Evidence of meeting #10 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was funding.
2 p.m.
President , RESULTS Canada
I would say for our aid budget that would be more appropriate, to focus on poverty reduction.
2 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
You propose, as a second measure, that we increase support for microcredit. Could you give us a concrete example of what that represents in terms of development aid?
2 p.m.
President , RESULTS Canada
You mean how much of Canada's aid is for micro-credit or--?
2 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
You're talking about increasing it from $29.9 million to $78 million, I believe, that is to the level where it used to be. In concrete terms, in the field, how does microcredit contribute to international development?
2 p.m.
President , RESULTS Canada
Micro-credit is one of the big success stories in poverty reduction really. Bangladesh is probably the most famous example with the Grameen Bank, which has now grown. It's lending out about $7 billion in total now. Millions of borrowers have benefited, and longer-term studies show they actually cross the poverty line in something like 60% of the cases simply through borrowing for their own little businesses and the benefits flowing through to their families. The nice part, of course, about micro-credit is that in the end it's not charity. The Grameen Bank doesn't now take any donor money. Canada used to support it years ago, as it did other donors, but now it's just self-sustaining from the savings of its own borrowers.
2 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
The rate of repayment by users is very high. So we can assume that the amounts you are requesting are intended to increase available capital.
2 p.m.
President , RESULTS Canada
Yes, it's more the start-up funds for the many thousands of other micro-credit organizations that are at an earlier stage; it's seed capital and technical assistance to help things go.
2 p.m.
NDP
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
Ms. Hyde, I'll go back to the question of funding. I understand you've explored a lot of sources. The Minister responsible for Status of Women has repeatedly said in the House that the funding for women would not be cut and would simply go more to programs on the ground, programs such as the one you're talking about, from the sound of it.
I would think it would be very useful either to speak to your MP or to write directly to the minister responsible and raise the issue, because those programs, according to the minister's own words--and it's been repeated often enough--would not be cut and would go on the ground to women and children who need them. That would be my recommendation.
I'd like to go back to Ms. Westlund. I've heard it said that women earn, on average, 71% of what men earn, so it seems logical that when they come to retirement age, they suffer more hardship and are in greater poverty. I think Statistics Canada demonstrates that. Perhaps we should start paying 71% of our taxes and 71% of our rent and 71% of our medical.
What I wanted to ask you goes back to Monsieur St-Cyr's question. Instead of dealing with the whole issue of RRSPs...I understand what you're saying; I think the system is unfairly tilted to the wealthier, especially with the fractionnement, the income splitting, that is happening. However, we've long advocated that the whole safety net for seniors has to be reviewed on a yearly basis, projecting ten years ahead so that we're not in the situation Canada's now in with the GIS--it's not keeping up, and it's not even retroactive more than eleven months. Even the CPP that some people have paid in doesn't have the retroactivity it should have.
I'm wondering if you support that need to review our system and to have a seniors ombudsman who would really respond to Parliament and make recommendations to really ensure that seniors are not living in poverty in Canada.
2:05 p.m.
Coordinator, Women Elders in Action
Well, absolutely; there's obviously a great need for that low-income sector, and it's sizable.
I know there is a new federal council for seniors. We submitted extensive documentation to them about six months ago when they were newly formed, explaining our concerns and inviting dialogue. We have not heard from them since. I'm not sure what they're doing, but there is a council concerning itself with seniors' issues.
Our position paper had 23 recommendations. They were ways we thought the public pension system could be tweaked to help low-income people, especially women, benefit over time. We've been talking about those measures for the last three years. We'd certainly like to see change; we think there's lots of room for improvement, obviously.
Our latest work has told us that working women today are actually not going to be hugely better off than their mothers are. There are a lot of reasons right in here that make that pretty clear. As long as there's no child care that women can count on in this country, and as long as there's not pay equity, and as long as women do more than their fair share of caregiving, they will be behind and they will stay behind--and that's all there is to it.
2:05 p.m.
NDP
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
I'm going to use it for a very good reason.
Jo Ann, from what you see around the table, and from the questions that you've been asked by all members of all four parties in the House, it's clear that we want to try to show some assistance. I think we did make a significant change to the way we deliver the service with respect to Status of Women Canada. One of the benefits for you in that regard is that we've assigned more money in the 2007 budget specifically for delivering programs.
You've been on the job for three months. I don't even know if you know where the application forms are to do this, and I'm going to say right away that it's not something you're going to get results from in the next 15 to 30 days. It's going to take a little while to work through the application. But if you do know who the member of Parliament is where the facility is, I would be more than happy to put you in contact with that person. Certainly if you are looking to find out where the application forms are, we can chat for a bit after our meeting today, because it sounds to me like you've got an issue for which, while I don't want to say fits in perfectly with the status of women funding application format, it sounds to me like you'd be awfully close. I think you may actually get some help today that you may have been unaware of. So if you take a few minutes afterwards, I'd be happy to assist you with that.
Mr. Salmon, I did want to ask you a couple of things. You made a couple of good points. Sometimes we as Canadians have a tendency of beating ourselves up rather than patting ourselves on the back. Maybe something your organization wants to consider in terms of the approach that you take with the government is to make sure that....
There are some very positive things that are happening. When you talk about the small businesses that women are starting in Afghanistan and the loans that we're providing there, 97% to 99% of those businesses are successful. They're providing food for their families. They're becoming independent. They're not being dependent on government handouts or other countries participating. It's them actually being successful. I think it's one of the most successful programs we actually run abroad. When any of the government members or members of the ministry have gone, it's one of the most incredible things to see how successful these women have become and how dedicated they are to returning and paying back the loans they received for the micro-businesses that they run.
So I do think there are some positive things. We certainly increased funding in the 2007 budget, from 2006. I can roll out the numbers, but they're bigger numbers than any of us have in the bank, so I won't.
There is a commitment from this government to make sure that by the time we reach 2010 we'll have doubled our efforts from 2001 and 2002. We're going to stay focused on that. Ms. Oda made an announcement just today, another announcement with respect to funding overseas funding. It is a commitment of this government. And I hope you recognize that although nothing, when it comes to funding, ever goes quickly enough when you're dealing with any order of government, it is certainly a focus of this government to try to make sure that we have our place and a strong role internationally in terms of supporting other countries that need our help.
2:10 p.m.
President , RESULTS Canada
Yes, I agree.
And we do, whenever possible. As I said with the Prime Minister last week, we really applaud that initiative. Often it's a step in the right direction, but it's not far enough. As I mentioned, our actual aid as a percentage is declining, so we could be doing a lot more of the good stuff, like Afghanistan.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
Thanks. That's more of a general comment than anything else, but it's helpful.
Ms. Westlund, you got into some pretty specific issues as to how we can address single women who obviously have to deal with this. Then you mentioned child care twice as to reasons why women will never catch up. I wondered if you could comment a little more on that, the issues that single women face in terms of bringing up children.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
One thing I forgot to say is that when we think of single women who are older and have been in the workforce, we don't always think of them as having children. We think of them as being single and on their own.
2:10 p.m.
Coordinator, Women Elders in Action
Okay.
I just know that women for eons, if they've been responsible for the care of children, have not been in the workforce to the same extent that they could have been.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
I guess in a large percentage of time, those women are married. They've got a husband or a spouse who is working. You say you didn't like the pension-splitting issue, but isn't that a perfect example of how, at least in terms of the care given by women who do choose to stay at home and bring up their children, there are obviously other benefits in that for the children and for the family? But I just wonder.... Obviously pension-splitting, for those couples who determine that only one of them is going to work outside of the home, is a significant benefit for them as they get older.
2:10 p.m.
Coordinator, Women Elders in Action
Yes, that would probably help them to a degree. What we're finding, of course, and I think it reflects what is found by many people across Canada, is that it takes two workers to support a family these days, so it's very difficult for that kind of.... What we see as almost an elitist position is where there can be only one wage earner in a family and one person staying at home. It is almost a luxury these days, being able to raise your own children. You don't see that happening so much.
2:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Thank you, Mr. Dykstra.
I have a couple of quick questions, Ms. Neufeld.
I know you addressed it in your brief, but some new technology that's going on in your sector, is that helping? I think of Infowave. I know that as members of Parliament we get a lot of regular updates, but they're huge documents, and I'll be honest, I can't go through all of them. What is the feedback on them? We invest a lot of money in them.
2:10 p.m.
President Elect, Canadian Nurses Association
The feedback on Infowave.... We do know there was a recent investment in Infowave, for which we are very grateful. We need more. I'm sure you hear that. It's because we do need to set up an architecture for communications and information infrastructure across the country.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
I know it's needed, but I'm saying from a practical point of view, do you know of any problems that have come about?