Status of Women Committee on Nov. 4th, 2014

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Good morning and welcome to the 33^rd meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Today we will continue our study on economic leadership and the prosperity of Canadian women.

We have the pleasure of welcoming Ms. JudyLynn Archer, who is president and chief executive officer of Women Building Futures in Edmonton. Ms. Archer will speak to us by videoconference.

We are also pleased to welcome Ms. Janice McDonald of This Space Works and Ms. Anne-Marie Roy of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa.

Each speaker will have 10 minutes for an opening statement, which will be followed by a question period.

On a personal note, I also have the pleasure of welcoming today two young people from the Boys and Girls Club, who are here as part of their leadership program. Natasha and Tanner are spending the day with me, and they will learn a little bit more not just about the leadership of women, but also about the leadership shown by parliamentarians in the Parliament of Canada and on this committee.

I would like to welcome you to the committee and thank you for being here with us.

We will start with Ms. McDonald, who will give a 10-minute opening statement.

Ms. McDonald, you have the floor.

[Janice McDonald, Co-Founder, This Space Works]

Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to speak to you today about economic leadership and prosperity for women in Canada.

My name is Janice McDonald and I am a serial entrepreneur in the music and apparel industry. I'm delighted to contribute to the important work you are doing in looking at systemic barriers to women's advancement. I've been interested in this topic for a long time as an entrepreneur, volunteer, and because of my own research.

I've been an entrepreneur in Canada for over two decades. There has been considerable change in the small business landscape over that time period.

When my partner and I opened up our first retail music store in 1991, we were open for business. We didn't start up; we opened up. There were not start-ups, just businesses growing and opening.

As young entrepreneurs we had few peers choose the same career path. Most of our friends and colleagues did not see entrepreneurship as an option. That has changed.

In 1991, formal mentorship programs were not available, or at least we were not aware of them. Now entrepreneurs can access innovation hubs, crowdsource funding, angel investors, and all kinds of support. Organizations like Futurpreneur did not exist.

Futurpreneur is a national non-profit organization dedicated to growing our economy one entrepreneur at a time. The focus on start-up culture has increased significantly. The shift has been gradual, but now support for entrepreneurs is everywhere.

My latest start-up is called This Space Works. It's like Airbnb for business. We are part of the sharing economy, and use excess capacity in physical spaces and make it available to mobile professionals and businesses who need it.

Although seasoned ourselves, we have gathered mentors to assist us to grow our start-up. MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, Communitech in Waterloo, the Innovation Factory in Hamilton, each of these organizations is helping our company grow.

In 1992, I completed my master's in Canadian studies. My thesis topic was “Women and the Appointment Process in Canada on Agencies, Boards, Councils, and Commissions”. That was before we considered women diversity. Women were under-represented, but it was viewed as a gender and power issue, not as a diversity issue. The numbers did not look good in 1992 and as we know, change has been slow.

My commitment to women's advancement has remained. I share my time and talents with numerous organizations focused on making a difference in this regard.

Comprised of leaders from the most senior levels of government, business, academia, and the non-profit sector, members of the Women's Leadership Board at Harvard's Kennedy School serve as key supporters and ambassadors to the women in public policy program.

I am a member of the Women's Leadership Board and am going to Harvard tomorrow for three days of meetings.

Board members ask, “What can we do to create gender equality and improve the lives of women and men around the world?” The focus is on rigorous, high-impact research to further the shared mission of closing gender gaps. The gender action portal is a vital resource.

I am chair of the Canadian Women in Communications and Technology national board. The goal is to advance women in Canada in communications and technology. The non-profit organization focuses on recognition, career advancement, and mentorship. It has been doing incredible work for women for over 20 years.

We believe our members can ignite their career with mentorship. In the latest issue of Women's Executive Network's The Opinion magazine, my article on mentorship talks about the value of it in career development. I have been a long-standing formal and informal mentor to women in business and the communications industry. I have seen first-hand the impact it can have on women's careers. A mentor can help you get to next faster.

Last year, I ran the mentorship program for WCT, and successfully matched over 20 women across Canada with senior women mentors. WCT believes mentorship is essential to career development. The WCT program is a gold standard.

The program has been running for 14 years. The call has just gone out to members to apply for the program. It is free to WCT members, and senior women mentors donate their time and share their talents for a one-year commitment. The program is made possible by the financial support of Shaw Media. It is a cornerstone to WCT programming.

The WCT commitment to mentorship is unwavering. We also know that sponsorship is vital as well. Visioned by WCT, the protegé project was created in conjunction with Catalyst Canada and supported by Shaw Media. This is a brand new pioneering project. The ripple effects of the program will be significant. It is a new collaborative venture whose promise is to level the playing field for women in the ICT sector in Canada.

We want to make sure rising stars in the industry make it to the C-suite. Over 10 senior executives in leading communications, media, and technology organizations have signed on to personally support the program. An equivalent number of female corporate executives will be selected and matched to work with sponsors to sharpen their leadership and business acumen.

We believe the ripple effects of the program will be significant. No one else has done a cross-industry sponsor-matching program for senior women. It will be a game changer. My personal commitment to mentorship is also unwavering. I've been invited to join the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women as a mentor. Their philosophy is to invest in women entrepreneurs so they can build their businesses. Women benefit from the program as their businesses grow, as do their families and communities.

The Cherie Blair Foundation believes if you empower women you drive growth. So do I. Their mentoring women in business program is successful. They have over 800 mentors and mentees enrolled in the program. It is offered across physical and cultural distances through the use of technology. I'm proud to offer my skills and talents to a woman somewhere in the world and help her grow her business. My match will be completed later this month and I will work with my mentee for one year.

I'm also the current chair of the Ottawa chapter of the International Women's Forum. I am passionate about this global organization for women. IWF advances women's leadership across careers, cultures, and continents. Members are committed to bettering global leadership today and cultivating women leaders of tomorrow. Fifty-five hundred women leaders around the world are IWF members. The organization began in 1982 in the U.S.A. and there are IWF members in six continents and 33 nations. In Canada, IWF has approximately 500 members in chapters across the country. The organization is very active and interested in women's leadership.

One area of focus for IWF Canada members is to increase the number of women on corporate boards. IWF Canada is interested in and committed to seeing more women join corporate boards. The IWF national board agreed to direct time and effort to create the tools for change for its members. The sole focus of the committee has been to gather all of the necessary information for its members to join those boards. Members can access an exceptional road map to assist them. The proprietary work covers the eco-system for women on boards, vital research, the business case and approaches used in other countries. Additional information includes sections on how to succeed, prepare for interviews, and get known. It is a strategic, comprehensive, and valuable tool for any IWF member. The women on boards initiative by IWF enables any of its members who are serious about joining a board to have the information and tools necessary to succeed. Several board members attribute their recent placement on a corporate board in part to the IWF information available to them.

Like many IWF members, I received my Institute of Corporate Directors designation from the directors education program. The program is offered nationally at Canada's top business schools. Since the launch of the directors education program, more than 3,000 directors have completed the program and over 1,900 have earned their ICD.D designation. The designation reflects a director's commitment to ongoing learning and development. The program is designed to help directors overcome the challenges they face in fulfilling their roles as directors. The training program is also a rich source of networking opportunities with classmates in the most senior roles in organizations across Canada. For that reason alone, more women need to participate.

Given the complexities of business today, we can expect more boards to seek out directors with governance training. If governance training and the ICD.D designation is valued by corporate boards, then hopefully more women will apply and be selected to receive this invaluable education. In my cohort, DEP-46, we did not have an equal number of men and women in the class. If governance training is a pipeline for future directors, we need to ensure that more women receive the training offered. The Institute for Corporate Directors offers scholarships to its directors education program and it would be ideal if more scholarships were available and offered specifically for women to access.

I believe we have many qualified and board-ready women across Canada. I don't think it is a pipeline issue and we know the business case is made for women on boards. Equipping more women with governance training is one more way we can eliminate barriers to women’s success on corporate boards.

Mentorship is a critical element for women’s success, as is sponsorship. Dedicated organizations, like IWF and WCT, are taking up the challenge. Although change is hard and slow, it is possible. We all win when women are empowered.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much for that excellent presentation.

I will now give the floor to Ms. Anne-Marie Roy, who will give a 10-minute presentation.

[Anne-Marie Roy, President, Student Federation of the University of Ottawa]

Good morning. I would like to thank the committee for inviting me to appear today to discuss the barriers to achieving economic equality for women in Canada.

My name is Anne-Marie Roy. I am the president of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa, representing all undergraduate students at the U of O. I also sit on the national executive of the Canadian Federation of Students, Canada's largest and oldest student organization, with members from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia. The Canadian Federation of Students represents over 600,000 students from more than 80 students' unions. It advocates for affordable and accessible post-secondary education.

For years, students have been at the forefront in the fight against gender inequality and violence against women. I am pleased to be here today to discuss some of the struggles with you. As a woman who through my own efforts and the help of my community has reached leadership positions, I know how important it is to celebrate those victories, but also to look around and ask: who is absent from the table and why.

Over the past 20 years, women's participation in post-secondary education has risen dramatically. We know that in order to have a chance at a living wage, women must go further in their education than their male counterparts. Between 2010 and 2012, average real wages for women with a bachelor's degree were closer to the earnings of a man with only a high school diploma than to those of their male peers with a bachelor's degree. Unfortunately, at the same time, in almost every province, tuition fees and student debt rose dramatically, making it increasingly difficult for women to access the education they need to achieve economic stability.

In 1991, average tuition fees in Canada were $1,706. As of 2014, that number has increased to $5,959. For many women, this cost alone can mean that getting a post-secondary education is simply not an option. High upfront fees are more likely to be a barrier to women from marginalized communities, including racialized and indigenous women, women from low-income households, women with disabilities, and queer and trans women.

Women who are able to attend school are often forced to take on substantial student debt in order to pay these high upfront costs. In total, Canadian students owe $16 billion in student debt to the federal government, and billions more to provincial governments and private lenders. Rising tuition fees particularly impact women, who account for 60% of borrowers from the Canada student loans program. On average, after a four-year degree, a student in Canada will graduate with over $26,000 in debt. When you break it down by province, the situation is even more alarming, with average student debt being as low as $14,400 in Quebec and as high as $39,600 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Once in the workforce, women continue to make less than their male counterparts. A recent study by Statistics Canada on cumulative earnings between 1991 and 2010 found that working women earned $500,000 less than men over that period. At every level of education, and across occupations, women earned less. In the case of engineering, women earned an average of 47% less than men over the course of 20 years. Even in teaching, the occupation where women and men were the closest, women earned 19% less than men. These differences in earnings mean that it will take women longer to repay their student debt after graduation, and as a result, they will pay more in interest. Ultimately, this means that women are paying more for a post-secondary education than their male peers, whose incomes would allow them to pay down their student debt more quickly. The federal government should be working towards pay equity across Canada, but by reducing the cost of post-secondary education and investing in the Canada student grants program, the federal government could, at least, stop women from being doubly penalized for their lower earnings.

Campuses are also workplaces for many students. Recent trends of precarious employment are damaging students' working and living conditions. For many graduate students, working as a teaching or research assistant while studying is necessary to complete their program; however, the shift at many universities to hire staff on short-term contracts has left graduate students without benefits or job security. Investing in post-secondary education by increasing transfer payments to provinces and replacing the Canada student loans program with grants would be a good start towards making post-secondary education more affordable and accessible to women.

For first nations, Inuit and Métis women, there are additional barriers when it comes to being able to access a post-secondary education. Educational attainment levels among aboriginal people in Canada remain significantly lower than those of non-aboriginal people. Only 8% of aboriginal persons hold a university degree compared with 23% of the total population.

Currently, the federal government funds education for aboriginal students through the post-secondary student support program, also known as the PSSSP. Unfortunately, annual increases in funding for this program are capped at 2%, despite the growing number of aboriginal students seeking post-secondary education and the increasing cost of tuition fees, which increased by more than 3% this year.

Prior to 1992 funding was allocated based on the number of eligible students and their estimated expenses. As a result of the funding cap, over 18,500 qualified aboriginal students were denied funding between 2006 and 2011 alone. Aboriginal communities are often forced to choose whether to fully fund a few students or spread funding over a greater number of students. This is a clear violation of Canada's treaty responsibility to fund aboriginal education. Lifting the cap on increases in funding to the PSSSP would help ensure that no qualified aboriginal woman is denied the funding she needs to attend post-secondary education.

For students with children, access to affordable child care is required to take on or complete a degree. The average cost of after-tax child care in Canada is now $15,000 per year. Day care facilities on campuses are often similarly overpriced, and overcrowded, with waiting lists that take years to get to the top of. In some cases, as happened here in Ottawa, there have been attempts to block some students from accessing child care subsidies. Even today, women continue to be more likely to be responsible for the primary care of children and other dependants. Without a universal child care program in Canada, women will not achieve equity with their male peers.

Last, as we have seen this past year, women continue to face the threat of sexual and gender-based violence on campuses. It has now been 25 years since the Montreal massacre, and women are still unsafe at Canadian colleges and universities. Young women aged 15 to 24 experience higher instances of sexual violence in Canada than any other age group. Much of that sexual violence happens on our campuses, in workplaces, and in our communities. More than ever it is incumbent upon our institutions, both colleges and universities as well as governments, to show leadership in challenging attitudes that perpetuate sexual violence and normalize rape culture.

Our country has disgracefully stood by as over 1,200 indigenous women have been murdered or have gone missing. We continue to be complacent in the high instances of violence against indigenous women, who are eight times more likely to be murdered than non-indigenous women like me.

Across North America, trans women experience dramatically higher instances of violence, and often college and university campuses intensify the already daily violence with strict legal name policies, gendered washrooms, and severely lacking anti-violence policies.

The Canadian Federation of Students has been at the forefront of movements against sexual and gender-based violence on our campuses and in our communities, but often our efforts are undermined by the lack of funding and support from governments and institutions to address the root causes of these issues. Women's social and economic equity cannot be won in a day. Students know that we need broad social changes if women are to achieve gender equality in our lifetime. I hope the committee will recommend the implementation of substantive changes that can move us toward this ultimate goal.

Thank you.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you, Ms. Roy.

Now we'll go to Ms. Archer, for 10 minutes.

[JudyLynn Archer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Women Building Futures]

Thank you for the opportunity to join the conversation today.

I'm here today to talk about women in construction. As we all know, Canada needs all hands on deck to support the continued industrial investment that helps drive our economy. This means we must ensure that Canada has the workforce it needs to build, operate, maintain, and provide leadership on those big projects. The challenge is that this industry will lose 24% of its workforce and specifically those individuals who have moved up in the ranks and into leadership positions. We're going to lose those people to retirement and global competition.

Underemployed women in Canada comprise the largest underutilized workforce in Canada. These are jobs that require no student debt to get into or to succeed at. Canada needs to support any and all proven initiatives that attract and prepare those who want to enter this industry, in particular women.

Women coming out of the Women Building Futures programs on average see an increase in their annual income by 127% on day of hire. What's not working right now is the funding that's needed to help women get into this industry.

The recent Status of Women Canada call for proposals forces respondents to create projects that will repeat work that's already done. It called for research and the identification of best practices and gaps in service. It allows for no training, awareness, mentorship, or any direct service to women as part of the project. It is our opinion that there is a plethora of existing research out there that identifies gaps, success strategies, and best practices related to this specific issue. This funding could be applied directly to what Canada really needs in women, which is programs that will attract and prepare women for construction jobs, including those jobs that offer leadership opportunity at a high rate of pay, I might add.

This year alone, Women Building Futures has seen 5,000 women come through its doors looking for a way to come into this industry. Our funding allows us to train 120 of those 5,000 people. We have a 90% success rate in helping women get to work in this industry, increasing their average annual income by 127% on day of hire, and yet organizations like ours are ineligible for the funding from Status of Women Canada. It doesn’t make sense to us.

Our recommendation is that Status of Women Canada funding should support direct programming that does have a proven track record in helping women get to work in areas that will result in economic prosperity for those women.

Next, I'm going to speak momentarily on equality. Women, boys, men, and girls are not homogenous, yet government policies that drive programs are often based on all people being equal. This framework negatively impacts half the population of Canada. I'm going to give you a short case study to demonstrate this.

I'm going to talk about Susan. Susan's a single parent of two, works full-time earning $30,000 a year. She wants a career that will increase her income substantially and offer leadership opportunity. Construction is her industry of choice. Susan applies for a construction training program that has a proven track record of success. The program is fully funded by an employer. The trick is Susan doesn't have sufficient savings to cover her living costs during this eight-week training program, so she goes to the Government of Alberta to request a counsel to leave, which is a process to request permission to leave her current low-paying job so that she can have money to pay her bills and feed the kids while in this eight-week training program. The cost to government would be approximately $3,000, or 1% of the investment that that company is making in that individual. The response from government was no. Living costs for people in this type of training program are not an eligible expenditure.

Here's the rub: men are hired every day in Canada's construction industry without having to take any type of training. The reality is very different for women. Women must be much better than, in order to be seen as good as. That's just how it is. Opportunity in this industry is significant for women, but it is far from equitable. This woman will not be hired without the training. Barriers to training are reinforced by government policies that treat everyone as equal when they are not.

This case study is real. The woman was denied housing support and therefore was not able to enter the training program. She remains underemployed, unable to boost her tax contribution, and unable to boost her consumption of goods. Government will continue to subsidize her and her children, and industry has lost another potential local worker and future leader.

What we ask is that gender-based analysis be used when creating policies and programs across all ministries and all programs. We would also ask that governments collaborate with each other so that we can fill these cracks that are impacting women every day.

Those are the points I wanted to make today, and I thank you for the opportunity to make them.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

We will now begin the first round of questions with Ms. Truppe, who will have seven minutes.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

I have a question for Anne-Marie Roy.

I think at the very beginning of your speech you said that the study was on economic equality. I just wanted to clarify that it's actually on the economic prosperity and leadership of Canadian women.

Keeping in mind that we want to encourage leadership and entrepreneurship in this study, do you have a best practice, something positive, that you would like to share or suggest to young women?

[Anne-Marie Roy]

To clarify the question, are you asking if there's a recommendation that I would make to the committee?

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

A best practice, not a recommendation as such. Is there anything good or positive that you have experienced that you could suggest to young women that might help them in the future?

[Anne-Marie Roy]

I certainly think that it's important for women to keep fighting and try to make their places in society. I think, however, it's undeniable that there are challenges and barriers that women face which men don't face. Despite that, I think it's very important for women to continue to carve their place in society and make great efforts to find meaningful employment. I think it's unfortunate that there's a bit of lack of support to achieve economic equality for men and women.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Thank you.

Janice, I have a couple of questions for you.

Also, congratulations on being recognized as one of the top 100 most powerful women in 2013.

You had mentioned angel investors and Futurpreneur, with which I'm quite familiar. I'm happy to hear you say that the support for entrepreneurs is everywhere. I've been across Canada hosting round tables, and so has the minister, and at every round table they mentioned mentorship. I know you mentioned a lot of that, and congratulations on mentoring 20 women, I think you said. That's you yourself, correct? You were going to mentor 20 women?

[Janice McDonald]

I've done more than that.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Yes, you've done more than that over your lifetime, I'm sure.

Having said that, what do you do as a mentor? What advice do you give? Because mentorship was huge at every round table, what would you like to put on the record as advice you'd like to give?

[Janice McDonald]

I think that mentorship can start immediately. I echo Ms. Roy's comments in regard to agitating and moving forward. I think it's really important for women, particularly young women, to look around for mentors. It doesn't have to be in a formal program. The one I mentioned, women in communications and technology, is a formal program. It isn't available for students, however. That one is for people who are working who are members of the organization, but it is free once you become a member.

Certainly for young people, though, peer mentorship is important. As an example, WCT has done a mentorship circle, where it would bring together eight women in a chapter and they would work together, share their areas of expertise, and then also help each other to move their careers forward.

I think it's very critical for all career advancement for women to seek out mentors, but they don't have to be just female mentors. I've certainly had the benefit of many male mentors who have been extremely generous. I think it's important to find courage and be brave to look around and see who is available. In my experience there are many successful people who are willing to give back, but the mentee has to take the first step and ask for that help. I would encourage that as a starting point.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

What would be a typical question? I mean, since you've mentored so many, is there a question that's consistent over and over again? What are they asking for?

[Janice McDonald]

In my experience, the relationship is rich because it's two ways. The mentee is benefiting from the expertise of the mentor, but similarly the mentor has the opportunity to learn new things from the mentee. It is a very...I wouldn't say it's a universal approach. The mentee wants to get to next faster. I think that's generally the accepted idea, how the mentee can advance their career, but what that career advancement typically looks like is very individual. It may be help with a specific challenge. It may be around an area that has been identified either by themselves or by their company as an area of weakness, or perhaps it's a strength that they want to build on further.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

When you're mentoring, are you mentoring women entrepreneurs specifically, or also women who want to move up in their organization?

[Janice McDonald]

In the formal setting of WCT, as an example, that would be women in the communications and technology industry who are typically interested in moving their career forward, but forward could also be laterally to a different aspect of the industry, etc. In an informal way, which I do very regularly, it tends to be women entrepreneurs who are looking for advice from someone who has been there already, and hopefully you can save them from the pain and difficulty of mistakes you made.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Right. Thank you.

You've talked about board members and getting more women on boards, and I'm sure you're quite familiar with our advisory council and the recommendations they made. There were 11 recommendations. You were saying it doesn't have to only be women as mentors, and it's the same thing with this advisory council. I mean, it was the brilliant minds of men and women. It was a really good council of minds to come up with how we can get more women on boards, so we're working on that. We're very concerned about that, too.

You mentioned the 800 mentors and mentees. What organization was that?

[Janice McDonald]

That's the Cherie Blair Foundation.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Cherie Blair.

[Janice McDonald]

Yes, out of the U.K.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Out of the U.K. Is there anything similar to that in Canada?

[Janice McDonald]

I'm not aware of anything similar in Canada.

The strength of that program is that they use technology to allow mentors and mentees to get together across distances and time zones. It often is women who have very modest businesses and they're trying to really grow their businesses and increase, obviously, their livelihood and benefit their family and community. It's very unique, and I don't have a great deal of experience because I've just signed on now. I haven't even been matched with my global mentee yet.