Status of Women Committee on July 7th, 2020

[Morna Ballantyne, Executive Director, Child Care Now]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for inviting me to testify this afternoon.

Child Care Now, also known as the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, was founded in 1982 to act on behalf of organizations and individuals who want high-quality, affordable and inclusive early learning and child care to be available for all families and all children, regardless of where they live and regardless of their circumstances.

We commend the Standing Committee on the Status of Women for undertaking an examination of the impact of COVID-19 on women and for recognizing that such an examination would be incomplete without addressing the impact of COVID-19 on women's access to child care.

I appeared before your committee three years ago, when you were carrying out a study on the economic security of women. I and many other witnesses said then that women in Canada will not and cannot achieve economic security without full access to the paid labour force and properly paid work. This will not and cannot happen without a publicly funded and publicly managed child care system. It's taken a public health crisis to prove our argument yet again. Now, finally, the essential and multiple roles of child care are being recognized, including by our Prime Minister. COVID-19 also exposes the fragility of the provision of child care in Canada. However, what governments will do about it, if anything, remains to be seen.

Statistics Canada's labour force survey confirms the devastating impact of the pandemic on women's employment, and particularly on the employment of mothers with children under the age of 12. While the May jobs report shows some job recovery overall, women accounted for only 29% of that recovery. Getting women back into the paid labour force is critical to women's economic security, but increasing women's labour force participation is also crucial to a sustainable economic recovery for everyone. The construction of an accessible, affordable, quality and inclusive system of child care is essential if Canada is to forge a resilient and just future and also become the best possible place for children.

Child care in Canada was fragile before the pandemic hit, because it's market-based, it's fragmented, and it's seriously underfunded.

Parents in Canada are forced to purchase services from a child care market, some of which is regulated and much not, and some of which is not-for-profit and some a source of profit. It's a market that offers a confusing array of very scarce offerings, too many of which are of poor quality and almost all of which are unaffordable for most families. It contributes to and exacerbates economic and social inequity. Indigenous families, racialized families and low-income households are disproportionately shut out.

The child care market is also particularly bad at meeting the needs of children with disabilities, children whose parents work non-standard or irregular hours and children who live in rural and remote communities.

This market approach works no better for child care providers. Almost all programs outside of Quebec rely primarily on parent-fee revenue to stay in operation. The predominantly female workforce earns low wages. Any raise in compensation translates into higher parent fees. Inadequate compensation has made the recruitment and retention of qualified early childhood educators a perpetually serious concern.

Leaving the provision of care to the market doesn't work for child care any better than it would work for health care, primary education or secondary education, or countless other areas where governments have intervened for the benefit of all Canadians and because it makes economic sense to do so.

COVID-19 exposed all the problems with market-based child care and the absence of a fully publicly funded and publicly managed child care system. When provinces and territories ordered child care programs to close during the emergency response phase of the pandemic, with limited services for essential workers, the sector was disrupted in a way that it was not disrupted for public education or other parts of the public sector. The level of disruption depended on the approach taken by each province and territorial government.

In places where necessary support was provided, the child care programs are in a much better position to reopen and respond to the needs of children and parents, but a survey of licensed child care centres in Canada carried out in May found that more than one-third of the centres across Canada are uncertain about reopening.

It's now time for major government intervention in early learning and child care. Child Care Now has proposed a federal strategy for doing just that. Of course we recognize that the reconstruction of child care cannot be left to the federal government alone. It's going to require the federal government to work with the provinces, territories and indigenous governments and communities, but the federal government must provide policy leadership, supported by its spending power, to respond to the immediate economic and social fallout of COVID-19 and to set the foundation for longer-term system-building.

Our strategy calls for a two-phased approach. In the first phase, we want the federal government to spend $2.5 billion to support the safe and full recovery of regulated early learning and child care and to respond to the immediate care needs of school-age children. In the second phase, we propose that the federal government boost its child care spending to $2 billion in 2021-22 and that this base be increased each year thereafter by $2 billion.

These federal funds would be used to move Canada towards a fully publicly funded system in partnership with the provinces, territories and indigenous governments. Twenty per cent of this funding should be earmarked to support the indigenous early learning and child care framework. The federal government, under our plan, would require the provinces and territories to use the federal funds to achieve measurable improvement in accessibility, affordability, quality and inclusiveness. Additionally, the federal government would establish and fund a federal early learning and child care secretariat to lead and coordinate the federal government's work. Finally, the government would propose legislation that enshrines Canada's commitment to give all children the right to high-quality early learning and child care.

Let me elaborate very briefly on what we want to see in the first phase, which would start now and continue to the end of the current fiscal year.

The federal government has promised $14 billion in new federal transfers to the provinces and territories, to be rolled out over the remaining months of 2020. These transfers are to help finance the safe restart of the economy. What we propose is that the federal government allocate $2.5 billion of these promised transfers for spending on child care. Agreements with each province and territory would ensure that the federal government funds would be used for, one, a safe restart of child care programs; two, the restoration and expansion of the number of licensed child care spaces that existed prior to the pandemic; and three, the establishment and operation of child care programs for school-age children up to age 12 through the summer months and into the fall and winter. Parents need access to quality programs before and after school hours and/or during regular school hours if schooling is not available because of public health concerns.

Additionally, we want the federal funds to be used to improve the wages of those who work in early learning and child care to ensure the return and retention of qualified staff to the sector.

The federal secretariat that has been mandated by the Prime Minister of Canada would be established during this first phase. Its mandate would be to advise on, monitor and evaluate phase 1 implementation and to plan for phase 2, including the development of comprehensive workforce and expansion strategies.

Again, thanks for inviting me today. I invite you to read the full text of our strategy, which is posted on our website at timeforchildcare.ca.

Of course, I am happy to answer any questions you have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

I'm now going to pass the floor over to Hélène Cornellier, the communications manager for Association féminine d'éducation et d'action sociale.

You have the floor for 10 minutes. Thank you very much.

[Hélène Cornellier, Coordinator of Action Plan and Communications, Association féminine d'éducation et d'action sociale]

Good afternoon.

Thank you for the invitation to today's hearings.

The question your study seeks to answer is directly tied to one of the fundamental challenges behind achieving equality among Canadians: recognizing and valuing invisible work. The Association féminine d'éducation et d'action sociale, or AFEAS for short, is approaching today's consultation from that particular perspective.

Already in 1968, during the Bird commission hearings, AFEAS stressed the importance of recognizing unpaid work by women in the family unit and society. It argued that this work, which is seen as women's social role, impoverishes women their entire lives. The situation continues today, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown.

No one, it seems, anticipated a health crisis of this magnitude. From the outset, it brought out glaring inequalities between women and men, especially for racialized and immigrant women.

At the same time, the pandemic has shone a light on the work of those who remained on the job to keep society's essential services running and care for those who are ill. In the health care sector, 80% of the workforce is female, caregivers are generally women, and the education sector also relies on many female workers.

Since the pandemic hit, women have mostly been the ones on the front lines. However, the key stakeholders, women, are left out of the decision-making bodies, even though decisions made on a day-to-day basis directly concern them. To prepare for a second wave of the pandemic, as well as the recovery or the return to normalcy to be defined, AFEAS is proposing various short- and medium-term measures.

To start with, AFEAS recommends two essential benchmarks to ensure that legislation, policies, programs and measures require that women participate as key stakeholders. It means not only involving women MPs, but also women's and community organizations, as well as researchers who, year after year, work for and with women. The way out of the crisis, which will be social, economic and environmental, must include women.

AFEAS requests that the Government of Canada establish a gender parity requirement for all relevant bodies set up to manage the crisis and its aftermath, and use gender-based analysis, or GBA+, to ensure that women's needs and perspective are heard and taken into account.

To obtain true recognition for their work, and to raise awareness of the contribution made by Canadians who perform invisible work, AFEAS calls on the federal government to declare the first Tuesday in April national invisible workload day and, above all, to assess and integrate the economic value of so-called “invisible” unpaid work into the gross domestic product, or GDP. For your information, in 1992, Statistics Canada estimated that the invisible workload accounted for 34% to 54% of GDP, or $235 billion to $374 billion Canadian.

To address some particular challenges women are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, AFEAS suggests implementing certain measures. With regard to women's health and safety, coping with the crisis has brought its share of stress, anxiety and distress for women who manage the daily routine, but also for the people they care for, be they children, the elderly or persons with disabilities. In addition, for many women, losing their jobs, even if that income was temporarily replaced by the CERB, has added further stress. I should also mention the upsurge in domestic and family violence, which more women and children have suffered during the lockdown period.

To remedy this situation, in the event of a return to lockdown, the Government of Canada and the local and provincial authorities concerned must implement services for children and seniors or others in need; ensure regular follow-up with vulnerable people who may be victims of violence, women and children, to bring them out of isolation; and consolidate the network of shelters for those experiencing domestic violence.

In terms of economic impact, the Conseil du statut de la femme estimates that 120,000 women have lost their jobs, as compared with 55,100 men, and that twice as many women work part time, which has consequences for them. The data obviously relate to Quebec.

In Canada, it would cost $4 billion to $10 billion to hire 1.2 million full-time professionals to cover the hours worked by family caregivers, 54% of whom are women.

According to the Regroupement des aidants naturels du Québec, only 3.2% of caregivers received a tax credit in 2017, receiving an average amount of $559. Moreover, because of the restrictive eligibility criteria, many caregivers did not qualify for the tax credit.

Research shows that, in Canada, caregivers spend an average of $7,600 per year on the person they care for, regardless of their initial income level, and that 20% of caregivers are financially insecure.

To support and value the contribution of parents, caregivers and all those who do invisible work, AFEAS is asking the federal government to convert existing non-refundable tax credits into refundable tax credits for parents and caregivers, and create new income tax measures truly adapted to their needs.

In addition, AFEAS is calling on the government to make changes to employment insurance caregiving benefits: the compassionate care, family caregiver for adults, and family caregiver for children benefits. Specifically, the government should eliminate the mandatory one-week waiting period, pay all three benefits for 35 weeks, and change the current definition of a critically ill child or adult to provide access to benefits in the event of a chronic medical condition.

More than anything else, AFEAS is calling for the requirement to implement pay equity programs at all levels, both in government institutions and in federally regulated businesses, as well as in companies that receive government contracts, grants or loans.

Women are known to face pressures and social barriers. As the previous witnesses have all mentioned, the coronavirus pandemic has forced the government to place schoolchildren and people age 70 and older in lockdown in their homes, and to close non-essential businesses. Overnight, women had to find different ways to run errands, keep the kids busy, home-school them, and care for family members with diminishing independence or in self-isolation, while continuing to do their paid jobs at home or in the essential service sector—if they had not lost their job as a result of the crisis. Most importantly, they also had to avoid getting infected and infecting others. Quite a heavy added burden that no one was prepared for landed on women's shoulders.

To support women in the coming months, the Government of Canada and its provincial partners must introduce measures to ensure equal sharing of family duties and responsibilities, strengthen family agencies and services, and develop agreements with employers and others to reduce productivity requirements, even for teleworkers, while maintaining full weekly pay.

In closing, AFEAS has something else for the committee's suggestion box. It recommends that the federal government create a public day care system across the country, introduce 10 days' paid vacation, and move quickly to set up affordable housing programs and ensure adequate availability of consistent, comprehensive high-quality home care.

Most of all, AFEAS is asking the federal government to resist introducing austerity measures while the economy recovers, as it would only impoverish those already in need and destroy public services and the social security system. We have been there before.

Finally, AFEAS is requesting that special attention be paid to indigenous communities on and off reserve. How can you self-isolate if you are contagious, when families live in overcrowded conditions because of a lack of adequate housing? How can you follow public health measures—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We need to wrap it up, Hélène. I gave you a few extra seconds. I'll give you 10 more seconds.

[Hélène Cornellier]

I will finish up.

How can you follow public health measures when no water is available? These communities and women dealing with the crisis must make the decisions and define the needs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you.

We're going to start our rounds of questioning with Jag Sahota.

Jag, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Thank you, ladies, for your time and your presentations.

I have a few questions for you, Ms. Decter. The earlier panel spoke to the deep need for support for women facing abuse, particularly in the area of human trafficking and exploitation. Recently the funding for the measures to address prostitution initiatives expired, with no interim funding to help organizations continue their programming. We know that violence against women has increased during this pandemic and that trafficked women are now at an even greater risk than normal. In light of this, do you think the government should provide some kind of immediate interim support for these organizations?

[Ann Decter]

I'm sorry, but I am not specifically informed on the trafficking program. I don't know exactly the situation there. I'd be happy to check with the women at the foundation who work on anti-trafficking, but in general, we would say yes, all anti-violence work is definitely in need of increased funding.

As I was saying, programs are in over-demand and are underfunded, and it's a patchwork across the country of various provincial funding schemes. I think the pandemic has clearly shown that this needs to be a national system. We need a national action plan on violence against women and girls. We also need the national action plan on violence against indigenous women and girls to go ahead. These things need to come into place, well funded, as quickly as possible.

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Okay. Thank you for that.

Ms. Decter, we know that your organization distributed funding to sexual assault centres at the beginning of the pandemic. Can you outline the criteria used to determine which sexual assault centres were provided funding?

[Ann Decter]

I didn't work specifically on the criteria, but they were developed in working with the Department of Women and Gender Equality. The sexual assault centres that we forwarded government funding to were all outside of Quebec. We didn't work with any Quebec centres. That funding went straight through the Quebec government.

Also, we were working with WAGE, I guess, again not directly. I did do some phone calls to sexual assault centres and made sure that we had the correct registration information, but I wasn't involved at that level. They also had to be not in receipt of funding that was going to women's shelters, and some organizations had both. The goal there was to make sure that everybody got some money.

That's what I can tell you about the sexual assault centres funding. In that sense, I believe they had to be non-residential programs, because the residential programs were considered to come under the rubric of shelters, but I would have to go back and check that for you, if you like.

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Would you be able to provide a copy of the criteria to the committee?

[Ann Decter]

I think so. I will try to find it. I haven't seen it myself. I was just given a list to call.

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Okay.

I have another question. Were any organizations that are not classified as sexual assault centres, such as the YWCA or other multi-functional facilities, selected for funding?

[Ann Decter]

I would have to check. Did multi-service organizations receive that funding...?

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Yes, I mean multi-functional facilities like YWCAs.

[Ann Decter]

Having worked for the YWCA for decades, I think we called it a multi-service association.

Is it the criteria for sexual assault centre funding and who received sexual assault centre funding specifically what you're asking?

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Yes. You had organizations that.... If they were not classified as sexual assault centres, did they receive funding?

[Ann Decter]

Did they receive sexual assault centre funding?

[Jag Sahota, Conservative, Calgary Skyview, AB]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Fantastic. Thank you very much.

We're now going to pass it over to Sonia Sidhu.

Sonia, you have six minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks to all of you for the work you're doing in your community. It's really appreciated.

My question is for Ms. Ann Decter, and I just want to state that I'm really proud of the work the government has done to support women, including how GBA informs every department. Each department is responsible for doing its own GBA, which is a huge stride. I'm really proud of that.

My question is on the response to COVID-19. The federal government created the Canada emergency response benefit. That has supported over eight million Canadians who lost their jobs during COVID-19. More than 60% of early job losses were women's jobs. In your opinion, how has this program supported women facing many unique challenges during COVID-19? Can you explain that?

[Ann Decter]

Well, I don't have data on the uptake of women who lost jobs, on how many of them went onto the CERB, but I did think that the CERB was very effective. I thought it was very smart to bring it up really quickly.

We talk about a recession, but it wasn't so much a recession as an economic shutdown. The underlying factors of the economy didn't cause people to lose jobs. What caused people to lose jobs was a choice we made on how to fight the pandemic. I have no problem with it. It was a smart choice. To continue to have income through that period was very important for those who were pushed out of work.

As we know, the job losses for women, especially in that first month, were about two times the rate for men. We also know that women are working more precariously. They have lower incomes. More of them are in part-time jobs, with little or no benefits such as sick leave and all those kinds of things, so to be able to move onto a benefit that exceeded the minimal amount they'd get paid on EI was probably very helpful.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

I had a meeting with some women's organizations and heard that domestic violence is on the rise as a result of COVID-19. Your organization has launched the Signal for Help campaign to support women who are stuck with their abuser during COVID-19 and are finding it difficult to seek help. Could you explain how this campaign is working and how other organizations can make similar steps so they can help other women in the community?

[Ann Decter]

Signal for Help was actually brought to us by an advertising firm that wanted to do something to help out. They had an idea that we could create some kind of sign that a women could use, on a call like this one, that would indicate that she was in distress. They wanted to give an extra tool to a woman who was trapped in a home and didn't have a way to communicate that or to leave. We worked with them to create a hand signal, called Signal for Help, that indicates that the person needs help. We educated them around telling people that calling the police and sending them over to the house was not necessarily the best step. We worked through that process. They created it in English, French and Spanish, and have really pushed it out worldwide. We've seen people posting it from Brazil and different countries around the world.

Obviously, it doesn't work for everyone, but a lot of people are at home and are working on calls like this. If you get the signal that someone is in distress, the Signal for Help poster that's out there says how to contact resources and the steps you can take to help out instead of just calling the police right away in an emergency. It's free for anyone to use and for any agency to adapt and forward as they want.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

The other question I want to ask concerns long-term care homes. They have been hit hard by COVID-19 across Canada. In my region of Peel, there are a lot of cases. Women have been hit hard by COVID-19.

In your opinion, what specific issues do the women who work in and reside in the LTC homes face during COVID-19? How can we protect them? We know that long-term care comes under provincial jurisdiction, the same as child care, but how can the federal government help there? How can the provinces step up and protect them? What needs to be done there?