Status of Women Committee on April 19th, 2007

[Cecilia Diocson]

Before 1993, they could come as independent immigrants and practise their professions. In fact, in the seventies a lot of Filipino women nurses came to Canada or were recruited to come and work. At this particular time, without any points, it is the only way for them to come.

But of course they're able to integrate into the community and practise their professions. I don't think practising professions is the problem. I think the problem is there are many barriers for these women to go back to their professions.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Do you know why this program was changed in 1993? Was any reason given to Filipino women as to why they could not work as nurses anymore?

[Cecilia Diocson]

As far as our studies have shown, these women have come under the live-in caregiver program because of cheap labour. For example, Filipino nurses work for 24 hours as home support workers.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

It is some kind of hidden slavery.

[Cecilia Diocson]

Yes. When we look at their work, they're only earning $1.50 to $2 an hour.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

There are about 400,000 people from the Philippines in Canada right now. How many are—

[Cecilia Diocson]

There are over 400,000 Filipinos in Canada today.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Do they do this work? How many work as live-in caregivers?

[Cecilia Diocson]

There are over 100,000 women who have come under this program since it was started in 1981. It means the domestic workers make up about one-third of the community.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Since these women have limited means, I suppose there is a lot of fraud with this program. Do we find jobs for these women? How do they arrive in Canada from the Philippines? Is it agencies or the government? How is it done?

[Cecilia Diocson]

I'm sorry. I need translation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

The question was how do these women come under the live-in caregiver program? Is there an agency to facilitate it?

[Cecilia Diocson]

There are a lot of employment agencies right now catering to the recruitment of these Filipino women.

Through studies in our community, we have also seen a lot of scams happening within this program. For example, they'll sign a paper stating they have an employer here in Canada, but when they arrive, there's no employer. They're immediately terminated from their employment without even starting to work. If they only have 24 months to complete their work here in Canada, within three years, a lot of time is wasted looking for other employment, plus it's very expensive because they have to pay about $4,000 to $5,000 to get employment here in Canada.

We see this as a legislative property in terms of the condition of these women. Without even receiving any salary, they already have debt.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Thank you Ms. Diocson.

I would like to talk to Ms. Fast about another issue I am deeply concerned about, and that is the seniors. Do you think it would be possible to have an inverted maternity leave? I am using this phrase because it is said that, when our parents grow older, they become like children. Could a maternity leave at the other end of one's professional life, and not at the beginning, make it easier to care for elderly parents or handicapped children who also grow older? Leave for compassionate reasons and family related responsibilities is not enough, since it is restricted to cases when death will certainly occur. If we had a program of this kind, could we make sure women do not lose their pension fund, and so on?

[Janet Fast]

Yes, I think theoretically at least it is possible, and it has been discussed among researchers and with various policy departments. It is somewhat more difficult to implement in terms of establishing eligibility criteria, but it would certainly go a long way towards dealing with some of the long-term consequences.

The other policy measure that has been discussed is something equivalent to the child care drop-out provision for the Canada Pension Plan. At the moment, there is no equivalent for circumstances when you take care of an adult person. You have to leave the labour force to drop that period out of your Canada Pension Plan calculations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you.

Mrs. Smith, you have seven minutes.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Madam Chair, I would like to share my time with Ms. Davidson. Both of us, then, will have an opportunity to ask a question.

Thank you for coming today. Your presentations were very insightful. I would like to go straight to a question for Ms. Diocson. You gave a very compelling presentation. At this committee we have talked about just centring on migrant workers and about having a whole study just in that area, because we find that the intensive studies we have done have been very helpful. Do you think this would be a valuable thing for the status of women committee to do?

[Cecilia Diocson]

I think it's really important to continue to fund policy research. We have done this for over ten years now.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Excuse me for interrupting you, but I'm talking about a complete study. We're not talking about policy. We're talking about studies, getting witnesses like you in.

[Cecilia Diocson]

Yes, I think it's really important. I think we need to have more stories and more testimonies, to actually have more women come and really tell their stories about their experiences.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Then that does really help in developing policy, when you hear a variety of people with the same kind of—

[Cecilia Diocson]

There are many—

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

How much time do I have, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

You have five and a half minutes.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Having said that, in terms of a study such as that, would you be a resource to bring more people in to help us hear these stories?