All that obviously has a major impact on the consumption spending power of single-parent families.
In recent years, major tax gains have been made in Quebec under social and family policies. Among other things, the payment of support for children is a much more generous measure than under the former family allowance system in Quebec. Furthermore, this is a universal measure, which is very much appreciated.
There is also a tax credit, the working bonus, which increases the incomes of low-income persons. That's also very good. Unfortunately, this measure has a harmful effect. It enables businesses to keep the minimum wage at its lowest rate. In our view, an increase in the minimum wage should be considered in the short term, particularly in view of the fact that the vast majority of low-wage workers are women.
In Quebec, the minimum wage will be set at $8 an hour on May 1, 2007. A person working 40 hours a week at that rate can only accumulate $16,600 a year, which is well below the poverty line.
In July 2006, the federal government granted an allowance of $1,200 a year to families with one child under six years of age. Our federation gave this measure a lukewarm welcome, on the one hand, because the federal and provincial taxation of those amounts cut into the actual benefits of families and, on the other hand, because single-parent families were put at a disadvantage by that measure, since they cannot transfer income to someone else: since they are the only income earners in the family, this put the heads of single-parent families at a disadvantage. Perhaps we can come back to this issue during the question period. In our opinion, a refundable tax credit would have been much fairer for all Canadian families.
Compliance with the child care agreement signed by the previous federal government, allocating $1.2 billion to develop child care services, would have enabled Quebec to consolidate its child care services system. The effects of non-compliance with that agreement are being felt even more in the rest of Canada, where the other provinces do not have reduced contribution child care services systems.
Another way to increase income is to have access to education. Considering that 80% of new jobs created today require postsecondary education, the importance of facilitating access to education as much as possible is readily recognized. The problem for women who are heads of single-parent families is that this access is reduced, particularly when they have young children. The situation is quite difficult in Quebec. Some women heads of single-parent families receive smaller loans and bursaries than they would receive if they were on welfare. As is the case with welfare, support is considered in computing financial assistance for education, which deducts points.
The federation believes that an increase in the Canada Health and Social Transfer would be a more effective way of helping the provinces support Canadian students. Fair financial restitution of the transfer to the provinces would also enable the provincial governments to enhance their loan and bursary systems.
Another major problem for low-income families, particularly single-parent families headed by women, is housing. Greater effort should be focused on funding social housing, particularly at the federal level. In Quebec, women tenants are the most likely to have problems paying their rent. Since they are poorer than the average of other households, more single-parent families spend more than 30% of their incomes on housing, particularly where they are headed by women. According to the last census, in 2001, nearly 40% of single-parent families headed by women were in a precarious situation with regard to housing.
The last aspect we would like to address is work-education-family balance. This balance is already hard to achieve for two-parent families. You can therefore imagine what it represents for a single-parent family. Changes in the labour market in recent years have made life even tougher. There are increasing numbers of temporary and on-call jobs. It is hard to establish a schedule in advance, and work days are growing increasingly longer.
In Quebec, however, we must point out that Quebec has introduced a new parental insurance system, which is much better and more generous than Canada's employment insurance system. We must also note the advantage of having a public reduced-contribution child care services system, which plays an essential role by enabling women with young children to enter the labour market.
In conclusion, I would like to remind you that, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, in Canada, in 1976, one-tenth of persons with the highest incomes had incomes 31 times greater than one-tenth of the poorest individuals. In 2007, the incomes of the richest Canadians are 82 times greater than those of the poorest. These figures show that matters are deteriorating, instead of improving.
As previously mentioned, and as the Standing Committee on the Status of Women itself has noted, single-parent families headed by women are among the most vulnerable in Canada and the most likely to be poor. It is therefore imperative that measures be taken soon to remedy the situation and to ensure that all Canadian families can actually meet their essential needs.