get lunch.
[Proceedings continue in camera]