Good afternoon, everyone.
I would like to begin by thanking the members of the Standing Committee of the House of Commons on the Status of Women for the invitation to appear.
It is very important for us to come before you to talk about the repercussions for our organization of recent changes at Status of Women Canada. In that respect, we support the actions of the Special Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights, established last year to denounce both the cuts and the current changes. The Conseil d'intervention pour l'accès des femmes au travail, or CIAFT, also met with the Minister of Transport, the Hon. Lawrence Cannon, last September, and the Minister of Labour, the Hon. Jean-Pierre Blackburn, last November, to make them aware that these changes are unacceptable. Both ministers seemed very attentive and promised to make representations to their Cabinet colleague who is responsible for Status of Women, with a view to having her quickly reverse her decisions.
In my brief opening statement, I would like to make you aware of some of the gains made by the CIAFT in recent years as a result of funding from the Women's Program and the support of Status of Women Canada in Quebec; following that, I would like to describe the disastrous consequences these changes will have for our particular organization as early as April.
What is the CIAFT? The Conseil d'intervention pour l'accès des femmes au travail has been around for some 25 years. It is the primary group advocating for the women of Quebec's collective right to work. Our members are located in every region of Quebec and, for the most part, are women's employability organizations. Economists, experts on regional development, as well as professional guidance and vocational counsellors are also members of our organization. We focus our efforts in four main areas: the development of the female labour force; pay equity and employment equity; regional development; and, social programs related to family-work balance and the right to work of vulnerable women workers.
We are considered by the Government of Quebec to be a full-fledged labour market partner. Indeed, the CIAFT has been a member of Emploi-Québec's Comité aviseur Femmes en développement de la main-d'oeuvre since 1998, and oversaw the implementation of an intervention strategy for the female labour force. We were also the voice of the Coalition en faveur de l'équité salariale, which spearheaded the adoption of Quebec's pay equity legislation in 1996 and, ever since, we have been closely following the way in which the legislation is being enforced. We also act as a spokesperson with the Francophone and Anglophone media in Quebec on these particular subjects, such as work-life balance or women's equality in the workplace, in general.
What gains have we made as a result of the Women's Program in recent years? As an advocacy group, we are supported by the Government of Quebec, through its independent community action support program, as well as by the Women's Program, at the federal level.
We have been a part of many legislative changes and the work carried out by government in recent years. I would like to give you a couple of examples. The first is the improvements to Quebec's labour standards legislation in 2002. We were able to have psychological harassment included in the legislation, as well as additional days of leave for family responsibilities. We took part in consultations on a comprehensive policy relating to work-life balance in Quebec three years ago, and with support from the Women's Program, we were able to develop a platform on that same issue within our organization. We also were part of the effort to defend the universality of child care services. We are part of every and all consultations provided for under the Pay Equity Act, according to the specific timeline it sets out. We take part in developing five-year plans in the 19 regions of Quebec. We have made enormous gains, particularly as regards pay equity. We have been able to secure a business audit program and a working group on vulnerable female workers. We also took part in developing the Quebec parental leave system. So, there are a lot of different initiatives we have been part of.
The repercussions of these changes on our organization's mission will be significant. Indeed, the CIAFT will lose 66 per cent of its advocacy funding, since it will no longer be eligible to receive funds under the Program for this type of policy work.
In fact, we support this Committee's recommendations to restore core funding for women's groups across Canada. I could perhaps come back to this later on.
Do I have any time left?