Evidence of meeting #45 for Status of Women in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was families.
A recording is available from Parliament.
directrice générale, Fédération des associations de familles monoparentales et recomposées du Québec
I would answer all those measures.
Research and Communication Officer, Fédération des associations de familles monoparentales et recomposées du Québec
As you would say in English, all of the above.
Increasing the guaranteed minimum income threshold would be a very good help. But there's more than improvements to the CPP. I think we've already conducted that kind of reform in Quebec, with regard to the old age pension, which consists in not calculating, in not taking into account the number of years in a woman's life where she did not contribute because she was taking care of children or because she had a lower income, and to eliminate those years from the calculations. Accommodations should be found, but everything you've said would be welcome.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Thank you very much.
Before you make your closing remarks I would like to thank you for the passion you've brought. You've made a passionate appeal to us. Everyone comes with a different viewpoint, and we will have a fun time trying to gather all the information together and look at the factors affecting poverty in women in their later years.
This time I'm going to give you each a minute to make your wrap-up comments, please. It's fine if you have no comments.
Madame Lévesque.
directrice générale, Fédération des associations de familles monoparentales et recomposées du Québec
You shouldn't tell us that we don't have to talk. We're going to take the opportunity to talk.
As we mentioned throughout our presentation, and as you've already observed as a standing committee, single-parent families headed by a woman are among the poorest families. They are very much affected by poverty. It is therefore imperative that measures, such as the pension reform we referred to earlier, progressive social measures, be taken to improve the situation of single-parent families and to cover their needs. I believe we will be there when those demands are made. If there are further consultations, we will be pleased to come back.
Research and Communication Officer, Fédération des associations de familles monoparentales et recomposées du Québec
Perhaps I could go back a little to the recommendations that the federation made at the end of its document. We obviously repeat that the transfers made by the federal government to the provinces are very important for social programs, for the possibility for the provinces to have social programs. Increasing the minimum wage is also an extremely important action. Education transfers will also enable the provinces to improve their financial assistance for education programs.
Investments are needed in housing, that is to say in social housing. The more specific request would be for an increase of $2 billion a year in federal low-rent housing, housing cooperatives and non-profit organizations.
Compliance with the agreement on child care would also be a good thing. That would make it possible for there to be adequate child care services. If there could be greater interprovincial equity, that would be good as well. I think that, even though much work remains to be done in Quebec, when we hear our colleagues from the other provinces talk, sometimes we find it hair-raising. We find it quite terrible. There should be greater interprovincial equity. It shouldn't be about Quebec lowering its criteria, but rather about the other provinces being able to get more as well.
Executive Director, Neighbourhood Link/Senior Link
I'll follow up on your concept of interprovincial equity.
You made a very good point that we seem to be talking about stuff that's within provincial jurisdiction. But if the senior level of government doesn't take leadership on these things, there will be as much poverty 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now as there is now. It has to clearly be a mark of a caring society that it looks after the most vulnerable. That's why I think the appeal to a federal level of government makes sense. I don't want to suggest how it should be played out. A national program, yes, I can understand is bureaucratic and cumbersome and is therefore costly. Maybe it's a matter of standards being met. I mean, there is a Canada Health Act that dictates health standards to the provinces. Maybe there could be other comparable kinds of things. I leave that, definitely, to you folks.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Thank you very much.
If the witnesses want to stay in the audience, it is okay. It is a public meeting.
Ms. Mathyssen, at our last meeting you had deferred your motion. I'm wondering whether you have any extra information or whether you were satisfied with the information that Ms. Smith provided, or was about to provide.
Conservative
Joy Smith Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB
That's the very thing I wanted to speak to, Madam Chair—
Conservative
Conservative
Joy Smith Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB
Thank you.
I have an update on the information we had last week. Three reports will be printed. Five will be posted on the website by March 31.
I have to correct. We thought they were on the website, and they were at one time. Apparently they were taken down. They're putting them up again because of some computer stuff going on. And the list of the ten will be provided when we get back on Tuesday. They're just putting that together now.
So that's an update.
Conservative
Joy Smith Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB
They will be printed. Five will be posted on the website by March 31. And the list of ten that are not completed will be given to the committee on Tuesday.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Do we know the names of the three programs that are in publication?
Conservative
Conservative
Joy Smith Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB
The three that are to be printed are one, Gendering Canada's Refugee Process; two, Seeking Alternatives to Bill C-31: From Cultural Trauma to Cultural Revitalization through Customary Law; and three, The Impact of Patient Classification Systems on Women Front-Line Care Workers in Rural Nursing Homes.
The five to be posted on the website are: Social Capital and Welfare of Immigrant Women: A Multi-Level Study of Four Ethnic Communities in Windsor; Public Policy and Social Reproduction: Gendering Social Capital; Security and Immigration, Changes and Challenges: Immigrant and Ethnic Communities in Atlantic Canada, Presumed Guilty?; Employer-Supported Volunteer Activity: How Do Women Employees and Women's Organizations Fare?; and Social Security Review: 10 Years Later.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I thank Ms. Smith. I would appreciate it if I could have that list. I have a list that shows at least three other documents that are not on Ms. Smith's list. So I--
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Is it possible that the three others that are not on Ms. Smith's list are among the ten that are to be brought forward, probably by March 31? Is that what you stated?