Status of Women Committee on May 18th, 2017

[Jeanette Southwood]

Yes, we have, and in fact we decided that there was a need for our profession nationally to put supports in place and to provide information for women transitioning out of and back into the profession, and supports for employers as well. We developed a document called “Managing Transitions: Before, During and After Leave”, which is a planning and resource guide for both employers and employees. The guide is designed to assist engineers and geoscientists—we worked on this particular document together with geoscientists nationally—who are considering a maternity or parental leave. It's also designed to assist their employers.

Our experience has been that without some forethought, rejoining an organization or re-entering the workforce can be very frustrating, especially when expectations are not managed, and that's on both ends. The solution, we feel, is, very simply, to actively manage the transition, and to learn from the best practices developed in the guide.

Thank you.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Wonderful. Thank you.

Canadian Space Agency, go ahead, please.

[Marie-Claude Guérard]

We haven't observed any such issues at the Canadian Space Agency, and that may be due to the quality of our working conditions. Some people extend their maternity leave into parental leave in order to raise families. We also offer flexible work hours, flextime. We have good communication between management and employees, which facilitates the return to work after an extended period of leave. We are fortunate that way.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you very much.

Moving on to some of the comments about workplace culture, we've seen and heard from a number of witnesses that the workplace culture changes when you have a more diverse workforce.

With regard to the space agency, I know that you talked about the increase. Have you seen that kind of change in culture? In particular, I noticed that in the public awareness campaign to recruit staff, you mentioned indigenous women as well. Has there been an increase in other diverse groups—indigenous, women with disabilities, visible minority women—and in that case, do you also see a change in the culture?

We'll start with the space agency and then I'll go to you, Ms. Southwood.

[Dominique Breden]

We've made an effort in recent years to improve representation among indigenous women, persons with disabilities, and visible minorities. This morning, we were discussing women. We worked on organizing activities and setting up committees for the visible minority network, as well as a committee for all the groups. We are trying to foster that change in culture, to be more inclusive and to have diverse working groups.

The message goes out from the top, in other words, the executive committee. The emphasis is on the fact that diverse work teams represent added value. The change in culture is visible in terms of not just talk, but also actions. It is also visible in the involvement of the various executive committee members and employees in awareness-raising activities for the different groups.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you.

Ms. Southwood, what about you?

[Jeanette Southwood]

Yes, we've also seen changes in the culture. There's data out there indicating that when diverse teams do work together, they come to successful outcomes or successful solutions more frequently. We can share that with you also.

One of the keys to the diversity discussion is the inclusion aspect, and typically in this changing culture, successful outcomes have occurred when diversity has been accompanied by inclusion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent.

The final five minutes go to John Barlow.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Thanks again to our witnesses. It's much appreciated. You've provided some great information and input.

Earlier this year I had an opportunity to speak at an event in Calgary called “The Employment Crisis for Canada's Energy Professionals—A Lost Opportunity for Canada.” A lot of the participants were energy professionals, geophysicists, and engineers, and one of the topics that came up quite often was how female engineers are the ones who are laid off first when there is an economic downturn as we are experiencing in Alberta right now. However, they were really struggling to find any data that could back that up. They really want to try to have some hard evidence this is the case.

Ms. Southwood, does Engineers Canada do anything to keep track of employment levels on an annual or a monthly basis that would provide some of that data?

[Jeanette Southwood]

Yes, we do have data on employment from across Canada—also separated by discipline. We can very happily share that with the committee.

Thinking about the observation you made about the energy field, the economic downturn and women being laid off first, we see that as linked to that whole discussion around workplace culture. There are direct ties between the advancement of women and opportunities for women and who gets laid off first. We see this as part of a comprehensive conversation that is happening but that also needs to be had much more holistically.

So long story short, yes, we do have data that we can very happily share.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

I appreciate that.

We've heard a lot today about the need for government to invest in or get involved in this to try to retain more women in the industry.

I'd like to start with Ms. Southwood. I'm always of the opinion that people who are closest to the issues are the best to deal with these types of things, not just to help us to deal with the consequences, but also to deal with the root cause of the problem, whether it's barriers or whatnot.

It's one thing for government to try to solve some of these things, but as many of us have said today, I'm sure we've done many of these studies before in the status of women committee.

On your part, what is Engineers Canada doing in terms of grassroots policy and programs to try to get more women involved in the STEM programs and to try to retain them?

As you said earlier in your testimony, you had a large group of women in your university class and you wondered where they all went. What sorts of programs are Engineers Canada trying to do to address some of these things? Maybe it isn't all just for government; maybe there are some things you can do.

[Jeanette Southwood]

Certainly. I'll start with our ask, which was around the research piece. Our feeling is that, specific to engineering, there has not been this kind of research done in the past, but it is essential. It's essential not just because E is part of STEM, but also because it's the E that brings together the ST and the M. We need the E if STEM is to truly benefit Canada.

Going back to your question about what Engineers Canada has done, we do a labour market survey every year. It indicates what is happening out there in the labour market and where the opportunities are. We have a portal on which we make this information publicly available, not only within Canada but also for those who are immigrating to Canada so they can better understand where the opportunities are, and, if they are looking for an opportunity in a specific type of engineering, where the best place is to take advantage of that.

We also have our 30 by 30 program, which is our work to increase the percentage of women who are licensed in engineering to 30% of the total by 2030.

We have our Future City program that works with grades 6, 7, and 8 to open up the world of engineering to them within the classroom curriculum so that even students who don't necessarily have the opportunity to go to an after-school program or go only to school can experience what it's like to be an engineer. That was a very successful pilot earlier this year, and it will be expanded.

Managing Transitions is another initiative of Engineers Canada. That's the document I described a little bit earlier on how we assist both employers and women—parents—who are moving out of the workforce for parental and maternity leave and then moving back in.

There are a number of others, and we can put together a summary and share it with the committee.

Thank you very much for that question.

[John Barlow, Conservative, Foothills, AB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good, and that's our time for today.

Thank you to all the witnesses for being here today.

Thanks to everyone, and we will see you again after the break. Thank you.

This meeting is adjourned.