Evidence of meeting #4 for Status of Women in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was care.
A video is available from Parliament.
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you.
I'm just going to shift a little bit. I'd like for you to just talk briefly. Canada hasn't ratified the ILO's Domestic Workers Convention, No. 189, which looks at unpaid work and the realities, the fact that women do the vast majority of that unpaid work. Would that be a key leadership role? What are other specific things that the Canadian government could do to recognize that work and start to pay for it?
Economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers, As an Individual
What a great question. We've been wrestling with this. You know, in December we're going to have the 50th anniversary of the status of women commission's report. We've been talking about this issue for 50 years, along with child care.
I don't have a quick answer for you. I think it's really problematic to pay people for what was unpaid work. We already have tax credits for caregivers. I'm very nervous that women will settle for, essentially, a very small stipend to do unpaid work and set back women's equality by decades. That's my personal fear, but I also recognize that maybe I'm fetishizing paid work. I don't know. You're raising one of these unbelievably difficult needles to thread, so kudos to you.
Is there something else that the federal government can do? You bet. One thing the federal government can do is to walk what it's talking on 10 paid sick days. It's telling the provinces to do 10 paid sick days, but it itself, in its own jurisdiction, does not lead by example. It could be doing that in its own jurisdiction, which is about 7% of the labour market. It would make a big difference to some people.
We need to regulate the gig economy more because we know it is going to bust open. In the wake of COVID, we're going to have much more on-demand work, and it's an essentially unregulated sector of the labour market. We need 21st-century regulations to govern this work, which is not as gendered as you'd think. Sometimes, when people think about the gig economy, they think about Uber drivers. Women are going to stay at home and do TaskRabbit and Mechanical Turk and stuff like that if they don't get child care. More women are going to do this kind of work. It is unregulated. People earn less than the minimum wage.
I'm sorry; I've taken too much time.
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Ms. Barnet, you mentioned that a lot of the workers are, you said, hanging on by a thread. In terms of what you've seen—and again we go back to unpaid work, we go back to the stresses on parents, but women in particular, such as child care, elder care. What are the long-term impacts on those workers that you have seen because of COVID recently?
President and Chief Operating Officer, Avit Manufacturing
I've listened to a lot of CEOs around the country trying to support young women with young families, and the young men, too. It's been a family problem.
I think it will be very discouraging for these people on a go-forward basis. They've been stretched so far that they give up on that dream of a two-income home, or whatever it was for them, or being elevated in the economy. We need to fix this so that we don't stress people so far on what should be realistic that it feels like it's a dream they can't fulfill.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Excellent. Thank you so much, Rhonda.
On behalf of the committee I would really like to thank Anita, Rhonda and Armine for coming today. You have brought excellent testimony once again, so thank you very much. On behalf of the committee and as chair, I am so grateful that everybody is here today. We have had excellent panels.
Thank you to all of the staff who have been here to support us. You've done an excellent job. I am looking at Scott over there. Thank you so much.
Of course, to both our clerk and to our analysts, thank you so much. To all of the interpreters, I know we've been here for a long time.
I'm looking at everybody. Thank you so much for being part of today.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
It's time to wipe our brows and get to work. We will be back tomorrow. We'll be commencing at 10:30, when we'll have both Minister Qualtrough and Minister Monsef. I'll see everybody at 10:30 tomorrow to reconvene.
Today's committee meeting is adjourned. Thank you.