Status of Women Committee on Feb. 26th, 2009

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Madame Demers.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Madam Chair, we have not seen an economic crisis like this since the 1920s or 30s. Back then, the social fabric was more tightly woven and families helped each other. Today, the social fabric is very weak. The people who suffer the most are women. We have seen the statistics showing that only 28% of women aged 15 to 34 have access to employment insurance, and the situation is the same for women earning less than $10 an hour, and the figure is 27% in the case of women who work part-time. I think these are the women Ms. Deschamps wants to be sure we can help quickly. The goal is for them to be able to get financial support to meet their families' needs and their own needs.

Madam Chair, I am aware that a much broader study has to be done, but the fact is that people are suffering while we do that study and make our decisions. We here are earning nice salaries, and we can afford to do that, but the people in their homes who have nothing to meet their children's needs, they need us to act quickly. Those people are the reason why I would hope that we will act quickly.

The motion asks simply that the Minister consider the eligibility criteria so that more women have access to employment insurance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Madam Mathyssen.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to point out that there is some precedence for this kind of motion. We've done it before from this committee and reported to the House.

I feel the frustration of Madame Deschamps in many ways. This committee has discussed these issues over and over again in the past three years, but we haven't been able to move this government. We haven't been able to touch the heart of this government and move these issues forward. So at this point in time, I think a debate in the House, in light of the crisis we face, is a positive step. We hear these things in this committee, but they're not heard beyond this committee, and I would like them to be heard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Madame Boucher.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

It was earlier.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

She had put her hand up.

Is there any other further debate on this?

Madame Deschamps, would you like to conclude?

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

I think it will be relatively brief. Everything has been said.

The main purpose of this motion is to put more pressure on the government or the Minister of Human Resources. I am not expecting miracles. I know that it won't be done in the next few weeks. As my colleagues and I have said, we have been talking about this problem for three years. The current economic crisis is a serious one. I come from a region that has been hard hit by the forestry crisis. I see too many families who come to the end of their benefits, or after, and are no longer entitled to them because the scheme is too stringent. Then they are forced to sell what they own, to leave the region and go into exile—because that is really what it is—after all those years. Those people have to leave their families and their homes to go and find work in unfamiliar regions. If we want to stimulate the economy, we have to take action quickly, or we will see our regions decline.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Madame Deschamps.

I will call for the vote, if there's no further debate on this issue.

(Motion negatived)

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We have five minutes.

Ms. Morgan, the analyst, has drawn up a work plan, which shows what will happen in weeks. On one side of the work plan there are weeks and in the middle it talks about themes, so she has divided the weeks into themes and brought together the names of people who fit into the themes from all of your lists.

It is not in both languages yet. We will ensure that this is translated and sent to you.

The list of people who will present that fit under the themes are put in one column, and we have put in brackets the parties that suggested them. So as we do a theme and as we do a week, there is a way of finding out that on a ratio of three to one...let us imagine that the people we have received so far under that date and under that theme only come from three political parties; we will allow a fourth political party to put their person in under that theme. So you will have a period of time between now and the next meeting to maybe suggest those people to fill it in. Basically what we will try to do, therefore, is to ensure that there are about four presenters on every theme in every meeting and that each one of them is well represented from the four parties here.

So the fairness will be addressed. It will show us how the themes will work. Amongst them, we believe, given what we heard today from Mr. Shillington and given what Madame Deschamps has brought forward, we should ask the department, HRSDC, to present, to bring some of the reports that Mr. Shillington has done for the department, and to give Statistics Canada the ability to come and give us some of the information that Ms. Davidson and others said they didn't have. We will also have people from Quebec come and tell us about their self-employed schemes in Quebec. So we will have a theme that is based on government departmental representation that will give us data, give us facts, etc.

Now you would look at this and decide whether you believe there is another department that we have missed. Let us know about that; we will take steps to do that. Then we need to set aside an extra day for the round table on the academics alone. We haven't fit a time for that, so we need to ask you to set aside a day for that, and to look at the number of people who were listed here as academics at the round table and find that balance on the ratio we talked about, to have all parties have people come in to present at that round table.

So you will see it's an excellent job by Ms. Morgan. It deals with fairness, it deals with themes, it deals with timelines, and it allows everyone to have input, to get their party's person on that theme to come in. So we will send it to you when it is translated.

Ms. Hoeppner.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

The only question I have is on the themes. I think it's important that we discuss the order of importance: how the decisions on those themes and the order of importance are going to be made.

And are we still going to have a meeting to discuss the working plan?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, I was going to suggest that for the next meeting, instead of leaving the in camera portion of the work plan for after, we use the first half-hour to discuss this clearly.

I will quickly tell you—you will get this, but for your information and because we really need to have groups come in for the next meeting—that the very first theme would have been umbrella women's organizations.

[An hon. member]

Umbrella...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Umbrella means national—big groups like FAFIA and CRIAW and the Canadian Federation of University Women, and so on.

Women's organizations would be the—

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

My concern, as I expressed before, is that we would not have enough time to discuss the working plan. I don't want to see us bringing witnesses in until we have all agreed on a working plan, on the priority of the issues, and on how the witnesses will be determined.

I feel that's fair. I brought it forward and I know I was one of the only ones who had that concern. In fairness, I feel we need to have a solid meeting at which we discuss the working plan before we proceed with witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

What this will mean, of course, is that in the next week we will not have witnesses. I think this postpones the timelines for our plan.

Ms. Hoeppner made a suggestion. Do I have consensus from the committee that they agree with her, or do I have consensus that they do not?

May I hear from the committee, please, concerning the next meeting?

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

There must be some things that are not controversial that we can identify. We heard the urgency of moving this agenda forward today. I think we could use half an hour in camera at the beginning of the next meeting, and then let's move on with one of the groups.

I would leave it totally to those at the front to come up with a fair and balanced approach. I have every confidence—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I suggest that we use the first half-hour of the next meeting to deal with the work plan in the long term, but that we also have witnesses. I think those who are prepared to come at the drop of a hat are probably going to be the national women's organizations. You may want to suggest one to put in, because the three-to-one thing doesn't have fairness.

You will get this as soon as possible. What I'm suggesting is that we ask these women's organizations, so if you have a national women's organization you want to suggest, you may suggest it to us.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Are there any themes that have all four parties represented—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

There are. One of them would be the departments. We have no idea whether ministers and staff can come. We are at their mercy in terms of that. Other themes would be aboriginal women, women with disabilities....

Would you like us to bring forward a theme that would have everybody present? We will pick one with everybody represented, all four parties.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Good. We will do that, and then we will send this to you as soon as possible in both languages. We would like to hear back from you as soon as possible, so that if you feel your party is not represented in the theme, you could give us some names, so that we can get on with discussing this plan next week.

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.