Status of Women Committee on April 2nd, 2009

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Order.

Madam Charette is the Deputy Minister for the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, and Mr. Thompson is the Associate Assistant Deputy Minister for the Skills and Employment Branch. We want to thank you for coming at such short notice.

We'll begin. You well know the drill. Madam Charette, you have ten minutes to present, and then of course there will be questions.

Thank you.

[Janice Charette, Deputy Minister, Department of Human Resources and Skills Development]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It's nice to see you again, actually. It is a pleasure for me to be with the committee today.

Thank you for inviting me to speak about the status of women in the labour market.

As you know, I have with me Mr. Thompson, who has appeared before this committee previously on this matter, and together we will do our very best to respond to inquiries and questions from committee members.

As the Deputy Minister of Department of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, I am focused on ensuring that our department is supporting Canadians affected by the economic downturn in the labour market and supporting Canadians who are vulnerable. I see today as an opportunity to discuss with members of this committee how the downturn is affecting certain groups, such as women, and what supports are available.

What I want to start with is giving you a scan of how Canadian women fare in the labour market and sum up how their situation compares internationally.

Canadian women have made remarkable strides forward in both education and the labour market in recent years.

They are consequently relatively well positioned as Canada begins to experience the effects of the unprecedented global economic recession. With respect to education, Canadian women have the highest rate of post-secondary educational attainment among all of the OECD countries: in 2006, over half, or 51%, of Canadian women ages 25 to 64 had completed post-secondary education.

I know a lot of witnesses have come before the committee quoting statistics to you, so one of the things I asked my officials to do is to mark in my statement the source of the statistics. If there are questions on these, we'd be happy to work with committee staff as well to provide any supporting materials that might be required. Let me continue on post-secondary education.

Post-secondary attainment is even higher among young women. Women represent a clear majority—60%—of recent Canadian university graduates. Among people aged 25 to 34, fully one-third, 33%, of women have a university degree, compared with one-quarter, 25%, of men.

These high levels of educational attainment have positioned the younger generation of Canadian women very strongly to meet the needs of the labour market in a globally competitive, knowledge-based economy. On the labour market side, women's labour market participation and employment rates have risen strongly over time and are now converging towards those of men. Women's unemployment rates have been below those of men since the early 1990s.

Canada's overall labour market performance compares favourably with that of other OECD countries. The proportion of Canadian women aged 15 to 64 who were employed—70%—in 2007 was the highest among G-7 countries and sixth among all OECD countries.

The incidence of long-term unemployment among women in Canada is one of the very lowest in the OECD, at 6.3% for unemployment 12 months and over.

However, there is still room for improvement, particularly, I would say, on the income side. Members of this committee will be familiar with the statistics that women still earn less than men in Canada: on an hourly basis, women now earn 84%, on average, of the hourly earnings of men. However, the hourly earnings gap has narrowed since 2000, in part due to the rising educational attainment among women.

Among young university-educated women working full time, the gap is essentially zero. As women have moved into more highly paid occupations, their earnings have increased relative to those of men, resulting in a narrowing of the gender pay gap.

Nevertheless, the overall gender wage gap for Canada at 21% exceeded the OECD average in 2006. This remains obviously an ongoing source of concern and consideration. The highest rates of part-time work, which I know has been a topic of discussion in this committee, 45%, are found among young people aged 15 to 24, which probably is not a surprise given their stage of life. However, among people over 25, the incidence of part-time work is much higher among women than among men: 22% for women compared with 8% for men in our February statistics. Proportionally, among working adults 25 years of age and over, two-thirds of part-time workers are female.

Adult women are much more highly represented in part-time work than men.

Let me turn to the economic situation and its impact on women. If past experience is any guide, it shows that recessions of the 1980s and 1990s saw fewer women than men lose their jobs.

This effect was largely related to women's relatively lower representation in the goods-sector industries hardest hit by the recession, such as manufacturing, construction, and primary industries.

For example, over half of the jobs lost in the 1980s and 1990s recessions were in manufacturing, where women accounted for only 26% and 28% of employment respectively. We are seeing a similar pattern in the current recession to date.

Since October 2008, when employment losses really began, women have accounted for only 15% of net job losses, although they represent fully 47% of employment. This pattern is consistent with the current experience we're seeing in the United States and the European Union.

Older women, 55 years of age and older, have done particularly well so far. They are the only demographic group that has seen an increase in both employment and employment rates since October.

In general, women under 25 were underrepresented amongst cumulative net job losses. This, again, is highly related to women's relatively low representation in the goods sector, where they account for only 22% of total employment and where employment losses to date have been concentrated. Fully 65% of the net job losses in Canada since the onset of the downturn in October 2008 have been in the goods sector.

Now I'd like to outline a few points about the government's response. During this unsettled economic time, employment insurance is the first line of defence for those who have lost their jobs.

Let me first note that El is an insurance system for the loss of employment income. Access is determined by individual work patterns of contributors, not by gender.

Allow me to delve a bit more deeply into eligibility for and duration of EI benefits and how those are determined. Through the variable entrance requirement, the current EI program has built-in flexibility specifically designed to respond automatically to changes in local labour markets. As the unemployment rises, entrance requirements ease and the duration of benefits increases.

To be more specific, the eligibility for and duration of employment insurance benefits is based on the number of insured hours worked and the unemployment of the EI economic region in which an individual lives. It's not a province or a territory; it's broken down on the basis of EI economic regions.

This ensures that the amount of assistance provided increases as the unemployment rate rises and that support adjusts to the changing needs of regions and communities.

Women's access to regular benefits, which are regular benefits associated with paid employment, is high. According to Statistics Canada's employment insurance coverage survey, in 2007, 81% of women who had been paying employment insurance premiums and were then laid off or quit with cause were eligible for regular benefits.

A further finding from this survey may also be of interest to the committee. It showed that of all unemployed individuals, relatively fewer women than men, 9.3% as compared to 9.8%, were unable to qualify for employment insurance due to insufficient insured hours.

As we know, many women must juggle work and family responsibilities. The EI program contains many features of particular importance to women in light of their broader societal role and the unpaid work they do with respect to caregiving. The 50 weeks of EI maternity and parental benefits plays a critical role in supporting Canadian families by providing temporary income replacement for parents of newborn or newly adopted children. These benefits provide flexibility for many women and men to stay home to nurture their child during that important first year.

The 2007 EI Commission's monitoring and assessment report—I know the committee has heard of that report previously—shows that women accounted for more than 86% of claimants receiving parental benefits. Other evidence from that same report demonstrates the many features of the EI program that are a support to women. It indicates that the current replacement rate and the duration of maternity and parental benefits works well for most Canadians. On average, parents use 95% of the 50 weeks of benefits that are available.

The EI program also provides compassionate benefits to take time off work to care for a critically ill family member. Again, the majority of compassionate care claimants, 76%, are women. Women's access to these EI special benefits, as we call them, as distinct from regular benefits, is very high. There are 97% of women working full time who have sufficient hours of work to qualify for special benefits. This is the same level of access as men who are working full time.

The survey also indicates that for women working part time, 66% have sufficient hours to qualify for special benefits, compared with 59% of men.

It is important to note that individuals working part time for a full year can qualify for EI regular benefits with as few as 8 to 14 hours of work per week, or in the case of special benefits, where we have a flat entry requirement, 12 hours of work per week.

Another important feature of the EI program of benefit to women is when they return to the workforce after an absence to raise their children. We have provisions in the EI program that would require a new entrant or re-entrant into the workforce to accumulate 910 hours of insured work, and that is a provision that we do not apply to women returning to the workforce after an absence to raise their children. The EI Act includes, as I said, a specific provision allowing re-entrant mothers to qualify for benefits with the same number of hours as are needed by other workers in their region under the variable entrance requirement.

Overall, women are net beneficiaries of the EI program. They receive more in benefits than they contribute in premiums.

The government is now looking at how best to provide self-employed individuals with access to EI, maternity, and parental benefits and is in the process of establishing an expert panel to consult with Canadians on this topic.

Let me turn to Canada's economic action plan. I mentioned earlier the flexibility of the EI program in responding to changing economic conditions and the adjustments the government has made to meet the needs of Canadians. Through Budget 2009 the government has introduced Canada's economic action plan, which includes new temporary measures that provide nationally the advantages of an extra five weeks of EI benefits, which were previously offered as part of a pilot project only in specific regions with high unemployment. These measures also increase the maximum number of weeks available, from 45 weeks to 50 weeks in regions of high unemployment.

As a result of these adjustments, in just the first year, some 400,000 El claimants could benefit.

These are departmental estimates that we have provided.

In addition, the government has introduced a 14-week extension to the duration of work-sharing agreements, one of the provisions in the employment insurance program. It's designed to help companies facing a temporary shutdown in business to avoid layoffs and preserve jobs by offering EI income support to employees who are willing to reduce the hours in their work week.

Just last week the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development announced $60 million being invested to improve the delivery of employment insurance, including hiring additional staff, and to support the implementation of these measures. The announcement also included improving the speed of payment to work-sharing claimants by exempting them from submitting the biweekly declarations that we have been asking of these participants in the past, except when they have exceptional conditions to report, such as, for example, other employment.

The government has announced as well a number of other measures, including support for aboriginal peoples, older workers, and communities and training assistance overall, that are helping to prepare women and men for long-term employment.

In conclusion, Madam Chair and members of the committee, much progress has been made to improve economic security for women. The measures I have outlined are helping to achieve this goal, and EI does play a central role in this regard. In addition, solid analysis on a wide range of issues, including gender, is key to fulfilling our departmental mandate. And given this mandate, it's important to emphasize that gender-based analysis is integrated as a matter of course into our policy and program work in the department.

EI is responding to the needs of both women and men in Canada, and we will continue to examine the impact of the EI program and how it is helping Canadian workers adjust to labour market challenges and changes, particularly, I would add here, in the face of pretty unprecedented economic conditions.

I'd like to thank the standing committee on behalf of the department for its reports over the years. The observations and the recommendations and the work of this committee have provided valuable assistance in shaping policy as it relates to women and have been an important input to our policy development process.

Thank you. I would be pleased to respond to your questions, with Mr. Thompson's assistance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Madam Charette, for your testimony.

Now we begin with Madam Neville, for seven minutes.

I know that Madame Charette is well aware, but the seven minutes includes questions and answers.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

If I have time, I will share my time with my colleague Madame Zarac.

Let me begin first by thanking you for coming and for a very thoughtful and comprehensive presentation. It's obvious that a lot of work went into it, and I appreciate it.

I have lots of questions, though. Madame Charette, right at the end you referenced gender-based analysis. You or your staff have undoubtedly been following the work of this committee and the various recommendations that have been coming forward.

Let me just back up. We're hearing much in the House right now that this was a program designed by the previous government in 1997, and the response was that times are different and we need to adapt. When you made recommendations, was a gender-based analysis done on the various options, like lowering the accessibility, like a common number of hours across the country? Did you do a thorough gender-based analysis on the various options that were available? Then I'll follow up.

[Janice Charette]

As members of the committee will know, the advice we provide to ministers is not something we discuss openly. I can tell you the process, and I think that's probably the nature of your question, Ms. Neville.

We look at a wide range of considerations in terms of conducting our policy analysis and providing our best advice. One of the things we rely on is the report of the EI Commission, the monitoring and assessment report, which contains the gender impacts of the EI program as part of that analysis. So that is a consideration. We also look at what's happening in the labour market and the results of the labour force survey; gender is part of that analysis as well.

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

So you're telling me that analysis was done on various options.

[Janice Charette]

It's built into our analysis. I wouldn't say I could produce the gender-based analysis for you; it is one of the many considerations we look at.

In our department we don't have a special unit that just does gender-based analysis. It really is built into the work of the department across all our program and policy branches. So it is one of the lines of analysis as opposed to a distinct piece of how we do our business.

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

I'm trying to get at how prevalent it is in the decision-making process. I realize you can't tell us what advice you give to a minister, but cost is clearly a big concern and how it will hit different regions. How prevalent is the issue of gender in making recommendations and decisions?

[Janice Charette]

It's hard to give a global answer to that because the gender impacts differ across programs. For example, in the employment insurance program and the changes the government introduced as part of the economic action plan and the Budget Implementation Act, we looked at, exactly as you said, cost impacts, sectoral impacts, regional impacts. Gender impacts were part of that, but they wouldn't necessarily have been as prevalent or as high a priority as in a program that is much more focused on providing direct assistance to families or child care, for instance.

The nature of the EI changes are designed to reflect what's going on in the labour market, so we look at the workers who are being affected by the economic downturn. We look at the forestry sector, what's going on in the manufacturing sector, the construction sector. How that impacts on women, I would say, is built into that analysis, but because of the nature of the work we are doing, the primary focus is really on some of those other factors, just given the changes in EI and the nature of the program. To go to the heart of your question, it was built into the analysis.

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

On a totally different line, what are you finding in terms of EI exhaustees? Is there a prevalence among men or women in terms of using their employment insurance?

[Janice Charette]

Again I'll refer to the monitoring and assessment report, which is a report for 2007. The report for 2008 has now been provided to the minister by the Employment Insurance Commission, and the minister will be tabling that in the House shortly.

I apologize, I can't quite remember the timeframe for your report, Madam Chair, but you and committee members and members of your research staff may also want to look at the 2008 monitoring and assessment report, because it will have an update. Of course, it will be in advance of the economic downturn, so I think we have to take it with a caveat.

It depends on whether we're looking at regular benefits or special benefits. In terms of the special benefits--

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

We're only looking at regular benefits right now.

[Janice Charette]

Under regular benefits we know that on average men used about 19.1 weeks and women used 18.8 weeks.

It is true that a larger proportion of women than men exhaust their benefits: 34.4% of women used up all the weeks of benefits they were entitled to receive in 2005-06 and 26.3% of men.

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

And those are the most current figures you have?

[Janice Charette]

The figures in the updated monitoring and assessment report will update that. They'll have to be tabled in the House before they can be made publicly available.

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

Do I have more time, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, you have 30 seconds.

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

The realities, as we all know, are quite different right now. Can you give us any thoughts in terms of the changing realities that we're dealing with and how government should be responding, what recommendations...?

[Janice Charette]

You can appreciate, Ms. Neville, the thoughts I have on how government should be reacting would be advice I'd provide to the minister.

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

All right, I'll leave it there.

[Janice Charette]

I can tell you, though, that I think adding the extra five weeks of benefits, the additional duration of employment insurance benefits that was passed with the Budget Implementation Act, is designed to get at your point around exhaustion of benefits. It will be some time—at least five weeks—before we'll see the effects of exhaustion and be in a position to see whether or not any additional steps are required.

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

I just want to put it on the record that I'm equally concerned about access to benefits. I think with the realities we're dealing with today, that issue isn't being addressed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I don't think we're going to be able to go two rounds again. The time gets eaten up quickly.

Madam Deschamps.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Madam Demers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Okay.

Madam Demers.