Evidence of meeting #51 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 young.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Do you think that has had an effect? Is there data to show that has had an effect on the recruitment of women in non-traditional employment?
Director General, Labour Market Integration, Skills and Employment Branch, Department of Employment and Social Development
Certainly. The latest statistics we have are from 2012. These are statistics released annually by Statistics Canada. Certainly, we have seen some growth in some of the non-traditional trades. If you look at some of the top Red Seal trades in the construction sector, the numbers are still very small overall, but if you look over the past five years, for example for steamfitter-pipefitter, there's been an 80% growth in the number of women apprentices. It's the same with industrial mechanic, a 75% growth; plumber, a 60% growth. There is some slow change that we are seeing.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
That's good news.
One of the other recommendations is: “The Committee recommends that the federal government promote the integration of women and other disadvantaged groups into non-traditional occupations by requiring gender equity provisions in federally funded building and infrastructure agreements.”
Has that been implemented, or can anyone speak to that?
Chief Operating Officer, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Of course, we don't do building and infrastructure, but I can say that from an NSERC perspective we have certainly, as I mentioned, got an equity statement now. We post all of our results in terms of gender to ensure there's no bias. We've put in place provisions for parental leave as well as extensions for our grants. As I said earlier, we work with our sister granting agencies and have joined recently the GBA. We're moving ahead and are very active participants in the working groups that Madam Savoie has talked about.
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
Let me just add something not related to building infrastructure agreements. As you're aware, our minister is also the Minister of Labour and Labour has a program in place to specifically address barriers to equity. It's called Workplace Opportunities: Removing Barriers to Equity. They fund various initiatives to specifically address those types of inequities.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
That's good news. I do feel as though there are some in here that haven't been implemented. One of them, “The committee recommends that the federal government strengthen the special benefits provisions of the Employment Insurance program, to provide greater coverage for caring for family members, and work with its provincial and territorial counterparts to ensure that labour codes and practices reflect the need for work-life balance.” I don't know if you would have anything to add in there.
I think what might be interesting is if those of you who have been specifically involved in this report would maybe submit to the committee how you feel those recommendations have been implemented. I think it would be helpful as a starting point for this study to see what's been done and where we still need to be going.
With that, I'm going to throw over my time for questions to my colleague, Ms. Liu. Mr. Casey actually brought up one of the questions I had on gendered work, so I'll just give her the rest.
NDP
Laurin Liu NDP Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
The federal government has a week for science and technology in which we do many programs, as was mentioned previously by some of my colleagues. Is there more we could be doing to expand the awareness around the science and technology week? Is there more we can be doing to specifically target the programming for this week towards girls and young women?
Chief Operating Officer, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
I'm not sure I fully get what you're asking here.
NDP
Laurin Liu NDP Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Is there more we could be doing in terms of our programming in schools to target girls and women, specifically with regard to the science and technology awareness week that's held every year?
Chief Operating Officer, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
The science and technology week....
NDP
Laurin Liu NDP Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Perhaps you can get back to us on that.
Mr. Casey asked whether we are looking for any international models in terms of encouraging science and technology and the participation of women in science and technology fields. As I just said, in my research I found out that South Korea has actually developed a law promoting and supporting female researchers and technicians. They've actually put into place quotas to encourage the participation of women in the workforce. Has there been any study of international participation models?
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you very much, Ms. Liu.
Since Ms. Liu mentioned the point about international involvement, perhaps you could provide the clerk a brief answer talking about Southeast Asia and countries at the international level. Thank you very much.
Ms. Truppe, I'm not exactly sure how much time you're going to have.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair. If there is time, I'm going to be splitting my time with Madam O'Neill Gordon.
My first question would be for Linda Savoie.
Linda, you mentioned women leaders and the economy and you said that women leaders, I think it was, were going to host round tables within the next few weeks. Could you tell us a bit more about that and what you hope the outcome will be? What exactly will they be doing?
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
From this we hope to get some employers' perspectives, because we're hearing from a wide range of stakeholders. We're trying to zero in on employers' concerns, their assessment of the situation, and their suggestions with regard to best practices or gaps that they need assistance with. Those are the early objectives of these coming round tables.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you.
Who will be participating? Will it be all women at this round table or are you getting feedback from a mixture of men and women?
Senior Director General, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Status of Women Canada
There will be a mixture of folks who are pretty much leaders in their industry and those who have an interest in exploring how women can be better integrated into their employment.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
Thank you.
My next question is for CIC.
I think you were referring to the federal skilled trades program, and I think that was the one where you said there was 67%, less than 5% were women, and 704 women were permitted to go into the other programs. Is there any plan to change anything in the federal skilled trades program to get more women? Was that the right program? Was that the one that had the—
Acting Director, Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
That's the one. Just to clarify, the numbers were, I believe, that 62 have come in through the program.
Conservative
Acting Director, Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Those were absolute numbers, not percentages.
Conservative
Susan Truppe Conservative London North Centre, ON
They were not percentages, but less than 5%. Okay.
Acting Director, Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Yes, actually it was fewer than five women.
Acting Director, Immigration Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
The federal skilled trades program is a relatively new program, launched in January 2013. The take-up has been slow.
It should be noted that tradespersons, as I mentioned in my remarks, can come in through other programs as well, for example, the federal skilled worker program for those who are already in Canada, pursuing a job in Canada as temporary foreign workers. The Canadian experience class is an ideal program for them to use as a pathway to permanency. In the federal skilled trades program, I think as time goes by we'll continue to monitor the number of admissions through the program and determine whether or not there are changes that need to be made in the selection criteria that could further advantage tradespersons coming in through the program.