Status of Women Committee on June 13th, 2006

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Order, please.

The area of committee business that we have on the agenda is just to bring to your attention the revised calendar.

Our next meeting will be another meeting on the study of matrimonial property rights. We have confirmed that Indian and Northern Affairs will come before us, which will give us an opportunity to clearly ask some questions.

Our policy analysts have been busy working. They will have for us draft recommendations that we can go over this coming Thursday, and bring back a draft report for approval on June 20.

Minister Prentice has agreed to come on June 22. I believe Ms. Smith is going to undertake to ensure that the minister is briefed on the draft recommendations as well. We'll have any further comments on June 20, but it would be good to get tabled in the House a report on the matrimonial property rights so that we can keep that issue moving forward.

The other various reports that were referred to this morning are being delivered to your offices now. It was specifically asked that these be delivered after people's comments so that they wouldn't be distracted from their comments this morning, as we move forward.

There has been a request for consideration from Ms. Smith to move the date of our committee to a different time slot in the fall. Again, that is completely up to the whips in terms of how they put our organizations together, but we will pass on that request, through the clerk, and see where we go from there.

If you could be thinking of any witnesses that you want to come before the committee in the fall, as we move forward on both of these studies, it would also be helpful to supply them to our research analyst.

Ms. Smith.

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

I would just mention that some members of our committee wanted the time slot of 3:30 to 5:30, or whatever it is, those two hours, simply because they have some things that are overlapping and sometimes they have to get substitutes. So it's whatever can be worked out.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

One thing that would be helpful would be for members who are having these difficulties to speak directly to the whip as well, so they can take it into consideration when the fall comes along.

Any other comments?

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

My comment is that some of us currently have 3:30 to 5:30 commitments.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Whichever time slot you go to, Madam Chair, somebody's going to have a conflict. It's the nature of things around here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

It's always a difficulty, yes, but it has been asked. They do revise the sessions for the fall anyway, so we can at least pass that on.

Any further comments?

Yes, Ms. Bourgeois.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

I am very surprised to learn that we should already be presenting a report on the matrimocial property rights of Aboriginal women. Have the members of the committee been asked if they were ready to present a report on that subject? For myself, I don't feel I'm ready for that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

When we had our last meeting, all of us were quite concerned about the whole issue of matrimonial property rights. Because both justice and aboriginal affairs had done some extensive study on the issue, with some very good recommendations that were supported by all parties...that those recommendations be brought forward for us to look at, along with some recommendations that would reinforce those, and that we would attempt to get a report into the House as quickly as possible, without redoing all of the work that's been done on the matrimonial property rights. We all agreed that it was an issue and that the work and the recommendations have been done. It was a clear opportunity for status of women to also make a statement on what we feel in regard to that issue.

The policy analysts have been doing that work since then. They are prepared to bring forward draft recommendations to our next meeting.

We'll look at those, then, Ms. Bourgeois, see if we're comfortable with what's there, and see if we want it to move forward at that particular time.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Thank you very much.

I would like to come back to a comment that was made earlier, because I found it a bit funny. Someone said that some members of the committee were frustrated. I am not frustrated, even though I sometimes speak a bit loudly, Madam Chair.

In fact, I am a bit tired of watching the canadian government do nothing about the situation of women. I have been working in this area since 1980, and I haven't seen any major advance since then. If there has been any, it would be because of the National Association of Women and the Law, of the CARA and of the AFAI.

I was rereading the blues of a meeting of this committee during which Mr. Cotler talked about legal aid. We have been talking about that for years. This the eighth meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women this morning. Will we ever see the light? Are there limits? What are they? Do we have any authority? Will our voices be heard?

We have heard witnesses who told us that women were poor, that we should have adressed the situation of aboriginal women years ago. Last week, the parliamentary secretary spoke about the minister. The UN made a statement about the Aboriginal people of Canada. What are we waiting for? Shall we have to make another study?

I am tired of all that. I am tired of hearing the members of the Committee on Social Development say things which go against what we were told this morning. Is this going to be mentioned somewhere?

We are here to represent women. I contributed to the creation of this committee so that Canadian women would be heard, not for Quebec to be heard. We have everything we need in Quebec. We have to make sure Canadian women are heard. It is possible I want to go too fast and you may not be there yet.

Ladies, are you going to do something so that women's groups and all the groups that fight poverty be heard? I am only asking you that question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I think a lot has been done. You may not tie it directly back to the status of women, but it's an opportunity for women's voices to be out there. If we didn't have this very effective committee to be able to do it, I think it would be more difficult to get the point out there.

I am very hopeful that with the assistance.... I think everybody sitting around this table wants to see some additional action continue to further the voices of women. I can clearly tell, with your passion, how much you care, and I welcome that, because I want to see us accomplish things. Hence, we are already pushing forth a report on the matrimonial property rights.

We're going to target before we adjourn, I would hope, exactly where we're going on the economic issues around women. We don't need to redo what's already been done; it's been done. We need to target it and we need to make sure that we have all the information we need. We need to make sure that our voices are being heard across Canada, and that we move on these issues. We have an obligation, as parliamentarians and as women, to do that.

I have Ms. Minna and Ms. Smith--and two minutes before we're out of this room and the next committee can come in.

Quickly, Ms. Minna and Ms. Smith.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I'm assuming that this committee is coming back to the poverty of women, or the economic security of women, in the fall, right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes, we are.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I very much want to see us put together an actual strategy that's a bit holistic in approach as opposed as to one-dimensional.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We're hoping to look at that on June 22. We would take all of what we've gotten on this file and kind of narrow it down into a couple of specific areas that have a huge impact on women. As Ms. Bourgeois mentioned, there's the EI segment of it and so on. Hopefully we'll get that done on June 22.

Ms. Smith, quickly.

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

Thank you.

On the EI issue, I think we have to make sure that we do have the presentations.

Madam Chair, I want to meet with you on this report, just very briefly, after the meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Okay, that's super.

Thank you very much.

Meeting adjourned.