Evidence of meeting #75 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 men.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Excellent. Thank you very much.
We're going to now move on to Martin Shields for his seven minutes.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Let's move first to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
It's interesting, the definition you were using with sponsorship and mentorship. One of the careers I had was I was a principal for many years and interviewed many possible vice-principals. One of my critical questions was, “Do you want to be a principal?” This was not gender-specific, but if they didn't want to be a principal, I didn't want them as a vice-principal because—and I told them plainly—“I want you to be a principal, that's why you're here.” I understand your definition between a sponsorship and a mentorship, because if you don't clearly define that role, then it gets the sideline advice on the side.
Could you give me another example of mentorship that was successful in your organization?
12:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Governance and Government Relations, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
We have numerous programs where we have more senior women mentor women just starting their career. I currently mentor about 10 women at much more junior levels who have no interest in being at my career line or taking the career path that I've taken but want to know how to deal with specific situations they encounter in the workplace and are looking for a sounding board as to how to handle a difficult situation, how to have a difficult conversation, and how to make a presentation better. It runs the whole gamut of questions they have.
We strongly encourage senior women to take on that mentorship role—and men as well—to provide guidance to those coming up the ranks.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Governance and Government Relations, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
I believe so, yes, and I've seen it in action.
October 31st, 2017 / 12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Okay. Thank you.
One of the other things you talked about is the multi-ethnic part of banking that you try to work at. One of the things in the community that I am from is that we have a very diverse community, probably one of the most diverse in Canada. I found the banks responded to that first in the sense that immediately you saw front-line staff from different ethnicities, and you saw them moving into management positions very quickly.
The one really interesting thing I saw was that in our health system we were having real problems in our ERs with the different languages. I went into a bank and I saw people of different ethnicities being taken back to talk on a phone. The bank had established a network in which they could get 200 languages online within two minutes. The private sector, your banking industry, did that quicker.
Do you have examples of where your banking industry has moved to do things like that?
12:25 p.m.
Vice-President, Governance and Government Relations, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Yes, not only with respect to gender issues, but all kinds of diversity issues and bringing products and services to clients in the way that they want them to be delivered and in what they want those products to deliver.
There are several examples of that. We obviously have branches. We have over a thousand branches across the country, or banking centres, but not everybody wants to bank with us that way. We make our services available through various channels—digital channels, telephone banking channels, mobile banking channels—and what we try to do is listen to our clients and bring them what they need. We also have a newcomer offer that we have developed to meet the unique needs of newcomers, and we have various employees supporting those offers.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Thank you.
Moving to West Coast LEAF, you made a comment about looking for a system that would take it out of the legal system. Do you have examples anywhere of other countries that have done this?
12:25 p.m.
Director of Law Reform, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
Through justice, or...?
12:25 p.m.
Executive Director, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
I think he's referring to child support.
12:30 p.m.
Director of Law Reform, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
I don't, off the top of my head, have examples. I could certainly find some and get back to you on that, but I don't have examples.
I want to be clear that it doesn't obviate the need for legal aid, but it's one element that we can see where the system really doesn't work in a lot of different ways. Because child care is an entitlement, it really isn't something that needs to be litigated. There are lots of issues that might need to be litigated; child support isn't one of them.
What we're suggesting for the federal government is a way to streamline that, not to create more administrative hurdles but to create a system that makes it easier, more accessible to get that order in place and start getting that money flowing towards the needs of children and ensuring that women aren't further impoverished by having to disproportionately support their children financially.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
What you're saying is that there are fairly clear standards and precedents set under child support, so you're looking for another mechanism to get it implemented.
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
That's right.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Yes, but you don't have another example of one, and you think we need to move to something different.
Getting those examples would be very important in the sense of finding what works somewhere else or whether you're developing something totally new.
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
That's why we are suggesting that the federal government engage in a consultation on this. It's not something that's been deeply discussed and it's a fairly new.... Actually, when we worked through this for this presentation, it's not something that we've done a lot of talking about. That's why I didn't come to you saying, “Here is exactly what we think you should do.” What we think you should do is engage in a consultation process across the country to design a new process.
I think there has been “in the works” talk about looking at child support again anyway, so we think this would be an opportunity to not just look at the child care table and how the law might work differently, but how the actual system might work differently as well.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
When you talk about consultation, it's really important that you have some of those ideas available. If you're looking at us to pull magic things out of the bag.... It's the consultation. If you have those ideas, if you have those systems, if you have ways that could help that system change...and I understand the legal system and what it needs, but you're talking about moving to something else.
I think having that ground work done, if you want a federal government to move that, that's the kind of research you should do and have it ready to go in the sense of not just telling us.... If you have done that research, that would be something I think you should work on.
12:30 p.m.
Executive Director, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
Thank you for that. We have both got our work cut out for us and we will definitely add that to our list in terms of further advocacy that we do on this issue.
12:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you very much.
We're going to now pass on to Sheila Malcolmson for seven minutes.
12:30 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to all three witnesses.
West Coast LEAF representatives, thank you very much for your “High Stakes” report from July last year. I really appreciate the way you've interwoven a lot of the issues that this committee has been studying for some time now.
We have heard from witnesses who say that because of the lack of pay equity legislation they earned less than their husbands, so when they couldn't find affordable child care it was the woman who dropped out of the workplace. Then there is the unpaid care associated with that, and lost earnings. When she moves back into the workplace, the work tends to be part-time and precarious, without the social safety net and unemployment insurance and pension associated with it. Then, if there is domestic violence, divorce, or separation, she is that much more vulnerable.
We heard heartbreaking testimony about women who made the very difficult decision to put themselves and their children into poverty in order to leave an unsafe relationship. Then, at retirement, to the extent that they do retire, without those financial savings, an appalling number of women in Canada disproportionately live in poverty. In my own riding, 50% of the women at a homeless shelter for women are now over the age of 50. They're professional women who worked their whole lives.
I really appreciate your report weaving these pieces together. If you haven't shared it already with the committee, would you be able to file it through the clerk because it has a lot of the issues we've been touching on?
Is that all right, Chair?
12:30 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
I note that your report on child care flags that Canada's investments in early childhood education and child care are low compared to other comparable countries. I also note in particular your link to the domestic violence impact, and how that can particularly put women into financial peril.
Do I remember correctly that you had recommended that provincial or federal programs for child care would prioritize child care spaces for victims of domestic violence?
12:35 p.m.
Director of Law Reform, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
Yes, that's right. That's one of the recommendations we're making, that free child care be available for women fleeing violence and women in need of assistance with parenting—for example, when they're involved or engaged with, or about to be engaged with, the child protection system—so that children are not being removed as a result of mothers not being able to find appropriate child care services.
12:35 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you. That's something for us to take up, for sure.
We also heard quite a bit of testimony around the importance of domestic violence leave. Women may need a couple of extra days, sometimes maybe only five days, to resettle their families. In some cases, their workplace is the most stable environment for them, and they want to get back to work but they might need some extra time to find new accommodations.
Is that also one of your recommendations, that this is something the federal government could take up and show leadership on as it starts to fan out across some of the different provinces in Canada?
12:35 p.m.
Executive Director, West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
Absolutely. We originally had built in a piece about that and pulled it out because of time. That is absolutely something we are advocating for. As you know, there's kind of a range, around five or 10 days, that has been developed across the different provinces.
What we hear anecdotally over and over again is that when women leave violent relationships and they're in transition homes, they're dealing with so many different pieces of their lives at the same moment. They're dealing with housing. They're dealing with their medical issues, the physical and psychological impacts of leaving a violent relationship. They are dealing with their legal issues, the relationship falling apart, child support, and so on. They're having to take their children with them through all of these meetings with lawyers and doctors, because the transition homes are not in a position to provide child care.
Domestic violence leave factors into that. They're dealing with having to work at the same time, or they're trying to get leave or get on social assistance. You can imagine all these things happening at the same time. One piece the federal government can step in on is on giving them leave from work. Another piece is providing legal assistance. Another piece is providing child care. All of that means that women are in a much better place to get their lives back on track and to keep themselves and their children safe.