Many women don't qualify for EI. And even for those who do, if they work in a minimum wage job, minimum wage in Nova Scotia is $8.60, and I believe that EI pays 55%. So if you have a minimum wage job, and you lose it, and you are eligible for EI, you're still only going to collect about $146 a week, which is about $7,000 to $8,000 a year in total income. If you can't collect EI, then of course you would go onto social assistance through the province.
I'm trying to stay on topic. But one of the problems with all the stimulus money that was put into the economy is that very little of that would be directed to women, because it is all infrastructure money. We know that fewer than 7% of women are in non-traditional jobs. So that is not going to be a help for women who want to try to improve their lot.
There are certainly models to follow for a guaranteed income in a country like Canada. Canada, which has such abundance, really needs to look after its people. We're a caring and compassionate society. If you knew that there was a boat sinking out in the harbour and it was full of children, there isn't one of us who wouldn't be on the shore trying to do something. But you have generations of children who are literally drowning because of their poverty, and no one is doing what they need to do. So a guaranteed income would look, to me, as though those who need it.... There would be a minimum level of what a family could expect to get. So they would not be subject to political pressure or to the difference between Ontario and Nova Scotia.
I'm not suggesting that one size fits all, because it doesn't. But it would get us away from the charity model of welfare whereby if you're good and do as you're told we'll give you $208 a month for yourself plus your shelter allowance. It would just remove that. And I really believe....
We are always going to have people who need help. But we do have people who respond very quickly to a change in their lifestyle, and they move ahead, and they start to work, and they pay taxes, which I understand is the lifeline of government. Women and families, you know, are not investing in offshore oil. They're buying groceries and they're buying food and they're buying clothes in their own local economies. It is a wise choice to invest in people and to allow them to pay their fair share, as we all do.
The specifics of how to do it I'm sure someone much smarter than me could figure out, but it certainly makes sense.