Status of Women Committee on April 6th, 2017

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I'm going to share some of my questions with Jamie, but I want to start off with Carole.

You're talking about women and day care. I want to look at it in the big scope and the big picture of families and day care. We have to recognize one of the things we need, and even this budget showed extended parental leave, though we know the uptake for parental leave is only about 2% of men. What can we do so that we have more of a family balance, rather than it all being on the mother's shoulders?

I think we heard a lot about what women need, but men also need support. I recognize, working full time here, that I do have a spouse who takes on all the family responsibilities. What are we doing to make sure that we empower men as part of the family unit, not just as breadwinners?

[Carole Gingras]

Yes. I would say that, in Quebec, the creation of paternity leave has made a difference when it comes to the parental insurance plan.

The paternity leave provisions mean that a father is entitled to take five or three weeks at home, depending on the individual's base plan. If he does not do that, those weeks are not transferable. As a result, we have seen fathers using that leave. That's related to the figure I was telling you about. Significant growth has been noted among fathers. When the parental insurance plan came under the federal employment insurance plan, 26% of Quebec fathers used parental leave; under the present Quebec plan, it is 83%.

We have seen a difference. It is not just that they are taking leave. We are also seeing models emerging, fathers caring for children. Because parental leave, after paternity leave, can be split between the men and the women, we are seeing a difference there, too. More and more fathers are taking a portion of the parental leave and making a difference by being there with their children.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's fine. Thank you.

We're going to go to a question from Mr. Schmale.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

I want to continue with the comment concerning the $15 minimum wage—I believe it was made during the second round of questioning—about a decent salary. It goes back to my earlier point about the value of labour.

For those retailers on the main street who are struggling to get by—the small businesses with maybe two or three employees, maybe more but sometimes fewer—what are we saying to those businesses, which are struggling to get by, by saying that we should up the minimum wage? For the products they sell, there's only a certain margin in which they can price their products, or else they don't sell and then they go out of business—or they lay off and then go out of business.

What do we say to them?

[Meg Gingrich]

I've more or less already answered this question. Ms. Ludwig asked it: essentially, what do you say to small business owners?

We go back to saying that, as it stands right now, wages stagnate, people are taking on more debt, people don't have disposable income in the way they need to have it to actually sustain an economy properly. There are all sorts of economic problems that arise out of low wages, beyond the idea that the value of labour is purely determined by the market. I guess indigenous women just deserve to make significantly less than white men, and it's just the market dictating that. No, I'm sorry, that's not true. There are all sorts of other factors that go into it.

I would say to small business owners who are worried that we have to look at a larger economic picture, which might not always allay all their fears, and I would say that you get more economic demand when people make more money, when they have higher wages. Then they can buy more stuff, basically.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

But the price goes up.

[Meg Gingrich]

Prices don't actually increase at the same—

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Yes. They do.

[Meg Gingrich]

They might increase a little bit, but again, there have been numerous economic studies on this that show—

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

You then have less purchasing power, because the price goes up.

[Meg Gingrich]

Yes, but if you look at places that have actually raised minimum wage or have higher wages, prices might be a little bit higher, but the actual net benefits are still greater to increasing the minimum wage than they are....

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All right. Now we'll go to—

[Debora De Angelis]

May I answer? I'm sorry, Chair.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

I had a follow-up.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry, Mr. Schmale, your time was up.

Yes, Ms. De Angelis.

[Debora De Angelis]

Concerning the myth that if you increase the minimum wage, prices go up, let me ask you a question. We have two employers. We have a high-end grocery employer and a lower-end grocery employer. They're both unionized. If you go into the lower-end grocery employer, does the ketchup cost more or less than at the higher-end grocery employer?

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Can I answer that, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Actually, no, you are out of time.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

The witness asked me a question. I would love to answer it, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

We're going to Anita Vandenbeld for five minutes.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Can a Liberal give me a question?

Anita, come on. Can I have some of your time, please?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I'm actually taking her time.

Women living with disabilities have an unemployment rate of about 75%. It's just horrible that women living with disabilities aren't able to find employment—women and men. I'm wondering—and I'm thinking in particular of you, Ms. De Angelis, because I know you represent restaurant and hospitality, where a number of people living with developmental disabilities are working and are being paid to work in that field—what your union is doing to encourage more employers to hire.

Is there anything the federal government can do to help you with this? We know that wage grants don't work, because when those are gone the jobs tend to disappear, but is there anything the federal government could do to help?

It's certainly of economic benefit to the employer, because these employees stay longer, they're more productive, their retention rate is high. Is there anything that you're doing, and could we help you with it?

[Debora De Angelis]

We have lots of members with different abilities. With the collective bargaining agreement comes the protection against discrimination, and it is an added benefit that workers can go to the union in the event that they are having issues with their hours.