Thank you.
I'll be speaking to pay equity and child care. I'll start with child care.
Economic security and a poverty reduction strategy must address the adverse lifelong impacts of the disproportionate unpaid caregiving performed by women in Canada.
In 2016, West Coast LEAF did a research project looking at the impact of child care on a diverse group of women in B.C. In the resulting public report, titled “High Stakes: The impacts of child care on the human rights of women and children”, we documented the extent to which unpaid caregiving responsibilities disproportionately fall on women, and the corresponding impact on their economic security, whether they are parenting with a partner or parenting alone. In particular, when combined with the wage gap, women often become financially dependent on their partner and are at risk of deep poverty when relationships come to an end.
Lack of accessible child care creates some very practical and immediate obstacles for a woman who, as a result of relationship breakdown—or any other reason, really—must return to work or increase her hours of work while continuing to be the primary caregiver for her children. We want to see $10-a-day child care implemented in B.C., with immediate subsidies to be administered through the existing operating grant structure.
We ask that federal funding to provinces be made subject to conditions as to how it should be spent, conditions that address and prioritize the following specific concerns: prioritized access to free child care for women fleeing violence, women who need support to parent, and children awaiting kinship care placements; flexible child care services that provide a range of child care programs that accommodate work schedules outside of the usual Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. workweek; availability of childcare services and supports to all regardless of immigration status, particularly women who are fleeing violence; child care services and support that are separate from the child care protection system to ensure that women do not fear asking for assistance; availability of culturally appropriate child care for indigenous children; and fully accessible child care services for children with disabilities.
We also call on the government to enact proactive pay equity legislation.
To address economic security in a meaningful way, it is time to enact proactive federal pay equity legislation. The current complaint-based model is not effective. It does not guarantee the right to equal pay for work of equal value, a human right recognized by our government and by the international community. The wage gap is a significant barrier to economic security for women at any age, and it has both short-term and long-term consequences. The disproportionate exposure of women to poverty and associated adverse impacts, including the inability to access justice and leave abusive relationships due to lack of financial means, must be considered when discussing economic security for women.
It is time for action. The pay equity discussion has been ongoing since the 1950s. Despite the fact that it has been recognized as a human right, we still do not have federal proactive pay equity legislation in Canada.