Evidence of meeting #77 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 teachers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:35 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thanks very much.
This question is for Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters. As a barrier to women's entry, did you hear about the difficulty of accessing affordable child care and particularly something that can accommodate shift work? We heard a lot of testimony from women's groups that it's not just nine to five, but that women working shift work need to be able to drop kids off at any time.
12:35 p.m.
Chief Economist, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
We did. In the barriers that were listed we had two that overlapped. One is the work-life balance, and one is whether they thought they could meet family commitments without damaging their current and future career advancement.
We didn't delve into the solutions end of it, specifically about the child care and day care issues as we designed the survey. One of the challenges that we have is to try to get as much information as possible without beating people to death with 85-question surveys, which I've been guilty of in the past.
It was implied in the family commitments responses, which scored high on women's lists of important issues or obstacles that they face, but not specifically on child care itself.
12:35 p.m.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Your organization's advocacy would be helpful on that. For the next chapter that would be terrific.
Status of Women Canada, we've lost track of how many organizations have said they would love to see a return to the old funding model that recognized from the federal government perspective that, for example, domestic violence shelter operations and a number of other front-line operations that are being delivered by the NGO community cannot survive with program funding, given that the federal, provincial, and territorial governments are not offering services secure, operational, multi-year funding. Countless organizations have said that's a barrier. They are innovative. They are collaborative, but they are burned out filling out the next innovative funding application.
You're doing great program funding. I recognize that, and we've been hearing that. Could you talk about what you're hearing about the appetite to return to that model, which was in place 20 years ago or so?
12:35 p.m.
Senior Director General, Women’s Program and Regional Operations, Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women
As I said, I'm a recent addition to the organization, but since I've arrived, definitely we've heard that loud and clear as well.
Speaking with Bonnie and colleagues, it is a challenge that organizations face. The idea of sustainable funding or funding for capacity building or funding to provide organizations with the support they need to continue to do the great work they do every day on the ground has been raised as an issue.
From the department's perspective, we've heard those concerns. The minister has heard the concerns as well when we've met with organizations. We hear those ideas, those challenges that organizations face, and we understand where they're coming from. We need to take that into account when we're looking at what types of projects or funding we are putting in place to allow these organizations to do the great work they do on the ground every day.
12:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Nancy, thank you very much. It's all good.
We're going to Sean Fraser for seven minutes.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'll begin with you, Ms. Van. Thanks for staying for the extra panel. There are two things I want to explore with you. There is only a short period of time, so perhaps you could keep the answers tight.
First, in June of this year, Minister Bains announced the CanCode program. I believe that your organization was on hand, along with Actua and Kids Code Jeunesse. It was going to create 500,000 opportunities for children from kindergarten to grade 12 to train in code and to provide funding for 500 teachers as well.
Is this the kind of program that helps you to do the good work you're doing, or are there different kinds of programs we could use to support your organization?
12:35 p.m.
Director, Youth Programming, Canada Learning Code
Yes, that is definitely an example of the kind of work that supports some of our goals.
We believe in working with organizations such as Kids Code Jeunesse to establish allies to enable us to broaden our reach to educators across our nation. Again, engaging educators through CanCode certainly mirrors the initiatives that really move kids forward.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
There are some jurisdictional issues about us getting into schools. Is this an effective way to go through the back door to make sure the programming is being delivered where it needs to be delivered? Is it a “give you the resources and get out of the way” kind of thing?
12:40 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
You raised an issue that's deeply troubling to me, and not just for coding and the computational fields, but for professional industries generally, and that's the high rate of women departing partway into their careers.
There are also problems getting in, but I've seen it in law, even where a majority of the students who are graduating are female. A few years in.... There are a number of reasons why it may be the case, but from the federal government perspective, we're going to make recommendations to the government to say that this is a problem it needs to tackle. What can we ask the government to do to help different professions, including coding, keep women in the workforce so they can reach those higher levels?
12:40 p.m.
Director, Youth Programming, Canada Learning Code
I think this speaks to some of the comments that were made earlier. We're seeing more organizations adopting specific initiatives and, in some cases, specific departments focused on EDI—equity, diversity, and inclusion—and what that looks like within the organization.
In anecdotal conversations that I'm having with women in areas of STEM who do hold senior-level positions within organizations and are on the brink of being part of that 25% who leave, what keeps me hopeful is knowing that there are organizations that are really starting to understand the deep-rooted needs that these women require to remain in these organizations.... We're also finding that some of the private sector partnerships we have are empowering a lot of these adult women within organizations to stay in the organizations they are in, knowing that young girls, with their newfound awareness, are looking to them as role models and need to see people within these organizations who look like them.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
If I may, I'll shift gears to Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, who are at the table.
Thank you very much for being here. I appreciate your testimony.
I recognize that the survey you did was largely a fact-finding mission and that it's right out of the gate, so I don't expect you to have all the answers, but the timing for us is somewhat urgent because we're going to be launching a report on the issue of promotion and advancement within the workforce.
Building on the testimony we just heard, how can the federal government work with our private sector partners to help them allow women to succeed within the different industries?
12:40 p.m.
Chief Economist, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
In addition to what was mentioned earlier, which I completely agree with, there are a couple of specific areas where we're looking to partner with governments.
One is that at the end of the day, it comes down to a labour supply issue. We need more women to be choosing the types of educational programs that will lead them to these kinds of careers, and we want them to want those careers. I think there is an opportunity to work together on promoting STEM and the skilled trades for girls. What that might look like is something that we're interested in talking about and having a discussion on.
The second one is this whole issue of opening manufacturing doors and showcasing female success stories. I think you mentioned women seeing themselves in executive positions and seeing other women succeed. That is something that especially the younger respondents to our survey were very much in favour of. They thought that would make a big difference.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
On the first issue, you said that you want to have these discussions. To find the right solution, do you think that having a consultation with the federal government and private sector partners would be a good next step to identify what the real solutions are?
12:40 p.m.
Chief Economist, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
I think so, yes. We are going to be working with Status of Women Canada. We've made note of the initiatives that you mentioned earlier, and I think that we'll be making some submissions for those programs as well.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Has anyone in the private sector assessed the cost of inaction? You mentioned that there's enhanced productivity and innovation when you bring women into the workforce. If I do a quick opportunity cost assessment in my mind, I want to beat my head against the wall, because the cost of inaction seems far too great to ignore. Is this anything the private sector has assessed?
12:40 p.m.
Chief Economist, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
Not to my knowledge, no.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Okay.
Very quickly, going to our department officials—I think I have less than a minute to go—you mentioned the need for a progressive trade agenda. Economic growth is great. Gone unchecked, it won't really help that many people. It will mostly help people who don't need the help. By building a progressive element into our trade agenda to ensure that women also benefit, I think we're going to see benefits, but how can we pursue international trade in a way that will ensure that the benefits aren't essentially going to the patriarchy?
12:45 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women
How much time do I have?
12:45 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
12:45 p.m.
Director General, Policy and External Relations, Office of the Co-ordinator, Status of Women
This should be easy.