Status of Women Committee on April 19th, 2010

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

I don't mean to rush you, but I really am anxious for a quick recommendation from everybody.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Does anyone from the federation have a quick answer?

[Dr. Kathleen Gartke]

I would like to see continued encouragement for developing this climate change we've been talking about: encouraging the family-friendly work environment and removing the stigmas attached to people availing themselves of these policies, which have been put there for very specific reasons.

If I could have one new wish on the list, it would be for some social support for leaves of absence for caring.

[Dr. Anne Doig]

I think Dr. Gartke has said it all, but really it is a question of mentorship and leadership from those of us who are currently active in the profession to achieve those kinds of goals and specifically to address the systemic issues that are still barriers. We have come a long way, but we have a long way still that we could go.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Do you think doctors have achieved pay equity?

[Dr. Anne Doig]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Nancy?

[Nancy Peckford]

I'm going to allow Giovanna to answer this one.

[Giovanna Mingarelli]

I think it is really important to get more young women involved in the political process at a young age. We can do that through mentorship programs as well and by making sure that we are engaging young women in conversations that interest them. So we've experienced at Equal Voice that women under the age of 16 don't like the word “politics”. It turns them off. So how do we reinvent the conversations that we are having with young women?

[Nancy Peckford]

I would say, in addition, that I think there are some systemic barriers that women are up against, and I think you have all lived those. I think we have to have an honest conversation about what those are at the nomination level in terms of media representation, in terms of access to financing. Also, what we are hearing from many of you is that there are women out there who would really like to run but their professional responsibilities or their family responsibilities are not flexible enough to allow for that. So what does that look like in terms of making sure that enough women run, so that enough women win, so that we could have the parity that we seek?

[Jennifer Beeman]

On the question of the wage gap, we are doing a statistical study of women's wages in Quebec, from every possible angle. On the question of pay equity between men and women, unionization is really the determining factor. It is a constant. We ourselves take a particular interest in women at the bottom of the ladder, where the gap is huge. It is really a question of pay equity. At the bottom of the ladder, it is not the same jobs held at all, and that's why we are interested in directing women into non-traditional occupations. Those jobs truly offer more for women who have only a secondary school diploma or a college diploma. We have to get the people working on this issue together. Some people are working on it, but it is so scattered. We have to bring them together around the strategy, which is why funding is important. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

For the Conservatives, Ms. Brown.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have questions for all of you, but I know I'm not going to get through them all, so I am going to bundle them and see if we can get through some. First of all, I would like to correct something my colleague Ms. Mathyssen said, because equality was put back into the status of women mandate. So I just want to clear that up.

I want to address one of my questions to our physicians. We're talking about life balance, work balance, and our government has introduced and put in place legislation where people who are self-employed, as physicians are, can now access our EI benefits. They can buy into that program. Do you see that as being beneficial now, that women can have access to those EI funds so that they can take the time they need, should they choose to start a family? I'll let you comment on that one.

My next question is to Equal Voice. We had some discussion at a meeting just a few weeks ago about how we can engage women at an earlier point in the democratic process. Many of my colleagues, in fact all of my colleagues, will have riding associations with whom they are involved, and regardless of our political stripe, we all have an interest in engaging our constituents in that riding association. I had my annual general meeting just a couple of weeks ago, and I'm very pleased to report that the number of women who are sitting on my board are equal to the number of men, and I think that is a remarkable opportunity for them.

I'm hoping to see younger women being developed through that process. As a parliamentarian, I believe I have a responsibility to be looking to the future generation to whom I'm going to be passing the torch. I have a responsibility to be developing those young women. So I wonder if you could talk about how you are going to be engaging young women in the political process at the association level.

My third question is to CIAFT. I know that you had a project in 2007 where I believe you received about $90,000 from Status of Women Canada. If the time allows, could you report on the progress of that particular project?

I open the floor.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Okay, we'll begin with the physicians. Yes, Dr. Doig.

[Dr. Anne Doig]

Very, very quickly, and this will be the last question I'll be able to stay for. My thanks to you, Madam Chair, for allowing me to leave.

I think it is an improvement that the benefits that are available under programs such as EI will be extended to self-employed professionals. Certainly when I had my children there was no such thing as maternity leave; I had to self-insure. As a result, my leaves were only between two and three months at the longest for each of the children.

Having said that, these are benefits that some of us have negotiated with our provincial governments. In fact, about eight years ago the first of the provinces began to have parental leave negotiated into physicians' contracts, and that has been available to both males and females. So yes, there are some advantages to that kind of federal legislation, but it's not the whole picture.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

There is a choice now you're able to access.

[Dr. Anne Doig]

There is a choice.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'll move now to Equal Voice.

[Nancy Peckford]

Giovanna and I will both answer this. I remain very concerned that media representations of women politicians are such that younger women are entirely turned off from the political process. I think we have to really examine how the media in Canada represents gutsy younger women who are part of our political system. I think that's an issue we have to confront head-on.

I'll let Giovanna answer the rest.

[Giovanna Mingarelli]

Thank you for your question.

I think at the local level it's very important to engage young women where they are. Within your riding, at the district level, it's very important to find out what young women are talking about, what they're doing, where they're coming together, whether it be schools, colleges, or campus clubs. Then find a way to communicate to them on their terms, whether that be at speaking panels, or coffee shops, or using social media, which is a whole new form of communication. There are statistics that show 34% of the 85% who are digital users in Canada are young people between the ages of 18 and 24. So how do we start targeting demographics--especially young women--in different and transformative ways?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I guess we're going to have to go over to....

You have 30 seconds.

[Nathalie Goulet]

We did receive $90,000 spread over 18 months to do a project on the first call for proposals, but that was an entirely different subject. It was about reconciling family and work life. In our member groups in Quebec, we trained women for returning to the labour market. They received training about their rights in terms of reconciling family and work life under Quebec's Labour Standards Act and on various strategies they could use to be able to reconcile those two aspects of their lives. It was an entirely different project. For the fourth call for proposals, our project on predominantly male occupations was rejected.

As well, I would like to add that on the question of collective rights it is extremely important that the federal government offer funding. Quebec does it under certain government departments. I know this is not the first time the committee has considered this question, but it is important that national groups like ours, that do not offer services directly to the public, that work at the political level and come to meet with you here, are able to get adequate funding. This has unfortunately not been the case since 2006, under the two funding programs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Merci, Madame Goulet.

Now Monsieur Desnoyers for the Bloc.

[Luc Desnoyers, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have three questions. My first is for Ms. Goulet. I want to come back to the non-traditional occupations program. I think it's important for women to have access to that tool, particularly when we know what has happened in therms of losses resulting from the crisis. Women have dropped back down to the bottom of the ladder. They are in the worst of situations, when it comes to precarious and part-time jobs. So they have lost ground, and not just by losing the Federal Pay Equity Act. When you have losses like that, it is tragic.

My colleague asked you a question about the amount of money in this program, so I would like to know a little more about that.

My second question is for Dr. Gartke and relates to surgery. Occasionally, in the media, we see a kind of violence associated with your specialized occupation, surgery. I'm talking about violence between work colleagues or violence in the home. How can we fix that? Have tools been provided for that on the job? I would like to hear you on that subject, on your occupation.

Ms. Pageau, you talked about several things. How can we help women? Your union covers several industries. We are not talking strictly about construction, but several industries. You talked about affordable child care, how we could develop that. Everybody talks about pay equity, employment equity. We know that we need strong legislation to help women, because if we are not equipped, we will not advance.

As the people from the CIAFT said, we have not made progress for several years. They are not the first to tell us that. I would like to hear you thoughts on that subject.

[Nathalie Goulet]

In Quebec, to get the economy back on its feet after the crisis, the Quebec government announced a massive infrastructure investment program in Quebec municipalities. It is a $42 million program, with no access to equality program for women. When the president of the Conseil du statut de la femme, Christiane Pelchat, pointed this fact out in the media in Quebec, she was ridiculed by a lot of the media.

So we see how far we have to go in terms of raising awareness and coordinating the partners' efforts in this regard. Nobody talks about access to equality programs anymore. There are various laws, it's complicated. In Quebec, we still have pay equity, fortunately for us, although there is still a lot left to do to uphold the Pay Equity Act and to achieve tangible equity in half of the companies and SMEs in Quebec.

That is the other facet. We analyze it this way. There is recognizing the value of women's jobs, which inevitably calls for a pay equity act and unionization of women workers in industries where they are not unionized. The other facet is employment equity and access for women to predominantly male occupations, where there is a huge amount of work to do. As I was saying just now, there is a myth to break down. We have to make this situation known and ensure that the partners work together on this issue.