The idea of paid leave is good. It's a wonderful idea, but many of the women we work with who present within our network, in Laval in general as well in Montreal, come from various communities where little English or French is spoken. The idea of course of financial dependence is something that keeps them from leaving. Of course it does, but the idea of finding a job as well, I mean.... How can we refer women to employability programs who cannot even understand the language that is being spoken? We accept people in Canada, and we have to educate more.
This is one of the recommendations that I put in as well. We have to provide more training to service providers and to health care professionals, so that they can direct these women to venues, to areas that can help them perfect skills and learn a language. Actually, I have to say that a lot of the prevention work we do is directly through the French-language francization courses. That is a very good area where we can sort of give out the information.
The reality is that there's a lot of financial dependency. One of the first things the women get to do when they come to the shelter, if they don't have any money, is apply to welfare because for a certain time it's only through welfare that they can subsist with their children. Part of the need for the transitional homes is so that the woman can be given some time so she can go through an educational period. She can go through an employability session and eventually become autonomous.
There's no clear-cut easy solution. I think the paid benefits are great, but what happens to women who are not working and can't work for a while?