Status of Women Committee on March 22nd, 2010

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Okay, thank you. I appreciate that.

Before I turn it over to my colleague, the next question I have is for Ms. Thomas.

You touched on the fact that there were some Métis women who were going to volunteer or work in schools to maybe address a disconnect. There seems to be an educational component that underscores all of this, that education is the key at the very beginning.

I'd like to read you something quickly and ask for your comment, if it's still applicable.Many [aboriginal] mothers interviewed in the Yukon expressed ambivalence toward education in public schools. In terms of goals, both mothers and educators agree that the future of the child is important but because of lack of contact between the two, the family and the schools, neither knows what the other is doing about it.

Would that be a fair statement?

[Denise Thomas]

Yes, it would be.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Is it a significant problem?

[Denise Thomas]

Yes, it is a significant problem. This is not only in the city schools and the rural schools also--

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

But referring particularly to, say, the aboriginal--

[Denise Thomas]

We picked two schools in our city of Winnipeg, and there is a higher dropout rate in the city than the rural communities. We seem to have lost the connection; the parents send their kids to school, and.... This why we started with that Standing Tall program.

[Michelle Simson, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

This is something we really have to address. It saddens me to say that I read that excerpt from the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, which is over 40 years old, and it seems to me that we haven't been able to come to grips with it or to come up with a solution that appears to be working for the aboriginal communities. That was my observation, if that was still an issue.

Thank you. I'll turn it over to Ms. Zarac.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

I have two questions.

To Ms. Thomas, you mentioned that your funding has been static for the last 10 years. Have your costs increased in the past 10 years? Do you believe that the demands have increased also? Would you be able to put a percentage on the number of people you're helping compared to those you could help?

[Denise Thomas]

In terms of jobs, 35,000, and we could help a whole lot more.

What we appreciated about the program was the flexibility we were allowed. The flexibility allowed us to hire those young women to work within the schools, to connect the parents with their...for example, and the women--

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Have your costs, for example your rent, increased in the past 10 years?

[Denise Thomas]

Oh yes, everything has increased. Our rent has increased, for sure. We had to buy bigger buildings. I own a building and it's just about paid for, but there are some of us who have had to buy bigger buildings, especially in one of our northern communities. Yes, our costs have increased substantially. This is why we hope--

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you.

You all mentioned racism, culture shift, discrimination--all of you mentioned those words. Is that related to co-workers, or to the companies, the employers? If it's related to the employers, is there an incentive we could give the employers to eliminate this?

[Carey Calder]

One of the things is that it's not just employers or just in a certain field; I think it's Canadian society. When we look at some of the programs we're doing--for example, with the new AHRDS program, which is now becoming the ASETS program--one of the main pillars is that as aboriginal organizations we're required to develop partnerships with industry. But there's no guarantee that those industries are going to want to partner with us. We have to educate and explain why it's a benefit to include aboriginal people--aboriginal women, aboriginal youth--within their targets.

So I think getting to the education system within Canada--so that people, all of us in this room, already fully understand what the history is of aboriginal people, and get that community, so that this isn't the first time we're hearing about it, you know, later on in life--would really actually address that.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Do you believe the government has a role in that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

No, we're going over here. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to cut that question off.

Ms. Brown.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, ladies. I think you've given us some significant insight into some of the issues.

There are a couple of things, and I'm going to try to bundle some of these questions.

First of all, I think we need to correct the record. The money for the healing centres is now just coming from a different fund. There's $199 million coming through Health Canada, not through INAC. So it's a different funding source.

Ms. Calder, could you give us any percentages of women who are working in traditional roles from the aboriginal community, women who have gone into, say, nursing or teaching? Are there pay standards in the provinces so that women in those jobs would be accomplishing a certain income level?

[Carey Calder]

I don't have an answer. I wish I did. We need to have a tool that clearly identifies all of those different inequities. What I can do, and I'll have to provide it later, is provide a summary based on the 2006 census data that shows where women are working more in the health field and not so much in the trades, and then make a comparison with some of the labour market information, which isn't always easily available. I'll have to follow up on that.

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

Okay.

The reason I'm asking is one statistic Ms. Phaneuf had offered here, that according to the 2001 census 36% of senior management workers in the Northwest Territories are women. I don't know whether there's any breakdown for aboriginal women.

Do you have that statistic, Ms. Phaneuf?

[Lorraine Phaneuf]

I don't, but I could get it, probably.

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

I think that would be a very interesting one.

[Carey Calder]

I can go through this, if you like:

Poverty is in fact the reality which attaches to most Aboriginal women, as their average income in 2000 amounted to just $16,519; their median income was $12,311. These figures are the lowest of all Canadians' income; Aboriginal men‘s average income was $21,958, and that of Canadian women and men was respectively $22,885 and $36,865.

So it was in 2000, in fact; it may have been a regional reality she was looking at, but in 2000 that certainly wasn't the case across Canada.

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

I just think it would give us some comparisons. I think that's what I'm looking for here.

[Carey Calder]

Absolutely.

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

One of the things I think is very significant is that our government has recently put in place some significant dollar values: $200 million over two years for schools construction and $75 million in a two-year aboriginal skills and training strategic investment fund.

So then I look at this next statistic, that says in 2000 women were the majority owners of 16% of northern businesses. Is incentive being given to women to begin their own enterprises? What are the barriers to doing that?

Would access to assets like matrimonial homes be a positive influence for them to go into a bank and say, hey, I've got this much in dollar value that I can use as an asset for collateral? Is that the kind of area where women can see some improvement?

[Carey Calder]

I think in terms of some of the government initiatives we were just talking about, the examples you gave are actually industry-related types of sectors. So the ASTSIF and ASEP programs are generally pumping dollars into male-dominated environments already. I think it has to go back to what types of incentives there are for women to get in. What are the minimum standards the government is setting and mandating these employers, who are benefiting directly from those packages, that increase and encourage participation?

I got all excited because the time is short. I can't remember the second part of your question.