Evidence of meeting #145 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
It was connected to Daughters of the Vote. I was interested in how future funding will be secured and how the department will make sure that the young women who participate feel safe, have a full program and actually come out of it wanting to be parliamentarians.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
That's an excellent point. The project the minister spoke about is a project we have with them. It is not just a one-year project. It is a three-year project. We're able to support the funding of the initiative in future years. That's an agreement we have with Equal Voice.
We are working and continue to work with Equal Voice to ensure that the programming it puts in place takes into account any of the concerns that may have been raised, and that it is addressing those concerns but also putting in place any type of training or opportunities that young women would need to participate fully in the initiative.
It is very positive. We've also received very positive feedback on the event and the experiences of many of the young people who have participated. We feel that it's a very important project we will continue to support.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
I have one quick question, and this has to do with our core concern with regard to the economic security of women. We know that women cannot organize their lives, particularly if they have a family, if they're alone raising a family.... Have you collaborated or does the department collaborate with other departments in regard to the national housing strategy? There are figures about how sometime in the future there will be houses—but we need houses now. Women are under-housed and they can't manage.
Secondly, and also as important, is child care. The minister talked about 40,000 spaces, but we need far more. Are there plans in place to create those spaces? How will you ensure that they are affordable? The cost of $1,200 a month is not affordable for a family, and certainly not for a single mom trying to manage.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
We work very closely with other departments in creating an environment that increases women's economic security. As I said, I spent most of my career working at ESDC on programming that supports increasing women's access to skilled trades, pilot programming in labour market initiatives, as well as youth programming. We've heard loud and clear the importance of economic security. We've done some consultations and work with our indigenous partners. We have an indigenous women's circle where we're heard very clearly as well...some of the responses to MMIWG will be tied to the economic security of women.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
We have now finished our round of questioning. Are all members ready to go to the vote on these estimates?
DEPARTMENT FOR WOMEN AND GENDER EQUALITY
Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$44,621,369
Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$55,073,977
Vote 10—Advancing Gender Equality..........$10,000,000
(Votes 1, 5, and 10 agreed to)
Shall I report the votes on the main estimates to the House?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Just as a reminder, the next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 28, 2019, continuing the committee's study on the treatment of women within the Department of National Defence.
On behalf of the committee I would like to thank Danielle, Stéphane, Nancy and Lisa for joining us today. Have a good day.
Today's meeting is adjourned.