Status of Women Committee on Feb. 27th, 2024

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Brayton, I was shocked earlier when you said that one‑third of women were living with a disability.

[Bonnie Brayton]

It's a big statistic, isn't it?

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Yes, it came as a shock.

What do you consider—

[Bonnie Brayton]

I can tell you more about that.

When I arrived in 2007, I was told that 15% of women had a disability, and I didn't believe it. Then in 2017, Statistics Canada said it was 24%, and I still didn't believe it. Now, according to Statistics Canada data from December, it's 30%. That's where we are.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

What is meant by “disability”? It may no longer mean the same thing to everyone.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

If there is some information on that question that you'd be able to provide, that would be great.

We're going to move online to Marc.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to thank the four witnesses for explaining their situation very well. Basically, I could easily take five minutes with each of them, or even more, to ask them questions.

In Sudbury, in northern Ontario, the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada plays a really important role, as does the YMCA of northeastern Ontario. Other organizations are also doing an enormous amount of work, such as the one represented by Ms. Uppal and the one represented by the witnesses from Manitoba.

My first question is for Ms. Brayton.

Earlier, Ms. Hepfner and Ms. Uppal talked about child care. As you know, Ontario was the last province to sign a child care agreement with the federal government. It's only been a year, and the statistics already show an increase in the percentage of women participating in the labour market. We now have a record rate of 86%, which is unprecedented. In comparison, in the United States, it's only 77%. So we can see that it has already had an impact, even if it was just a year ago. That said, there's still work to be done.

Ms. Brayton, I was particularly touched by what you said. As far as women with disabilities are concerned, there's an agreement with Ontario and the other provinces. I'd like to give you an opportunity to elaborate on that.

How did the former Ontario program work for women with special needs? You don't seem to be seeing any difference since the funding was added. I'm wondering if you have any specific recommendations for the government, both provincially and federally, to help women with special needs participate in the workforce.

[Bonnie Brayton]

Thank you very much for your question.

As a mother living in Quebec, I had the pleasure of paying no more than $10 a day in child care expenses. So I suggest that you look instead at the pilot projects under way in Quebec, to see what should be done.

New inclusive spaces should be built, thinking not only about elements of the physical environment, such as ramps, but also about the experience these young children will have, as well as the other children who will be with them. Indeed, if we want to talk about inclusion in Canada, we have to start educating young people. If we start with young children, I can guarantee you that there will be a change over time.

My first recommendation is therefore to recognize that, when children with disabilities do not share the same spaces as others, it is a loss for all children. If we want to change the ableist mentality in Canada, we have to start putting our children with disabilities, especially girls, in schools and child care spaces.

I don't know if you think that's a good answer, but I think we really need to start with that.

We're already surprised to see that statistic of 30%. The time to invest in our children's future is now.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you very much, Ms. Brayton.

Ms. Lusby and Ms. Cooke, you mentioned parity in your organization. Since Mr. Trudeau became Prime Minister in 2015, there has also been that parity in cabinet, and I hope it will be the same for any other party that forms the federal government.

Ms. Cooke, I'm touched to see that, in the 74 years of your organization's existence, you are the first woman to hold the position of executive director. As an example, I was at a high school in my riding a few weeks ago, and I saw on a wall the pictures of all the people who had been principal at the high school. Out of 15 principals, there has been only one woman so far.

Earlier, you talked about the granting agencies and some additional costs that were also barriers. How can we find ways to improve the situation? It's very frustrating to see this situation still today, in 2024. However, we see that organizations with women on their boards of directors make more money on the stock market. In addition, governments have better parity policies. Despite everything, there's still a huge gap in terms of parity on boards of directors.

What can the federal government do to improve the situation?

I think you have 30 seconds left to answer the question.

[Lindsey Cooke]

Thank you so much, through the chair, for the question.

I'm very privileged to have the role I have, and that is not lost on me. It's also not lost on me that I had a lot of privilege to get here. I am a white woman. I'm cisgender. I come from a family who repeatedly told me I could do absolutely anything I put my mind to.

There are others who are not so fortunate, so we need strategies that empower them. A part of that is granting bodies that really honour the value in the work we do and fund us accordingly, so that we can have formal supports for women to continue to grow in their careers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Awesome. Thank you so much.

We only have time for our last two questioners. Two and a half minutes go to Andréanne.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you again to our first panel.

As we can see, this study is about much more than just putting more money in women's pockets. It's about providing them with a better quality of life. In some cases, it's even a matter of ensuring their survival by giving them the opportunity to live with dignity, free from violence and poverty. That is coming through loud and clear in everything we've heard today.

Ms. Cooke and Ms. Lusby, you talked about mentorship in your opening remarks, and I'd like to revisit that idea. I used to work in the community, and I was involved in efforts to advance the financial security of women. We worked on different facets that were likely to improve women's financial health, one of them being the importance of networking and mentorship. Women need role models, but networking doesn't come as easily to them. When the workday is over, women have obligations at home, so—unlike men—they can't go out after work and network in an effort to advance their careers. That has a huge impact on their finances in the long run.

You said that women didn't have access to mentorship opportunities. Did I hear you correctly? If that's true, what else can we do to encourage mentorship? As we know, more women role models will lead to more women in higher-income jobs.

[Lindsey Cooke]

Thank you very much for the question.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it really does come back to the robust funding of the non-profit sector. We know from Imagine Canada that the non-profit sector contributes 8.1% of Canada's total GDP. We are critical to the entire health of the Canadian economy. When we are well resourced, we have the formal supports necessary to be able to contribute to paid mentorship programs.

Sometimes these things are left to be done outside of work time, and we know that the burden of family care also rests primarily on women in our country. Therefore, we need to be able to resource non-profits with margins greater than, let's say, a 10% cap on administrative overheads. That's a huge barrier to non-profits functioning in our society.

We need to be able to resource organizations so that they have formal upgrading programs that are done during paid work time, and they are able to have formal mentorship programs that are done during paid time. I think the critical underpinning is that it needs to be built into the system versus leaving something to happen outside of work hours.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to go online to Leah Gazan. You have two and a half minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much, Chair.

Thank you again to all the witnesses.

My last question is for Ms. Uppal. Again, going back to the care economy, you said that because of the wages, we are leaving women in the care economy behind. We know, even talking about things like a just transition, that we need to invest more in the care economy to make sure that people actually have job opportunities with a livable wage.

I'm wondering if you could expand on that a bit for me.

[Medora Uppal]

Thank you.

Through the chair, investment in the non-profit sector and women's organizations is really critical. We do not yet fund them appropriately to actually pay appropriate wages. Some funding formulas work out so that you have higher rates of pay for some sectors than for others. The disparity is quite significant. That 10% cap that was spoken about has a significant impact on wages, and it's in those organizations—the non-profit sector and women's organizations—where women are bearing the work and being underpaid for it.

Really, at the federal level, it's about the relationships and how federal funding is downloaded and directed, and the restraints, constraints and demands that are put on it, for expectations of what pay should look like. It should match the funding.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

In saying that, would you say that in order to be truly a feminist government they need to look at how funding is allocated and make sure that there's not existing gender bias in the funding allotments that are provided?

[Medora Uppal]

Through the chair, I think that is an excellent way of putting it. There has to be a gender analysis to ensure that there isn't a gender bias and that we're not blind to gender or creating systems that are gender-neutral that will ultimately actually create disparity in funding and wages.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 10 seconds.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thanks, Madam. Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you.

With Leah she has so many questions, I thought I have to stop her there. On behalf of the committee I would really like to thank Bonnie, Lindsey, Jennifer and Medora for coming out today and providing this testimony. I did have one request for myself.

Bonnie, could you send some documentation regarding that 30% of women who are disabled? I think that is really something impactful. If we could see that documentation we would really appreciate that.

[Bonnie Brayton]

I would be very happy to provide that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I would like to thank you all. We are going to suspend in just a second. We are going to take about two minutes to bring on our new panellists. There are two online and then one joining us here.

We're suspending.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Welcome back to our second panel. I would like to welcome our guests.

We have Queenie Choo, chief executive officer, and she is online from S.U.C.C.E.S.S. From the TechGirls Canada, we have Saadia Muzaffar, president, who is here in our room. As well, from the Women's Enterprise Organizations of Canada, we have Alison Kirkland, chief executive officer.

We're going to start online for the first five minutes with Queenie.

Queenie, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Queenie Choo, Chief Executive Officer, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.]

Thank you, Ms. Chair.

Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to present today.

I'm speaking from Vancouver, the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, especially the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Our organization was founded 50 years ago, and today we are one of the largest social service agencies in Canada. This past year, we've served over 77,000 people and provided 152,000 services. We also provide a wide range of integrated programs and services for newcomers, including settlement, English language training, employment and entrepreneurship, and women, family, youth and senior programs.

In the first quarter of 2024, men held over 62% of senior management positions while women held over 37%. Eleven per cent of Canadian women live in poverty with higher risk for those facing multiple barriers such as race, disabilities and single motherhood status. By the year 2030, between 40 million and 160 million women globally may need to change jobs. The proportion of female candidates opting for male-dominated trades has risen in the past 10 years. However, it only accounted for 5% of the total registrations for apprenticeships in the year 2019.

Women experience microaggressions at a higher rate than men, such as being mistaken for a junior employee or receiving comments on their emotional state. Black and Asian women are seven times more likely than white women to be confused with someone of the same race and ethnicity. Just in Toronto, the lack of Canadian work experience is a significant barrier for close to 45% of skilled immigrant women pursuing employment. Many immigrant women face significant career transitions due to either regulated professions or the need for reinvention in a new environment.

After the pandemic, recent female immigrants faced a worse outcome than their Canadian-born counterparts. They had higher unemployment rates both before and during the recession.

Given our area of focus, I would like to share my views on the importance of the federal investment in settlement services for newcomers, especially women. I aspire to a better future for all women, especially for those who face additional prejudice because of their intersecting identities such as racialized women or women with disabilities.

At S.U.C.C.E.S.S., we are helping to break gender bias. In fact, last year, over 70% of our clients were female. One of S.U.C.C.E.S.S.'s core aims is to help immigrant women and women from diverse communities obtain language and job skills as well as receive the counselling and family support that they need to succeed on their Canadian journey.

Our integrated women's entrepreneurship project, which was established in 2018 and funded by the Government of Canada's women entrepreneurship strategy, aims to empower women entrepreneurs in Canada by offering a comprehensive range of resources, tools, advisory services and training. It has supported over 798 women entrepreneurs, connected 338 clients to mentorship opportunities, provided one-on-one coaching to over 760 individuals and engaged over 700 participants in workshops and skills training.

The other program I'm going to feature is the integrated employment training for women. It was established in 2022 and funded by Employment and Social Development Canada. Its aim is to empower newcomer women in Canada by offering a comprehensive range of resources, tools, support services and training in early childhood education, the health care system and event planning. We have supported over 188 newcomer women and connected 138 clients to practicum opportunities.

In conclusion, we call for a safe and stable financial environment for women as part of a supportive system that is free of discrimination and racism. Each individual action we take leads the way to collective, systemic change and a truly equal future for women as fully respected, equal members of society.

Thank you again for the opportunity to share our vision and the work at S.U.C.C.E.S.S. with you today.