Evidence of meeting #56 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 girls.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
12:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
The second recommendation was about providing ongoing funding for models that were multisectoral and that had a strong evidence base to scale up, and about doing more of this kind of outreach work with younger girls.
The third was about providing support for influencers and, specifically, investing in programs that provide training to parents, teachers, and community leaders that form a kind of web of support around the girls as they move through these years.
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
I find that concept of influencers very interesting. When you said that earlier, I couldn't quite grasp it, but now I think I do, and I appreciate it.
I say that not just for rural areas. I find that it's an issue for urban areas as well. Certainly, for communities that are impoverished or areas that can't afford that kind of equipment, I think the penetration on that level is key as well. Do you work in that realm?
12:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
Absolutely. We do the majority of our work in rural and remote communities where we focus on that in every program we offer. We bring in the community members. We invite the parents, community leaders, and local government to come in, not only to see what the kids are doing but to participate with them. Because a lot of these kids might be first-generation university or college kids and no one before them has gone, we really need to work on exposing the parents, the teachers, and the people in these kids' lives to these experiences.
If we go into a rural community and deliver a camp, the kids might be inspired and think differently, but if they then go home or to school and there's no one else who is encouraging them to consider these fields, their interest is not going to build. The investment in teachers and parents lasts so much longer than what we can do in a week. We need to do both. We need to get that inspiration and exposure happening, and then we need to support the people who can continue that message on a daily basis.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Fine, thank you very much.
Ms. Bateman, you now have the floor for seven minutes.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you so much. I'm sorry, but I will catch up on your actual testimony. I was at the finance committee meeting and it went long.
I'm very fascinated by the conversation I have heard, especially with the concept of the makerspace. This makerspace sounds wonderful, but there's probably always going to be a school board somewhere that says we can't actually use that equipment for purposes other than for what it was intended, i.e. between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. How do you get around that concern? I know that would be the reality in some of the areas I'm quite familiar with.
The concept of actually enabling families to utilize the equipment and play with it, if you like, to learn and break down those barriers, is wonderful. I'd love to hear how you've broken down those barriers or impediments.
12:25 p.m.
Program Administrator, Women in Trades Training, Kelowna Campus, Okanagan College
In our area the school district is actually very eager to set up the makerspace and have it available to members of the community to come in and use. We believe that tinkering is a lost art, that you need to play with stuff, take it apart, and learn to do things with your hands,to take something you like, learn how to make it faster, better, less expensive, and things like that. These makerspaces can really invite the general public in, and that's where I think we can do a lot of our good work, as Jennifer was saying, with educating parents and even educators throughout the district. They will all come to this makerspace. I think it's a way to get people to feel more comfortable in that environment.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
Program Administrator, Women in Trades Training, Kelowna Campus, Okanagan College
I believe it does.
12:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
The Maker Movement is not new. These kinds of workshops have existed for years and years. There is some great profile around them. Part of the Maker Movement is community engagement. So generally, when these types of spaces are created, many of them are created at libraries, so Actua actually partners with libraries in communities all over the country, which have amazing access to this technology, to help them actually build programming. We help them create programs to which community members can come, or kids can come, where they can participate in a safe space. There are lots of different ways to encourage schools to do this.
One of the exciting projects we're working on is a moving maker mobile. We're actually going to have a U-Haul truck that travels around with makerspace equipment to schools and community centres that don't currently have access. It's really to build awareness and momentum around the idea of this, but also to provide an opportunity for them to be exposed to how easy this stuff is to actually work with.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Oh, that's good. It sounds like a concept that really breaks down barriers, and I love that.
I represent Winnipeg's South Centre, and my colleague Susan Truppe came with me when we were focusing on women in non-traditional trades and ways to make a living. We were briefed by the person at the Winnipeg Technical College who said that women actually make better welders. Their precision factor is greater. Their error factor is less. They're better. But it was still incredibly hard for them to enrol women in these programs. They weren't interested. It wasn't part of their.... So I'd like each one of you to take a moment to talk about what barriers we could pull down.
I guess that's the solution. What are the barriers, what are the solutions and how do we attract women into these non-traditional ways to employ themselves and contribute to society? Then once they're there, how do we retain them?
Maybe we should start with you, Ryan, because you have experience with actual mining companies, and the attraction factor is different from the retention factor. I'd love you to speak to both.
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Mining Industry Human Resources Council
Sure. It's a question we've been grappling with for quite some time. We looked at the motivators for an individual to select a career. We've studied this for both males and females and tried to find what drives career choices. Obviously salary is up there. If it was only a matter of salary, we would have no problem attracting people because we tend to pay about 40% more than the average salary in Canada. The mining sector does offer lucrative careers.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Mining Industry Human Resources Council
It's never just about salary. I think it's about communicating to potential employees of the mining sector what the modern mining industry offers. We're not saying it's for everyone, but I think we offer a compelling value proposition to male and female potential employees. The perception of the occupations in the sector is not accurate, and part of the challenge we as an industry have is to change those perceptions and change them at the early stages. Once they are employed and we have been successful at breaking down those barriers and attracting them, certainly we have to do everything we can to keep them. What we're finding, as you've mentioned, is that we have challenges attracting them and then we have challenges keeping them. That's something we're working very hard to change.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Do your employees, whether they're male or female, feel comfortable if their child is sick? That's the classic question, whether you can be with your child or take them to the doctor.
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, Mining Industry Human Resources Council
Absolutely, we work in a relatively heavily unionized sector and there are significant benefits in place that go well beyond compensation and that involve paid leave and professional development and a number of other factors that were deemed to be of high value to potential employees. That being said, clearly more—
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
So you've actually had that dialogue with the employees about what matters most?
April 28th, 2015 / 12:35 p.m.
Executive Director, Mining Industry Human Resources Council
We have, absolutely, about what matters most.
The number one factor is not compensation. The number one factor is all about applying the skills you've learned and about professional development and training along the way. Compensation and benefits are usually second or third on that list of 15 things, but they're not the only issue. There's more to it than that.
12:35 p.m.
NDP
12:35 p.m.
Program Administrator, Women in Trades Training, Kelowna Campus, Okanagan College
For our women, safe and supported access is a big concern. They want to know that they're going to be safe when they try welding, that they're not going to get injured, that they're not going to get hurt. They're fearful of things they haven't tried before and the supported access means a lot. They are able to try any of the different trades as a student for a day, to go and participate for a day. They can try welding, and if they don't like it they don't have to take it. Without role models, just being safe and supported allows women greater access for sure.
12:35 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Actua
I think at a younger age it's really just about exposure, so we will actually allow girls to do a small amount of welding, for example, in a very controlled environment. We actually just let them get their hands in and try it. That first exposure is often what people will relay as the thing that turned them onto that path.
12:35 p.m.
NDP
The Chair NDP Hélène LeBlanc
Thank you very much.
Ms. Freeman, you now have the floor and you have seven minutes.
12:35 p.m.
NDP
Mylène Freeman NDP Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC
Moving along a bit, previous witnesses have shown us a lot of data from StatsCan showing that even when you get women educated in a STEM field, there are barriers to having the same percentage of women employed in the field they were educated for. What do you see as the big factors blocking women?