Status of Women Committee on May 26th, 2010

[Shannon Phillips]

There's nothing that precludes new organizations from applying; however, when old organizations fit the criteria, they should also be funded.

As to the anecdote, I do not think it's fair to paint us as authors of our own demise. We have done many fundraisers. We have relationships with the credit unions. We have relationships with the service clubs, with the private sector, with aboriginal organizations, and with the municipality. So we are a longstanding group that has done that work in our community. We are not a charity, so we don't get the big dollar donations for which people get tax writeoffs. However, we have done that work of being embedded in our community and we will continue to do it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Madame Demers from the Bloc, you have three minutes.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Phillips, you surprised me with your answer to Mr. Calandra that the mental health group was not a women's group. I am looking at the list of groups that have received funding and I see that some of them are not women's groups. I see the Association acadienne et francophone des aînées et aînés du Nouveau-Brunswick, for example. I do not know how many other cases like that there are. I would like to know which foundation received a million dollars.

Do you not find it a little bit strange that private concerns, in addition to being eligible for tax deductions, can get grants that should go to women's groups in order, you would think, to help women? I have a hard time understanding that. The seniors should have received assistance from the New Horizons for Seniors program, not from Status of Women Canada. Can you provide me with any information about that?

[Johanne Perron]

It is a good project, though. It is not that it is not a good project, but there are other sources of funding. Already established groups who have started a job and who want to finish it have been denied funding. That needs to be looked at again.

I think that it is important to let new groups in. In a way, we were a new group because we are relatively young compared with the groups here. But groups did not get in willy-nilly. We had to establish our credentials and establish a partnership. The government told us that we were its partner. When you have a partner, you do not say, three months after the deadline, that there is not going to be any funding. The relationship has to be a little fairer than that.

[Shannon Phillips]

I'm sure mental health is doing wonderful work. They are not a women's organization, but nobody is saying that new organizations shouldn't qualify. What we are saying is that 25 years of accountable use of Status of Women funds and successful completion of projects should count for something.

[Jane Stinson]

I think government does need to look at how social needs are being met in this country. There are many programs where more money should be going, and groups that should be getting money from other sources shouldn't have to come to Status of Women Canada. There's no doubt there are huge needs to provide services and meet the needs of the population, but the government should be funding many programs to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have actually 10 seconds.

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

What about this foundation and its million dollars?

[Jennifer Beeman]

It is on the list. It is public information that I got from a Status of Women Canada news release. The foundation has a wonderful program, but I forget the name. The information is public. It has to do with working with young girls who are victims of sexual abuse. There is no problem, it is a wonderful program. But why such a large amount from a limited fund? The same money could have funded 10 groups. It raises questions about the fairness of the decisions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you. That's it. I'm sorry, Madam Demers. Three minutes is a short time.

Ms. Mathyssen for the NDP.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This comes from Ms. Brown's question. She talked about the Lions Club funding a project and that there could be restrictions that were connected to their perspective there, their ethical outlook, or whatever. I wonder if you have faced any of that in terms of your community fundraising—someone who says, “Oh, no, you might be funding something I don't approve of or supporting something I don't like as an organization.”

[Johanne Perron]

We are working to promote pay equity. So we cannot expect to get funding from most employers. It is quite difficult to approach them. We have asked to meet employers. Sometimes, it is interesting and positive; other times, it is interesting, but not so positive. I do not think that we are going to find funding from employers easily, given that we are promoting pay equity, equal pay for equal work. For employers, of course, the fewer restrictions there are, the less money they have to spend and the better they like it.

[Shannon Phillips]

We've never faced any of those kinds of restrictions. We are pretty roundly viewed as a fairly credible voice in the community, and we've demonstrated to the community accountability in using funds and direct results.

[Jane Stinson]

One of the restrictions we've faced is from foundations. We've tried to find funding from foundations, and again, foundations are very specific in what they'll fund. Our programs and what we're trying to do didn't fit into their criteria, so at both an individual and an institutional level you can encounter problems.

[Jennifer Beeman]

Our funding is diversified; it comes from several sources. We have never been funded by our provincial funding agencies—never.

[Johanne Perron]

I think that is the case in most provinces. Provincial governments do not fund all the groups involved in defending rights, for example, or even groups that do the same kind of work as we used to do with Status of Women Canada: equipping women to better understand how to achieve pay equity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds.

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

Canada has fallen from 7th to 25th place in terms of our international reputation regarding the promotion of gender equality. Is it because we've lost advocacy and research and the things that women and organizations depended on?

[Jane Stinson]

Yes, that would be one reason.

[Jennifer Beeman]

There is also a belief that we can't go backwards when in fact we can. We've seen fields in which there is a declining number of women. In computer science, for very complicated reasons, there are fewer and fewer women. In 1991, a third of the students in computer science were women, and now it's down to under 20%. We have to look at how we can go backwards in a field that is going to be so important.

There is a very limited understanding of where women are in our society.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Ms. Beeman.

Now we will go to Ms. Wong for the Conservatives.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you for coming.

We have come to the point of starting to talk about why other organizations are getting the funding, so it is really unfair that we are not able to have those people here to tell us why they think they got the funding.

We also discussed the fact that it seems we look at the names of associations or agencies that get the money and say these are not women's groups, but we are now looking at projects that help women. For example, if there is a seniors group that is helping senior women, I don't know why Status of Women should not fund them. Similarly, with immigrant societies, where they also work specifically on a project--and not a whole society--aimed at helping immigrant women, it makes sense to me that Status of Women should really fund that.

There are lines where you approach different funding organizations. For example, a youth group in my riding got New Horizons money. I was surprised at the beginning, but they explained to me that their purpose is to get seniors out and have youth help them. That makes sense to me that it is a seniors program.

I stress again and again, without those people, who have excellent ideas, coming before us to tell us why they deserve the funding, we don't have the whole picture.

I'd like to ask a question. Have you tried again? Are you ready or prepared to try again? If you know the criteria and you have the ability to communicate with the ministry...have you tried again? Did you reapply?

[Jane Stinson]

We can't reapply quite yet.

[Shannon Phillips]

There's no call for proposals.

[Jane Stinson]

No. You have to wait at least a year. God knows, maybe it will be longer, and yes, we are trying to meet with the representatives of Status of Women Canada to talk about the need for funding. Absolutely.