Status of Women committee  I do understand that the federal government has been hesitant to speak because universities are a provincial matter, but when we talk northern, francophone and indigenous, I do not see that as a provincial matter, particularly when we talk about indigenous nations that [Technical difficulty—Editor] provincial boundaries.

Status of Women committee  This is exactly what we're seeing. We're seeing many people dream about being a midwife who may not have dreamt of it before. We had a real intention in having these mandated populations and creating midwives for these communities. Many of the news stories over the last couple of weeks since the school was closed have featured some of our Black midwifery students working in Ottawa, francophone students and indigenous students who are coming forward and fighting hard for this program.

Status of Women committee  The university in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, yes, they graduate about 20 midwives a year. Quebec needs those 20 midwives. In their application process, you must be a resident of Quebec to apply to the midwifery program in Quebec, so what you're saying is true. When there are francophone midwives wanted in other parts of Canada, they have historically made arrangements with Laurentian to purchase seats in the Laurentian program.

Status of Women committee  It feels like both. I think you've said that it's a female profession that's under crisis, females serving females. We're talking about women's health care here, which is chronically underfunded, recovering often from previous cuts. Like I said, we were recently engaged, or I should say still engaged, with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario about pay discrimination based on gender.

Status of Women committee  I think the financial aspect is really important to address. The envelope was equally split three ways between Laurentian, McMaster and Ryerson, but only Laurentian was required to offer the program in two languages with that very same amount of money. We recently made a request about a month ago to MCU that we needed an increase in funding at all three sites, but Laurentian particularly needed some additional funding to be able to offer the second language.

Status of Women committee  As a terminated faculty member and ex-director of the school, I have no role. I'm unemployed with no severance. I'm not connected. How do I have any say on where a third school would be or on anything about midwifery at this point? I'm sorry. I kind of lost your question a little bit there.

Status of Women committee  It touched a bit on indigenous or francophone—from language to spiritual—but we also know there is a recognition part as well. We have been engaging in our anti-racism work, looking at our school itself and at our graduates, and recognizing that we need Black midwives, midwives of colour.

Status of Women committee  I'll add a fine point to my answer, and that is imagining someone in labour. Take me, for example. I can speak French fairly well, but not when I'm sick. If we put that woman in labour, what can we even compare that to? Then to be expected to receive services in a second language and communicate in a second language....

Status of Women committee  I think there needs to be recognition that it takes money to grow a program. To grow a health cadre—to bring back a workforce that was eliminated for 100 years—is going to take investment and it's going to take more than four years or any change in parties. Twenty-eight years, as I said, is kind of a short period in terms of the health profession.

Status of Women committee  Certainly that is our dream. That's what the Canadian Association of Midwives would say: a midwife in every community. We know we're most successful when we train people from the community to return to the community and when we remove people from community for as little time as possible, when clinical training can be done within the community that person plans to serve.

Status of Women committee  Burnout is probably the biggest challenge, and we're seeing that now. A recent study said two-thirds of B.C. midwives were considering leaving. There was some participation of Ontario midwives, but burnout is certainly an issue. There has been austerity in the health care system as long as midwifery has been around.

Status of Women committee  It's made the work of midwifery harder, but it has introduced that choice for people who want choice of birthplace. There are people who did not feel that during this—

Status of Women committee  Those are numbers that I'm not prepared with right in front of my hands as I'm sitting here. It's 20% of babies in Ontario. It's not the highest in the country. In B.C., midwives are delivering 25% and have probably exceeded that by now, whereas in provinces with smaller numbers of midwives, of course, that number could be quite a bit lower.

Status of Women committee  The question was on the effect of COVID on midwifery clients. It introduced more choice. We are the only care providers delivering babies at home, and we have the evidence to show that it is a safe choice. It was a choice made by increasing numbers of people as they were giving birth during this pandemic, which brings to light the importance of having an alternate care provider to be able to provide care in a different way under varying conditions.

Status of Women committee  It's done province by province. We have regulatory colleges, and we have the College of Midwives of Ontario that regulates our graduates. We've recently launched a national accreditation program for midwifery schools, so now there is that national oversight around the quality of the program.