Yes, it was devastating. It was not uncommon to hear of women in shelters or finding other places, such as living with other family members.
The minimum wage in home care right now is $16.50 an hour. That's barely over the minimum wage in the province of Ontario. Of course, we all know there's an economic crisis, with the price of gas and home care workers depending on their vehicles. A minimum wage should be closer to about $27 an hour, at the very minimum. That would be the start of a living wage.
Again, home care personal support workers have to use that income to travel from client to client. With the price of gas, they're basically using their own wages to pay for gas to do that. They don't get the travel time as well.
When you take a look at the system as well, what we desperately need across the provinces are universal wages. Minimum wage for PSWs is $16.50. It varies in long term care and hospitals, which just creates a competitive market for health care workers. This causes shortages in places like home care, where the wages are so devastating.
On your point about a lot of immigrant women, studies have shown that in 2021 the majority of caregivers were women of colour and Black women. A lot of them are migrants to our country as well.