Good morning, members of the committee. I'm grateful for the opportunity to address you this morning.
As the executive director of the St. John's Status of Women Council, my perspective on our economy and the budget is deeply rooted in the desire to attain economic equality for women in Canada.
Women may be a slim majority of the population, but we are the majority, and therefore our economic security has a substantial impact on the economy. I'm here to urge you to apply robust gender assessment tools, to mitigate the harm economic policies inevitably have on women, and to close the growing gender gap and raise women out of poverty.
As long as we continue to utilize traditional economic analysis, we will continue to recklessly ignore the fact that the status of women has a direct impact on our economy and mechanisms will not be put in place to close the inequalities and mitigate the damage to women. For example, pay equity legislation would dramatically decrease women's reliance on services and substantially increase women's contribution to the economy.
Treating women as a subset of the population is dangerous for women and the economy. We are 52% of the population, and our experiences cross all social determinants. We are seniors, youth, business owners, heads of families, workers, indigenous, sex workers, trans, middle class, sick, immigrants, and disabled.
We hold the majority of low-paying and precarious employment and take on the bulk of unpaid labour and child care, while dealing with a monumental and growing wage gap, now sitting at 72%. We cannot seek a fairer, more just economy without recognizing and addressing the fact that the majority of our poor are women.
Add to this our role as mothers and we are the largest users of services, often multiple services simultaneously. A lower socio-economic status has meant that women are always harmed by cuts in general, and austerity budgets can and do decisively destroy the services we most heavily rely on: health care, education, income support, and, because of the abysmal rates of violence we still experience here in Canada, domestic violence supports and services.
The World Health Organization and others have been calling on all governments to use gender assessment tools when generating budgets and economic policies that lessen this burden on women. A framework of tax and welfare policies can tackle this disproportionate burden. Pay equity, tax relief, and gender assessment tools can play a significant role in elevating the status of Canadian women.
Amidst concerns about the slow rate of growth in our economy, the International Monetary Fund has drawn attention to the need to close the gender gap between men's and women's employment in Canada. Research published by the World Bank suggests that closing the gender gap would be equivalent to 10% of Canada's GDP.
It's long past time for a national child care program. Clear research demonstrates that child care helps stimulate the economy through mothers' paid work, alleviates poverty, and moves women out of precarious work. A national program would create jobs, leave parents free to work or to upgrade their skills, and provide additional support for single parents.
Aside from raising families out of poverty and stimulating the economy, research has shown that early childhood education and care provides an environment where our children thrive regardless of their social and economic status. The numbers do bear out that the costs of subsidized child care are more than worth their cost in terms of returns to our economy. Many sound organizations have created viable frameworks for providing child care through social infrastructure, and it is well past time that we revisit these frameworks.
It is also time to return to a federal minimum wage, a living wage. A strong minimum wage is an immediate and highly effective economic policy to alleviate poverty for women. Women currently hold 59% of all minimum-wage jobs in Canada. A federal minimum wage would immediately benefit many Canadian workers and serve as a standard-bearer for provinces to follow.
Not only must we apply a gender lens to the economy, but we must not forget our human rights obligations. Canada has signed numerous conventions protecting and advancing the rights of women, including CEDAW, where article 3 states that the convention gives positive affirmation to the principle of equality:
States Parties shall take in all fields, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men.
A robust gender and human rights lens that strives to raise women out of poverty and closes the gender gap must be a prerequisite for Canada in meeting this responsibility.
In closing, I want to impress upon you that the correlation between women's economic security and their personal security is definitive. We must understand—and redress—that the lack of child care, housing, pay equity, access to women's health care, reproductive rights, education, and a fair justice system is not only the cause of violence against women, but is often the very barrier that prevents them from leaving. Women are not born vulnerable. We are made vulnerable by legislation and policies. We all want a vibrant, fair, and just Canada. We cannot reach this goal, however, if we continue to leave half the population behind.
Thank you.