Evidence of meeting #41 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was inuit.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Right. Okay.
You did mention a one-year project from Status of Women, called Working Together: Engaging communities to end violence against women and girls, with the theme of engaging men and boys in ending violence against women and girls, which is great because—
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
—Status of Women is starting to do a lot of different initiatives with engaging men and boys, because if we don't engage them nothing is going to change. I'm glad to see that you did that.
That was, I think, for $300,000 and then you also received $228,000 for another project, Opening Doors: Economic opportunities for women, with the theme of advancing women in non-traditional occupations. With those two projects that you have here, can you tell me some of the best practices that you found out from doing these programs?
It sounds like you've done several different initiatives. We're looking for best practices, something great, especially with engaging men and boys. Is there something that came out of there that you'd like to share that might help perhaps another organization?
Executive Director, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
It may be a little premature to share the findings of the Status of Women project because we're in the second year of a two-year project.
Conservative
Executive Director, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
That's right. It will be completed at the end of this fiscal year.
I would say really the best practice, certainly in working with Inuit women or of course first nations, Inuit, and Métis women, is to work in partnership because we have very close working relations. We work in a cultural framework that's relevant. People can see themselves in the resources and the work that we do.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Right. Partnerships are key in, I think, anything. I agree. You can't do it by yourself anymore. Partners are key to anything.
What about your other project? Is that one finished yet, like enough to maybe have something, a best practice or something great, that came about at the Opening Doors project?
Executive Director, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
We've done several economic development projects with Aboriginal Affairs.
Again, one project exceeded my hopes and dreams in terms of success. We developed an Inuit women's business network. And again, it's on our website and we're very proud.
It was developed directly based on the needs as identified by Inuit business women in Iqaluit and that was actually at a meeting with then minister Ambrose. She wanted to talk with business women. I was there with our president. I heard what was said. There happened to be an opportunity with the federal government and it just worked beautifully.
Again, based on needs identified by those it is intended to help, and in our case it has to be relevant to the north....
December 9th, 2014 / 9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Executive Director, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
Even geography in relation to economic development...how do you access markets? Women told us they wanted more financial literacy information.
Executive Director, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
What's a business plan? What might one's responsibilities be as an employer? Those sorts of things.... Key to that was building a network and as was mentioned earlier that peer-to-peer support, role models. On our website we have a number of Inuit business women role models.
Unfortunately, with regard to sustainability, that was a two-year project. It was very successful. The funding ended. We have a web presence. We do not have the capacity to continue to expand the network.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Right. Or to hold meetings and things like that....
Executive Director, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
That's right, and even to develop new content for our website.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
That was a great initiative, and certainly would be good for other individuals too, as a best practice.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
I can't believe that the time is almost up. I may as well stick with you, Tracy, since I only have 30 seconds left.
You also mentioned, and maybe this is one of the two projects I mentioned, about the tool kit that was developed for men's groups to use in communities. That sounded like a really good best practice.
Can you quickly give me something that came from that, or how that's going to help?
Executive Director, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada
One of my colleagues is in Rankin Inlet today, meeting with a men's group to go over the content of the tool kit. It's something that we will have completed by the end of March.
Conservative
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Thank you very much.
I want to ask you all questions, but I'm going to start with Ms. Faraday and the temporary foreign workers program, specifically live-in caregivers.
I did hear you discuss the Presteve Foods situation, which I remember because I'm a Toronto MP. I remember that terrible situation and that it did only come to light because those women had access to their union and to support from the community.
You talked about the temporary nature of the status of live-in caregivers. Now with these recent changes, even fewer of the live-in caregivers are going to be able to transition to permanent residency, and because of their temporary nature, they do not have access to health and safety protections, or WSIB. We remember the case in the GTA of Jocelyn Dulnuan, who was murdered in her employer's home. There was a woman recently in Toronto, who fell in her employer's home and she died from a head injury.
Can you describe in more detail the vulnerability that the temporary status and lack of access to permanent residency creates for women caregivers in this situation, and describe what's needed for women to have safety and security in these very important jobs that they are performing?
Lawyer, Visiting Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, As an Individual
The temporary status that these workers face is the driver of their insecurity, in addition to the tied permits. That's a very important piece that goes with it.
The changes that were just introduced with the caps have really undone the nature of the bargain that had been at the core of the live-in caregiver program, which was that if workers completed two years of work as live-in caregivers, they would earn their right to permanent residency. That is no longer there. There is a possibility to apply for permanent residence, but there's no guarantee of that. That makes the women even more vulnerable. They don't know at the end of the day whether they are on a route to permanence or on this merry-go-round of continuing temporariness.
With regard to other changes that have been implemented, the division between the child care stream and the high medical needs stream also creates additional vulnerability. Women used to be able to accumulate work in both of those areas toward the 24 months that they needed. Now they are locked into one stream or the other. They can't move between those streams; they're not accumulative.
That's a real impediment, and the real uncertainty of whether there is a route to permanence at the end of the day. What the workers really need is a right to permanence from the beginning, the right to status on arrival. What's disturbing about some of the changes is that under the high medical needs stream, a series of female-dominated jobs where workers used to be able to apply directly for permanent status under the federal high-skilled program are being shifted into temporariness. Registered nurses, licensed psychiatric nurses, licensed practical nurses, who used to be able to apply directly, are now being looped into this temporariness, with a requirement to do work, and a possibility but not a guarantee of permanence at the end of it.
The more vulnerabilities and uncertainty that are created, the more a worker is compelled to put up with whatever treatment they receive on the job in the hope of potentially having some security at the end of the day. The further that promise gets from them, the more dangerous it is for them on the ground.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
You are talking about a group of women, mainly, who are already in a very vulnerable position, because they are here alone, they are far away from their home country, and they are in an isolated situation. Usually, they are working alone in a family, so their situation has become even more precarious because of their temporary status. It was a welcome change when the government decided that the caregiver no longer had to live in the employer's home. However, they are still tied to one employer. Can you describe that other piece, and how that increases their vulnerability because they are tied to that one employer? As you said, they may owe fees that they have to pay off, because they have paid a fee to come to Canada.
