Status of Women Committee on March 15th, 2010

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

My question is a little longer than usual, Madam Chair, so bear with me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You're going to have to deal with it.

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

Thank you.

Minister, we know that Canadian women are desperate for something. They're looking for leadership, they're looking for advocacy, and what you've indicated today as what you've provided is an outline. We've been meeting with women's groups, both in Ottawa and across the country, and we've been told that you don't respond to the issues of housing, education, access to education, pay equity, or child care, or a lot of other things. What credibility can you have with Canadian women when you haven't delivered on the one thing you said you would, which is an identifiable, articulated action plan with goals, timelines, players, partners, and projected outcomes?

And Minister, I'm going to say to you that there is an elephant in this room that no one is speaking to. Do you truly believe that you have the credibility to speak to and for the women in this country?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you very much. I have highlighted the action plan that our government did put in place. I am the first minister who is dedicated to the status of women, and I work proudly alongside all of my colleagues, not only implementing our action plan with the three pillars of focus at the agency, with the increased level in funding to the grassroots organizations: a focus on any violence against women, a focus on women's economic security, and a focus on women and leadership and democracy. I believe in the good work that I have been doing, and I have faith.

To be really honest with you, it's been an honour, and it's a pleasure to work with the number of women that I have across the country, to see first-hand the progress that is being made, by having an opportunity to visit these specific projects, to meet not only with the women who are delivering the work to these women but with those who have reached success as a result of the work that is being done. I have faith in that work. I believe in the work that I'm doing. I've seen it first-hand, and I believe in our government's approach in supporting those grassroots organizations across the country who we believe are best equipped to develop and to deliver to those who are the most vulnerable.

For years we talked about and studied and looked at what needed to be done. When I worked in rape crisis years ago, the statistics on violence against women—then lo and behold, I've become a member of Parliament and they haven't changed. So we've taken a very different approach, and I really do believe in the work that the grassroots organizations are doing and the work our government is doing to support them.

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

Thank you, Minister. I'm not sure you answered my questions, but thank you.

My next question would then be, who is speaking for those who are left behind? Who is speaking for those who are voiceless? Advocacy funding has been cut. There appears to be no advocacy within the government. You've identified a plan—and we were not aware it was a plan; we thought it was priorities, but not a plan as such. But what concerns me is who determines who benefits from your plan and what programs get the funding? Is it you, yourself? Is it a panel? Is it your bureaucrats? We have been hearing about some significant inequities and discrepancies in funding and dollars not allocated.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I would encourage you to be more specific in what you're talking about, but with respect to the grassroots organizations who receive funding, it's the community fund. It is an open call for proposals. All of those applications go to my officials and it is for the officials to decide if they meet the requirements and the terms and conditions. Then they approve and bring them up to me for a recommendation as to what they think I should be supporting and not supporting. I trust my officials and the good work they do, and I accept their recommendations—not without challenge, but I do appreciate the good work they do.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds, Ms. Neville.

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

I'm hearing that the final decision as to who does or does not receive funding is yours. Is that correct?

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

It's once the officials have brought it to me.

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

And you say yea or nay.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Yes.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Lois Brown is next.

Are you sharing time with Alice?

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

Sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have five minutes: two and a half for you and two and a half for Alice.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, thank you very much for being here.

As a woman who has come from a self-employment situation, I am very encouraged when I hear us talk about economic security for women. I think it's a priority for us, and I'm very encouraged to hear us putting it forward.

I'd like to quote from the CIBC small business report. It says:

What’s more, at an average annual growth rate of 3.3% since 1989, the number of women-run businesses is rising 60% faster than those run by men.

I know you spoke earlier about the WEConnect program. I wonder if you could enhance some of that discussion for the committee.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you very much, Lois.

I was a small business owner and I was raised in a small business family. I followed that up with further education.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about WEConnect. Through the partnership fund we are in the process of expanding some of the work we're doing to be even more focused on the small business woman. In my mind it's a redefining of small business. You can look at defining it as having sales of $500,000 a year, or 50 employees and such, but a lot of the small business women I meet with, talk to, and work with have one or two employees and sales that are much lower.

They're looking for an opportunity to better their skills. They're looking for training not only in marketing and sales, but also in accounting, how to run a small business, and how to find that market access. So we are working with WEConnect to add on to what they're doing and redefine small business to ensure that the women who have smaller businesses will have the same opportunities for market access and training.

The businesses can be at all levels. Some need basic financial literacy skills, and others have been in business for five years or longer. There has to be equal opportunity for all, but in my mind the smaller business just starting out has been kind of ignored, and it's usually within the first one to three years that you make or break your business. So that's the focus.

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

Thank you.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond, BC]

Minister, thank you very much for coming.

You have been involved in the shelter situation. I would like to quote Pat Vargas, a founding partner in the Global Network of Women's Shelters. She said:

Ending violence against women requires concerted action at all levels. The federal government is leading the way through its active support of Uniting to End Violence Against Women, a cross-country project of shelter organizations that will facilitate the national exchange of best practices and allow us to design and establish a national network of women's shelters. We have been working toward this goal for decades.

I'd like you to elaborate on that and explain to the committee how the Status of Women has been involved in this project.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I did my Master's thesis on the global shelter network, and I note that my professor was pleased, because I was really one of the only students who was able to follow through on that project.

When I became the minister, we were able to host, with CIDA, actually, which was a big part of that process, an international conference on the global shelter network. Seventeen countries came to the table to discuss that. Canada was a leader. They indicated that they appreciated the conference that we had also supported and the work of the Alberta shelter network and the work they had done in encouraging that about a year prior to that. I continued on with that work.

Within the agency I spent about a year trying to find representation from each of the provinces and territories, including some representation from the aboriginal community, to see if we could create and work together to have a national voice. When you go abroad, often, Canada and the work and the leadership we do on these files is recognized. They want our knowledge and they want us to transfer that knowledge. We identified that in Canada there was not one national voice to do that. So we worked together, and we've succeeded in doing that. Now they are working on a project--this is the project the agency is specifically supporting--to have all shelters come together to share their best practices.

Years ago--I'll just highlight for you--when I was working on these issues, there were types of violence we would never even have imagined that exist today, new forms of violence that we see all the time, unfortunately. Shelters want the tools, and the best tools, to share best practices for dealing with some of these new forms of violence. Some are culturally based. There is cyber-stalking and some of the newer forms of violence, of course.

They are working together on this project, and I was pleased to be able to be part of that and to be recognized for the work we are doing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Johanne Deschamps.

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

Madam Minister, there appears to be very few changes in the theme that you have selected this year for International Women's Day, compared to the theme selected in 2009. The only obvious change is that you have left out the word “leadership“. It is rather disturbing to see the word “leadership“ left out of your slogan for International Women's Day. Even more disturbing is the fact that on the international front, much of this leadership is being lost.

In 2004, for example, Canada ranked seventh on the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index to which you alluded in your statement. Yet, we cannot lose sight of the fact that today, Canada is in 25th position. Furthermore, Canada occupies the 73rd rank on the UN's gender gap index.

If I were the Minister responsible for the Status of Women, I would be very worried about the fact that Canada has taken a major step backward. In my opinion, we must not compare ourselves with those who rank at the bottom of the index. Canada's current ranking is no cause for celebration.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Thank you very much, Johanne.

I would disagree with you. I think that Canada and Canadian women have made great progress. I think we should celebrate that progress that has been made. We are seen as a leader around the world for a lot of the things we have accomplished.

With respect to the work I do at the agency, the grassroots organizations, many of which are in all provinces across the country, very much support and appreciate the changes we have made, because now they are able to access funding that they were not able to access for many, many years.

I would just say to you that I sure hope you are in support of those grassroots organizations and the funding they receive, because they celebrate the changes we have made at the agency. I'm happy to give you a list of those within Quebec who are receiving funding and a list of those projects so that you can reach out to them to see first-hand, yourself, some of the great progress and the good work being done within the communities.

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

As you know, Minister, I have long supported various organizations that have requested and that have been denied funding under the Women's Program.

Take Quebec agencies, for example. Regarding the 54th meeting of the UN which you attended, we were critical of the fact that Quebec organizations were not represented and that there was no Quebec delegate to liaise with these organizations. This is cause for some concern. I attended, as you did, the 53rd meeting at which Quebec NGOs were strongly represented. However, this year, none was represented.

[Helena Guergis, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Quebec actually was part of the delegation. They were there. Minister St-Pierre was there and participated.