Status of Women Committee on Feb. 21st, 2019

[Sébastien Larochelle-Côté]

No, no, there are regional variations in that. If you live in a rural area, for example, it would be less than that. If you live in an urban area, it would be more than that. There are over 50 regions in Canada. We have one threshold for each of those regions.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

When I look at the graph in front of me and I look at the poverty box, it would appear that after we account for OAS and GIS, our poverty rate is at about 5% for those who are over the age of 65.

[Sébastien Larochelle-Côté]

That's correct.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Am I correct that this is for those individuals who would have filed a tax return of some sort? In order to get that data, StatsCan would need that. This wouldn't include those who are homeless or maybe not filing their papers with the CRA.

[Sébastien Larochelle-Côté]

You're correct. The information is coming out of tax returns, so, yes, it's based on people who file an income tax return.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

For the 5% that remain, what would it take to get them out of poverty?

[Sébastien Larochelle-Côté]

That's a good question, which I think is more for policy-makers to answer.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

What would be the increase in the monetary amount?

[Sébastien Larochelle-Côté]

What we do know is that there is a higher proportion of poverty among certain groups, so the poverty level is higher, for example, among senior women living alone. There are also higher levels of poverty among aboriginal people, as well as recent immigrants, for example. So we do know that for certain groups, those levels are significantly higher than for the rest of the senior population.

We also know that the people with disabilities have higher rates, and if you have an interaction of people with disabilities and other risk factors, if you allow me to use that term.... We call them risk factors. I guess the strategy is to try to better understand what the risk factors are, because then maybe we can pinpoint better the groups that are more at risk of being low-income or under the poverty line.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excellent. Thank you very much, Sébastien.

We're now going to move over to Irene Mathyssen.

Irene, you have seven minutes.

[Irene Mathyssen]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much for being here. I have a number of questions.

I want to start with the department. One of the concerns I've heard with regard to the department is that core funding for women's organizations has disappeared and now it's project-by-project kind of funding, which means that groups scramble to meet the criteria and do the project and are then left without the kind of funding they need to do research or advocacy.

Are you hearing this? Have you considered the impact on women's organizations that this change has created?

[Danielle Bélanger]

Certainly at the Department for Women and Gender Equality, we are very focused on women's organizations, the women's movement and the sustainability of the women's movement. I know this government has also encouraged that through budget investments through the women's program. Another $100 million was provided in budget 2018. That is certainly something we are aware of, and we want to continue to support the capacity of women's organizations.

[Irene Mathyssen]

Is it possible that we would return to core funding in order to provide that support? I know you mentioned $100 million, but that issue is still out there. Has it been considered?

[Danielle Bélanger]

It's definitely something that has been discussed, but I think making that determination is a question for others.

[Irene Mathyssen]

Thank you.

There's been discussion between the two panels with regard to aging and community. I recently had a meeting with the VON non-profit home care providers, and the issue is that they cannot attract volunteers. They cannot attract home care providers because of the low wages. They're very worried that they may not be able to support the community, and that would be of particular concern to older women. Have you heard any of this? Is this something that comes across your desk, and what kinds of concerns do you have?

I also want to relate that to the incredible cost of long-term care. We talked about poverty among senior women. I cannot imagine what it must be like to be looking at a bill for long-term care when you're alone, when you're isolated and the resources just aren't there. Is that something you have considered and is it something that concerns you?

[Anna Romano]

Maybe I'll just answer by saying that this question is best directed to colleagues from Health Canada, because their mandate would cover issues around home care and long-term care. It doesn't come across our desk directly at the Public Health Agency.

[Irene Mathyssen]

Are you saying you've heard nothing, no rumblings, in that regard?

[Anna Romano]

That's not indicative that maybe the rumblings are not there.

[Irene Mathyssen]

I thought that raising that with you might be of interest, because you talk about gathering data and how important that is.

I know there is a critical shortage of gerontologists, and very often family doctors just don't have access to the information they need, the data they need, because when they're dealing a senior individual, there are medication changes over years and there has to be a sensitivity to those changes and what aging means to an individual.

I wonder how effectively you are able to provide the information, the data, the research that these family practitioners and others doctors or nurse practitioners need in order to be effective.

[Anna Romano]

Certainly, there is a role in the public health world to ensure that health professionals and other allied professionals are in a position to use the latest data, the latest guidance in a particular public health area.

We look to have a number of different options in terms of hubs—which I talked about earlier—so that there is a one-stop shop for health professionals to get the latest data and information.

We've also started some innovative practices in the area of game-based learning, recognizing that health professionals don't have a lot of time to learn all of the latest guidance around how to deal with a particular issue. So we are trying to be innovative in how to get that information in a way that is easily accessible and easily learnable by those health professionals.

[Irene Mathyssen]

Collectively, you touched on elder abuse. Some years ago, this committee did a study on elder abuse, particularly among seniors. One of the things that were discovered was that seniors are very reticent. They are embarrassed; they don't want to talk about their grandson or granddaughter or a member of the family abusing them, and it usually is a family member.

I wonder if there is any work on prevention. What are the challenges around that? In the brief, the judicial system was mentioned, but then sometimes a police officer comes in and the abused individual doesn't want to talk about it, and the police officer doesn't have the time to tease that information out. Is there an awareness of that? Has there been consideration in regard to a response to that?

[Anna Romano]

In the Public Health Agency, we take a broader approach to family violence prevention. We have a consolidated place for health professionals to get information with the Stop Family Violence web pages. That's something you might like to check out.

We are always worried about the evidence base, and this is where I was thinking about the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. We provide funding to that study so that we have information on the psychological, physical and financial abuse of older adults.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

We're now gong to pass the floor over to Bob Bratina.

[Bob Bratina, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, Lib.]

Thank you very much.

I'll share with Eva. I wish we had more time. It's a great topic.

I'm doing my own longitudinal study on aging.

[Voices]

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