Evidence of meeting #52 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pregnancy.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Do you expect that you will go back to that career at some point?
As an Individual
Yes, I would like to.
I addressed in my speech the fact that the gap with no income and my benefits getting cut off when my son was really young threw me off course. I ended up using the Ontario Works program, which was another deduction in income. All of that has created a lot of chaos in my life. I've been moving a lot, and I haven't been able to find stability yet to this day.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Is it your goal to become a ticketed welder, to have a licence to practise as a journeyperson?
As an Individual
Because it's in the water it falls under different rules.
I was very much into boatbuilding. I really liked that job.
Liberal
NDP
Brigitte Sansoucy NDP Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Ballard, I do not know if you are aware of the Quebec program called For a safe maternity experience. It is a flexible program that has proved its worth. In Quebec, it is possible for a mother to be assigned to different work that is not dangerous.
Just now, we were talking about SMEs, but they are compensated. Pregnant women actually keep the same salaries that they had before, even if the position to which she is re-assigned has a lower salary, and employers are compensated accordingly. If a woman has to stop working, she receives 90% of her salary until she gives birth. Then she has maternity benefits for 50 weeks. So she is protected for longer.
You also emphasized the difficulty of receiving only 55% of one's salary. I believe that it is important to emphasize that the Quebec program is funded exclusively by employers, who pay a contribution of 2.2% of their payroll. That is much less than the employment insurance program requires.
Given the story you told us, I would like your perception. How would things have gone in your case if you had been able to take advantage of a program like that?
As an Individual
I did read up on the preventative withdrawal program. I very much liked how it even followed the woman back to work and protected her right to breastfeed. I thought it was a very thorough and thoughtful program. I would be back to work today if I had been a recipient of preventative withdrawal and a resident of Quebec. That certainly would have allowed me to stay in my apartment and the flexibility to go back to work a bit slower than all of a sudden. Ten-hour workdays with a seven-month-old in care are pretty difficult to manage.
Also, 90% of your pay is pretty remarkable. I believe Anna mentioned that 55% of your pay isn't very much to work with, especially for single-income families. And that's true. I was all by myself. I've been talking to a lot of charity organizations and people who help with poverty. I'm being told, oh, maybe if you cut down on drinking soda we can help you with your budget. I don't drink soda. I am so bare bones with my budget there is no place to cut from. That can't be the solution; it's just not enough money.
Sorry, I'm rambling.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Not at all.
Thank you.
We're going to do one more quick five-minute round each. That will leave us with about five or 10 minutes to just go over the rest of the week.
To start off for five minutes, we have MP Warawa, please.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Liberal
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley—Aldergrove, BC
Thank you for your honesty and very important testimony. We have five children, and each pregnancy was very different. In our fourth pregnancy, my wife fell and was bedridden, but because she was self-employed she didn't qualify for benefits. One of the witnesses highlighted the issue of kidney problems, diabetes during that period, and back problems.
Anna and Melodie, could you share with the committee some of the costs associated with pregnancy, whether it's buying a new car seat, because they expire, or...? What were the costs to the government associated with that need, in consideration of this new national maternity assistance program? How can we help families? How can we help women who have chosen to have another child and who need help with the costs?
You've shared the cost after your delivery, but are there costs associated with the pregnancy, particularly in the last trimester, that we could help with? The Canada child benefit starts at delivery. We heard the importance of allowing women to fill out the forms beforehand, so they don't have to fill them out after delivery, when they're struggling. I think that was a good suggestion, and they take effect at the time of delivery. Are there costs associated with the pregnancy that you also need help with?
We'll start with Anna, if that's okay.
As an Individual
Yes, absolutely.
You mentioned the car seat. They won't let you leave the hospital without one, so you need to have one. There are a lot of other costs, of course, in just setting up for the child, getting somewhere for them to sleep. As Melodie said, just making sure you have a suitable roof over your head that you can bring them home to is costly. For some people that is a really big struggle, and I think, depending on the pregnancy, there can be other costs, such as needing physiotherapy, needing gestational diabetes medication, and all of those things. If you're now on 55% of your income because you've had to take your maternity benefits early, and you're living on a bare-bones budget and you now have to spend hundreds of dollars on medication, you're probably choosing not to get the massage or physiotherapy you might really need, because it's just not an option.
I think there are a lot of costs like that, that pile up for people quite quickly. There is a lot of help out there in pregnancy care centres and places like that, but again access is a problem, and as Melodie said, there are long waiting lists to get into different places. I think paying for job training for people who are coming into a new role at a job is like job training for becoming a mum. There's a period of investment before that baby arrives where you need to be prepared and ready to take on that role as best you can.
As an Individual
I was pretty lucky; I had a very healthy pregnancy. The only issues I had were in my third trimester because I'm poor. I had vitamin deficiency problems and started getting muscle spasms in my back, but since I was on leave from my employer, I had medical benefits that covered the massage therapy and chiropractic care I needed at that time. The only thing that comes to mind, because I don't have a very complicated case, is vitamins; maybe consider including prenatal vitamins.
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley—Aldergrove, BC
Anna, you've had five children, so you've had a number of years of experience in the career of being a mother.
Melodie, how old is your son now?
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley—Aldergrove, BC
That's almost two years of being a mom.
You had a welding career before. Anna, what kind of career did you have before that?
As an Individual
I worked in retail, and as a researcher at the university.
Conservative
Mark Warawa Conservative Langley—Aldergrove, BC
Would both of you say the career you have now as a mom is less or more important than the previous career?
