Thanks.
I'm from the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, a national non-profit bilingual organization whose work centres on providing research and tools to facilitate organizations taking action to advance social justice and equality for all women. We believe that information and knowledge are key to empowerment. CRIAW has a long and successful track record of providing reliable, accessible and relevant information on key women’s equality issues. The impacts of both the cuts to Status of Women Canada and the changes to the terms and conditions of the women's program, are enormous.
First, I'd like to make a few clarifications before the committee, as there has been a certain level of confusion that has been once again repeated here at the hearings. In terms of the cuts, these are by no means administrative. Complete programs have been eliminated, such as the Status of Women Canada policy research fund, as has almost 50% of the workforce.
A number of statements have been made indicating that women's groups would no longer receive funding following the cuts. While it is true that the women's program budget has remained intact for the moment, the reasons why groups such as CRIAW will not get funding are much more serious. In fact, denying funding for research, lobbying and advocacy, reneges on two key values that are held dearly by Canadians: equality and democracy.
When CRIAW speaks about equality, we are not merely talking about equality between women and men, but also between many different groups of women. Society cannot simply be lumped into two neat categories of women and men. This is highly simplistic and not at all visionary. If we want Canada to move forward, we need to have the capacity to provide a critical eye. This is what research provides.
Moving forward means looking at the picture and being able to constantly question the angle under which it is taken. What does this mean for those in the picture, as well as for those not in the picture? By no longer funding research, which poses difficult questions and tries to unpack the multiple layers of systemic discrimination, we are essentially saying that we can live with the status quo. By denying funding for research and advocacy, we are in fact closing the door on democracy for a vast portion of the population.
Let's be honest, the private sector is not interested in funding organizations that question systemic discrimination. We are not fools and neither are they. The hard-hitting questions that we ask are for the most part counter indicative to their profit motives. Its all about the bottom line, and that bottom line has nothing to do with the aboriginal, racialized and disabled women who are, indeed, too often at the bottom of society's priorities.
One of the rationales advanced for no longer funding research is that it is no longer needed, that we have all the answers. Again, what this says to me is that the status quo is okay. This is denying that we are in a constantly evolving world. In fact, the ground on which we stand is constantly shifting.
I would like to come back to the values of democracy and equality and how these values are being undermined by the cuts to Status of Women Canada and the changes to the terms and conditions of the Women's Program. As I indicated earlier, research can lead to empowerment. The research methodologies practised by CRIAW not only empower women, but strive to give them a voice in shaping their future.
To illustrate this, I would like to draw on our recently completed study on the impact of the changes to the Canada social transfer on aboriginal, immigrant, and disabled women. This study was funded by the now defunct Status of Women Canada policy research fund. The study responded to the question, Are women's voices being heard? Its objective was to bring the voices of these women to policy tables and policy-makers. Unfortunately, the current federal government has very little interest in this matter, as well as to any other issues linked to poverty, social assistance, clawbacks, etc.
We had envisaged bringing the results of the study to the human resources standing committee and had hoped that some of the women who participated in the study could express themselves firsthand at the proposed cross-country hearings on the Canada social transfer. To no surprise, these hearings have also been axed.
The following quotes are from our study.
From a woman living with a disability in Winnipeg:
I myself cannot afford fruits and vegetables. As a result, my health has suffered because of lack of nutrition, and now I have permanent problems, because I'm simply too poor to feed myself properly. It's resulted in some lifelong issues that will never be cured because, as thankful as I am to be receiving assistance, it's well below the poverty line, and sometimes I don't have money to eat for a few days in a row, and now my health is also suffering.
From another woman living with a disability:
I ended up living in a place that was extremely unsafe. I've been attacked several times. I'm scared to live there, and I have to move, and there's nothing out there. You can't even rent; you go into a rooming house and they're charging the welfare rate. My last three roommates have been strangers from the paper, and it's all resulted in disaster and them splitting and me spending all my food money to cover people's rent, or I get evicted.
Interestingly, issues linked to telephone access were brought up by the women. Telephones were a luxury for many of the participants. Lack of a telephone has a direct impact on ability to find paid work; it also posed significant safety concerns for women in ill health, women with disabilities, and mothers.
One woman said:
...it's unsafe...to be living without at least a home phone, especially if you have kids and there's some kind of emergency, and it's also impossible to look for work if you don't have some way for people to get hold of you.
Unlike what Minister Oda may believe, equality for many women is not just a phone call away.
An aboriginal woman in Vancouver said:
I work for a dollar an hour at an organization, volunteering, to make sure that I have toothpaste, ass wipe, face soap, shampoo, dish soap, laundry detergent. That's what the coupons I make at the organization help pay for. If I didn't have that dollar-an-hour job, I wouldn't have those, because I can't afford to buy them on my cheque, because my disability cheque is not enough.
I would like to ask those who made the decision on the cuts and changes to the terms and conditions whether they feel these voices are not deemed worthy to be heard. If they do feel that yes, everyone deserves a chance to have input into the policies that truly affect them, do they seriously think the current climate will provide these women with the safe space to express their concerns?
Dealing with the issues expressed by the women living in poverty requires much more than a few donated business suits. They require a concerted effort that brings together research and front-line services, which will deliver long-term change.
As we all know, under the new terms and conditions most research will no longer be funded. Funding will no longer be available to create CRIAW's fact sheets. We will no longer receive funding to answer some of the difficult questions that need to be addressed, such as: why is it, in a country such as Canada, which has experienced substantial economic growth, that poverty continues to persist and deepen?
It is clear that the new terms and conditions reflect a charity model that essentially denies that systemic discrimination exists. Our research clearly demonstrates that far too many women in Canada have not benefited from the equality that has to date only been available to them on paper.
It's for this reason that we recommend that the cuts and changes be reversed immediately.