Thank you for having us here today. We're very pleased to be part of this study and to have the chance to make our submissions to you.
I'll start by telling you a bit about West Coast LEAF. Then I'm going to delve into talking about the impact of access to justice and legal aid on women's economic insecurity. Then my colleague Zahra will talk to you a little bit about child care and also about pay equity. That's how we're going to split it up today.
West Coast LEAF is a women's organization. Our mandate is to end discrimination against women in B.C. through systemic legal work, including litigation, law reform, and public legal education. We have worked extensively in the areas of access to justice and child care—as I mentioned, two of the issues we're going to talk about today—including writing a number of significant research and law reform reports. We'll be addressing both of these issues today.
The systemic problems underlying women's economic inequality include the legacy of colonialism, xenophobia, and institutionalized patriarchy—some pretty big ideas. Part of this picture is the massive problem of violence against women and the impact that family violence in particular has on women's economic security. Of course, not all poverty or economic inequality stems from violence against women, but it is a key element of the causal analysis and recognizing all of these causes will help us craft solutions that work.
At this point in your study, you've heard a lot about the problems facing women in Canada in respect to economic insecurity. In our time here today, we want to focus on some of the solutions, actions that we believe Canada should be implementing today.
You've heard so many submissions that I didn't have a chance to review all of them, but from our quick review I don't think you've heard a lot about access to justice and its impact upon economic inequality. In B.C. there is a crisis in access to justice. We're not the only province facing this, but this is where we're located, so I want to tell you a little bit about the problems here.
Legal aid was gutted in B.C. in 2002, and family law in particular by 60%. Family law is highly restricted by a few different areas, but it really is only present when you are very low income, and for very few hours, to help you get a protection order when there's violence in the relationship. Those are essentially the criteria that are applied.
Why is family law legal aid important for women's economic security? Women leaving relationships without legal assistance will often sacrifice economic legal entitlements for the sake of holding on to custody and to keep themselves and their children safe in situations of violence.
Studies suggest that women's median income for the year of their separation or divorce drops by about 30%, whereas men's median income decreases by only about 6%. Studies also show that eventually men's income recovers and women's doesn't. Divorce itself is expensive. A two-day divorce trial will cost around $20,000. It is also expensive to be the parent primarily responsible for raising children, and we know women are still in that role, and to be the parent statistically making less money because of pay inequality.
All these factors together mean that having a lawyer when you're leaving a relationship will help your economic situation and will ultimately increase economic equality in the country.
This problem of access to justice—to civil justice in particular—in Canada and its impact upon women has risen to the level of international concern. CEDAW, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, had concluding observations on Canada that came down in late 2016. They specifically recommended earmarking funds in the Canada social transfers for civil legal aid to ensure that women have access to justice in all jurisdictions, particularly focused on women victims of violence, indigenous women, and women with disabilities.
The CEDAW committee also is specifically concerned about the income test thresholds in family law, which exclude many low-income women from access to justice. We say that this further impacts their ability to be financially independent. By way of example, a woman in B.C. applying as a single woman, if she works full time on minimum wage, doesn't qualify for legal aid, so there's a huge gap between women who qualify for legal aid and women who can actually afford to get access to counsel on their own.
We echo the CEDAW committee's urging that the federal government earmark specific funds for civil legal aid in order to promote rule of law and women's safety.
We also want to add that the federal government has another role in ensuring women have access to justice post-relationship in order to promote gender-based income equality, which is through determinations of child support. We are urging the federal government to streamline the process for applying for child support in order to, hopefully, provide opportunities for women to not have to pay for counsel and to not have to go through the justice system in order to secure child support, which will ultimately decrease their legal costs and increase their income by ensuring they get access to child support when they're the only ones taking care of the children.
We are suggesting that the federal government do a consultation to figure out a better system, perhaps an administrative legal system that would impact on reducing the toll on the court system, and as I said, the need to pay for counsel.
I'm going to pass it over now to my colleague, Zahra Jimale.