Status of Women committee  In Quebec we've seen rates of poverty fall quite significantly amongst single mothers, for example. I can follow up later with the exact number. I don't have it off the top of my head, but I believe it was something on the order of 140,000 single mothers who moved out of poverty.

Status of Women committee  I would have to look at my Excel spreadsheet, but that's not my recollection of the statistics I've looked at for 2016.

Status of Women committee  I agree.

Status of Women committee  The labour force survey.

Status of Women committee  I think you've heard from some folks who have more experience than I do working in this, for example, from the Canadian Women's Foundation. I've been in front of this committee speaking specifically to this issue with people who have been engaged in programs that help women enter those fields.

Status of Women committee  Statistically, more women cite involuntary reasons than voluntary reasons.

Status of Women committee  First of all, women are twice as likely to work part-time than men. If you look at the women who are working part-time, you will see that just over 700,000 of them cite involuntary reasons. There's a portion of women who are part-time who say that's voluntary. That percentage hasn't changed much at all over the past 20 years.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. Absolutely. First, I would say that, while I agree that there isn't an endless supply of full-time jobs out there, we've seen the government make investments to produce jobs, for example, in the sectors that will benefit from infrastructure spending. I think that what we need to see is greater investments by the federal government, working with provinces, in health and social services.

Status of Women committee  We have a very good natural experiment here in Canada, because Quebec has made very significant financial investments in subsidizing child care. I'm sure my colleagues from CLC can speak to this as well, but there are a couple of take home lessons, I find, from the Quebec example.

Status of Women committee  I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me to speak today and for undertaking your work on this very important issue. My name is Kate McInturff, and I am a senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. By now the committee will have heard a number of recommendations about what they should do.

Pay Equity committee  Yes.

Pay Equity committee  Well, yes, clearly I think we need to act sooner rather than later. I wouldn't want to advocate not getting things right, but I think an incremental implementation may be—

Pay Equity committee  —the most practical way forward. There's been a lot of interest in, for example, women on corporate boards and women in business. But, really, when we're talking about a life-threatening impact, we have to think about the women who make up two-thirds of minimum wage workers. A pay gap for a retail worker, who is making $12,000 to $13,000 a year, can really mean the difference between food and rent or not.

Pay Equity committee  Thank you. Good evening, and thank you to the committee for inviting me to be here today. My name is Kate McInturff, and I'm a senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Today in Canada our daughters are as likely to attend university as our sons are, but we are in danger of failing to deliver on the promise of education, because those girls will grow up and graduate to a pay gap—unless we act now.

Status of Women committee  I'm in favour of infrastructure spending and always happy to see more investments in infrastructure and in public transit, which women depend on very heavily in our major cities. I think in terms of job creation, we need to recognize that infrastructure spending is going to stimulate jobs in male-dominated professions.