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.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Marcie Hawranik  Founder and President, Canadian Equality Consulting
Megan Walker  Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
Ann Decter  Director, Community Initiatives, Canadian Women's Foundation
Morna Ballantyne  Executive Director, Child Care Now
Hélène Cornellier  Coordinator of Action Plan and Communications, Association féminine d'éducation et d'action sociale
Sara Wolfe  Director, Indigenous Innovation Initiatives, Grand Challenges Canada
Vicki Saunders  Founder, SheEO
Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich  Communications and Development Manager, Women's Shelters Canada
Lorraine Whitman  President, Native Women's Association of Canada
Jill Earthy  Interim Chief Executive Officer, Women's Enterprise Centre
Linda Gavsie  Senior Vice President, Universal Learning Institute
Anita Khanna  National Director, Public Policy and Government Relations, United Way Centraide Canada
Rhonda Barnet  President and Chief Operating Officer, Avit Manufacturing
Armine Yalnizyan  Economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers, As an Individual

4 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

I'm sorry. I'm looking at the time frame. Your question was outside of that.

What we can do, Sara, is that perhaps you could give us a very short answer. I'm really trying to keep watching the clock here, so very short, please, Sara, like 10 to 15 seconds, so we can move to Lindsay.

4 p.m.

Director, Indigenous Innovation Initiatives, Grand Challenges Canada

Sara Wolfe

We need to see the challenge as an opportunity. We have housing problems for indigenous people generally, across urban, rural, remote and isolated first nations communities, but even in Toronto. Housing is a major issue for all indigenous peoples, but in particular for indigenous women and gender-diverse people, so investing in them is great.

4 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Excellent. Thank you so much. I'm sorry about that. I'm looking at the clock. We have to get everything going forward.

Lindsay, you have the floor now for six more minutes.

4 p.m.

NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

I'd like to address my first question to Women's Shelters Canada. It's about Imagine Canada. I'm sure you have heard of their report coming out. They have stated that the central government is “inconsistent in how they administer” grants and contribution funding and that “multi-year funding is” often “not available”, while “legitimate financial and administrative costs are excluded and program evaluation is not covered”, even though it may be required in an agreement. They state, “The net effect is that charities, nonprofits, and their donors are essentially subsidizing the federal government.”

You specifically addressed and I appreciated the continual voicing of the fact that core funding is desperately needed. Can you explain further how in the future that movement away from short-term, project-based funding and into core stable funding is going to help for a second wave or any sort of future crisis that we may encounter?

4 p.m.

Communications and Development Manager, Women's Shelters Canada

Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich

We've seen that, because of COVID-19 and the social distancing requirements, fundraising for shelters has taken a huge hit. As I said in my remarks, the majority of shelters rely on fundraising because the funding they get from the government, usually from provincial and territorial governments, are, yes, project-based. They'll build a house or build new bedrooms, but they won't pay for the staffing of those shelters or for the support and crisis services that are needed. That's where the fundraising has to come in.

We saw in our report last year that the majority of shelters do not have fundraisers on staff, so it means that executive directors are fundraising outside of their desks, while also trying to deal with crisis situations and shovelling snow and everything else that happens and they often have to do. If you didn't have the project-based funding and you had core funding, there would be a lot more time to do the actual work that shelters are supposed to be doing.

4 p.m.

NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

Also, then, to build on my Bloc colleague's questions about housing, obviously we New Democrats have been pushing for a national affordable housing strategy for quite some time. The unfortunate downloading onto the provinces and municipalities has created a huge void in terms of what's required across Canada, both in urban centres for women trying to escape violence and certainly for indigenous women and girls.

I'd like to hear from Women's Shelters Canada and Ms. Wolfe about those challenges and the need for that focus in terms of a national housing strategy.

4:05 p.m.

Director, Indigenous Innovation Initiatives, Grand Challenges Canada

Sara Wolfe

Absolutely, a national housing strategy is something that I think would be very needed for indigenous people and for indigenous women and gender-diverse people specifically, but there are a lot of opportunities. We could be investing in innovation.

Again, if we're thinking about COVID and COVID recovery, we need to be looking at it from a big-term perspective and not just the immediate crisis of the second wave. We need to be looking at it in terms of how we are recovering from this downstream and starting to set the building stones now, by investing in innovation and long-term solutions and, as Vicki said, by resetting some of the narratives around how we can support and build each other up and how we can build relationships within communities and support each other to thrive in a post-COVID recovery context.

Empowering indigenous women in particular but all women with the tools they need to support themselves and to support each other is going to also help to address some of the challenges around housing, violence, trafficking, poverty and child care. We need women to be empowered to make those decisions for themselves.

4:05 p.m.

Communications and Development Manager, Women's Shelters Canada

Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich

I would add that it's not just housing for women. It's housing for the shelters themselves. It's the second-stage shelters, which are shelters that women need to go to if they have a high risk of lethality or of post-separation violence. They don't exist in a lot of rural and remote areas because there's no housing for second-stage shelters to purchase in order to exist. That's a huge issue as well.

4:05 p.m.

NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

I would like to move back to child care. It's interesting that I was actually on the finance committee when Ms. Saunders had her discussion about the necessity of child care. I was going to quote you and ask you to expand, so I'm so glad that you are sharing that with us again today.

In the previous discussion, we had heard about the necessity for publicly funded, across-the-board national standardization of child care. I know that we don't have women back in the economy without that child care. Could you continue to expand on the importance of that?

I also heard today on the CBC a quote from a witness who will be coming in shortly. She said that we won't just experience a recession in Canada without that necessary child care in place, but it actually will be a depression because women will not be back in the workforce. Could you expand on that?

4:05 p.m.

Founder, SheEO

Vicki Saunders

I hope she has some economic data to share. I'm not an economist, so I don't have that.

I think we have such an opportunity with what's happening right now with the pandemic to look at what we value in society, to look at the impact of not valuing certain things and to look at how we have prioritized growth over everything else, instead of taking care of one another.

If you just look at what's happening in homes where elders are being taken care of, or not, we continue to devalue taking care of one another. These are the building blocks of strong, resilient and incredible societies with great connective tissue.

I am so hopeful. We have literally had the curtain pulled back on all of the things that aren't working sitting right in front of us every day and we see the impact of what it does to society. For me, this concept of valuing caring for each other—a caring economy—is going to have a huge impact if we focus on that going forward for Canada's resilience and our economic growth and support of Canadians.

For me, this is just such a no-brainer. On the finance committee, the person who shared it said we've been talking about this since 1980.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Wonderful.

We've now ended the panel for today.

Thank you so much, Sara, Vicki and Kaitlin, for bringing us your excellent testimony.

We are going to suspend, go through checks for sound checks and reconvene as soon as possible.

4:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

We're going to convene our study once again on the impacts of COVID on women. We are starting our next panel, and I am very honoured to welcome Lorraine Whitman, the president of the Native Women's Association; Jill Earthy, interim chief executive officer of Women's Enterprise Centre; and Linda Gavsie, senior vice-president, Universal Learning Institute.

We're going to start with Lorraine. You will have the floor for 10 minutes. I will be cutting everybody off at 10 minutes. I will be giving you a 15-second warning that I will be slowing it down.

Lorraine, go ahead.

July 7th, 2020 / 4:20 p.m.

Lorraine Whitman President, Native Women's Association of Canada

Wela'lin.

Good afternoon. My name is Elder Lorraine Whitman, Grandmother White Sea Turtle, and I would be like to acknowledge the territory of Mi'kma'ki, of the L'nu Mi'kmaq people.

I am also the president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, which means that I represent and defend the rights of first nation, Métis and Inuit women across Canada—

4:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Lorraine, could you just speak up a tad?

4:20 p.m.

President, Native Women's Association of Canada

Lorraine Whitman

Okay. I will get a little closer to the mike.

You have all asked me here today to talk to you about the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting indigenous women, and I appreciate the opportunity to share some of NWAC's findings and also our concerns.

I am here today to talk about the pandemic, but also to talk about violence, because the two issues are linked.

I don't need to tell you that when COVID-19 hit the shores of the indigenous women, their children were among the most vulnerable populations in Canada. I don't need to tell you that first nations, Métis and Inuit women and girls are murdered or go missing in numbers far greater than their proportion of the population, that the federal government has so far not delivered on its promise to create a national action plan to address the calls to justice of the national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women and girls.

The action plan would be a living document that is enhanced over time. It does not have to be perfect when it's first delivered. It just needs to be the start of the end of the violence that the inquiry labelled a genocide. Sadly, COVID-19 increased the danger level for indigenous women. The government has used the pandemic as an excuse for not releasing a plan. We are urging the members of this committee to pressure the government to listen to us and to keep its commitment, but let's look at the impacts of the pandemic.

As the pandemic threat grew, NWAC conducted a needs assessment with its provincial and territorial member associates. All but two responded, and the results painted a frightening picture. Our affiliate, the Nunavut Inuit Women's Association, for instance, said it was extremely concerned that levels of violence were on the rise as a result of the pandemic. Elsewhere in Canada, there were no medical resources on some first nations to test people who appeared symptomatic. Support services, such as community counselling and other programs, were withdrawn, and the mechanisms established to help our people cope with their special needs disappeared.

Between May 1 and May 29, we conducted a survey of 750 indigenous women and gender-diverse people, a poll that was verified by Nanos Research. Their responses suggest that indigenous women are far more worried about domestic violence than they are about the COVID pandemic crisis itself, that they are experiencing more violence since the pandemic began, that the most vulnerable are under the age of 35 or living in the north, that romantic partners are seen as the most common source of the violence and that the financial impacts of the disease have increased the dangers.

Yes, COVID is of significant concern to NWAC and the indigenous women of Canada. Among the recommendations we made when submitting our advice to the government about the creation of a national action plan was a request for the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations to host a virtual international best practice summit to discuss the impacts of COVID on indigenous people in Canada and other countries and to offer practical solutions. We have yet to hear back and are continuing to follow through with the Crown on these negotiations and talks.

We note that in the document "The Impact of COVID-19 on Women", the United Nations says member nations should ensure women's equal representation in all COVID-19 response planning and decision-making, and in its document "The Impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous Peoples", the UN says, among other things, that member nations should provide support to indigenous communities that have imposed lockdowns or restrictions to prevent the spread of the disease.

We too are asking for those supports. We are asking that government reach out to indigenous women who are under greater threats because of COVID and because of the financial hardships that have come with them.

We are asking this committee to pressure the government to take seriously its commitments to end the violence that is taking so many of our women before their time, violence that has become an even greater issue during the pandemic.

Wela'lin. Merci beaucoup. Thank you.

4:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Thank you very much.

We're now going to turn it over to Jill Earthy, from the Women's Enterprise Centre.

You have the floor.

4:25 p.m.

Jill Earthy Interim Chief Executive Officer, Women's Enterprise Centre

Thank you very much. Good afternoon. It's wonderful to be here.

I'm here as the interim CEO of the Women's Enterprise Centre in B.C., representing the interests of women entrepreneurs who play a critical role in the economic recovery of Canada. Before we discuss how women entrepreneurs have been impacted by COVID-19, it's important to understand the progress we've made to date.

Women entrepreneurs account for 28% of all entrepreneurs in Canada, according to a 2019 BDC study. Prior to COVID-19, it was projected that advancing women's economic empowerment in Canada could add $150 billion in incremental GDP by 2026, with women's participation in entrepreneurship identified, of course, as a key strategy to achieve this.

Entrepreneurship also provides pathways for addressing inequalities and labour force participation for immigrant women, indigenous women, women in rural and remote communities, and women who require greater flexibility in their working structures, yet as an under-represented group, Canadian women entrepreneurs must overcome several financial, systemic and personal challenges. They earn on average 58% less than male entrepreneurs, access less than 3% of venture capital, receive 14% of loans and own just 48¢ in equity for every dollar male founders own.

There are many reasons for these gaps, many of which you would be familiar with, but they're primarily because the systems that have been created are not designed to be inclusive for all and do not address the different needs of women entrepreneurs.

Some 25 years ago, Western Economic Diversification founded the women's enterprise initiative in each of the four western provinces to address these gaps. These organizations focus on four key areas, including offering loans up to $150,000, advisory services, skills development and mentoring. Women entrepreneurs assisted by the women's enterprise initiative have demonstrated more growth than unassisted firms in terms of employment and sales, and they stay in business longer and their labour productivity is higher. We know this holistic plan works and the impact is significant.

Since 1995, the Women's Enterprise Centre in B.C. has provided over $72.8 million in direct and leveraged financing and created over $2.18 billion in economic activity just in British Columbia, which has helped to create or maintain over 3,000 jobs. We can't lose this momentum.

Of course, a key component of this success is collaboration. In 2010, the Women's Enterprise Organizations of Canada, WEOC, was initiated to bring together organizations from across Canada that support women entrepreneurs to share best practices and to advocate through a collective voice for women business owners, and, as many of you know, in 2018 the Government of Canada launched the women entrepreneurship strategy, with the goal of doubling the number of women-owned businesses by 2025 in Canada. Both the Women's Enterprise Centre and WEOC were recipients of this funding.

We're seeing through this coordinated effort many encouraging shifts. For example, women are improving their financial literacy and access to capital. Between 2007 and 2017, we saw this increase by 20%. More women are exporting. We've seen the share of women entrepreneurs exporting nearly double, from 5.9% to 11.2%. Nearly 40% of women business owners are engaging in at least one type of innovation, and we're seeing shifts in overall growth performance. Again, these results are due to increased awareness, consistent support, improved resources and enhanced collaboration among organizations from coast to coast.

Now we are hit with a new challenge in COVID-19. I stepped into this role at the end of March—interesting timing—just as the impact of this pandemic was truly being realized. I have been familiar with the ecosystem. I served on the board of the Women's Enterprise Centre for eight years and I've been active in the Canadian ecosystem for 20 years in various leadership roles, so I have seen a lot of different things. I'm also the co-founder and co-chair of We For She, an annual conference bringing together business leaders of all genders, along with the next generation of young women in grades 10 to 12, with a focus on the economic advancement of women. I also currently serve on the boards of Sustainable Development Technology Canada, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and the Women's Enterprise Organizations of Canada. I just share this to demonstrate this ongoing commitment to advancing gender equity, but of course with a specific focus on women entrepreneurs and creating new models. It's an absolute honour to serve in my current role at this critical time.

With the onset of the pandemic, many entrepreneurs had to close their businesses as a result of health regulations or a lack of customers. Women entrepreneurs were especially hard hit, as they tend to be in service-related businesses, such as those in retail, accommodation, tourism and food services. Some were able to rapidly adapt to the changing environment, and many, of course, have shifted to working from home. In Canada, 24% of female small business owners have children under the age of 18, so of course the concern is that women are taking on additional household duties, including child care and elder care, and that the gaps outlined earlier in my remarks may widen.

Over the past three months, the Women's Enterprise Centre has risen to the challenge—or should I say opportunity—to provide enhanced support to women entrepreneurs throughout the province of B.C., using our proven model. We've offered increased webinars and business advisory services, and we've seen a 39% increase in the number of one-to-one business advisory appointments and a 202% increase in training participants.

As a development lender, we're able to offer deferred loan payments and interest forgiveness, which 90% of our loan clients accepted. We proactively work with our loan clients based on their specific circumstances, and as a result, our repayment rate over the years has been 94%. This is a model that works for women entrepreneurs, and it will be even more critical as we move forward.

We help entrepreneurs understand their options, create a solid plan for recovery and, currently, navigate the many government programs, including the Canada emergency business account loans of $40,000, for which only 50% of our loan clients qualify. This is because of three main factors.

First is business structure. We know that women entrepreneurs are more likely to be first-time business owners, operating as solo entrepreneurs or self-employed without employees.

Second is loans. Many of these government relief programs are being offered as loans, which is challenging, given the business structure I just described. They are typically characterized by a weaker balance sheet and are often unable to support additional debt.

Third is risk. Women entrepreneurs are risk-astute, not risk-averse. They prefer different forms of support and advice. Because there is an inherent lack of role models, they benefit from holistic one-on-one supports when accessing funding, as women entrepreneurs want to understand and consider all impacts.

This is why programs offered by the women's enterprise initiative are so essential. This is a time of change and reimagination in creating systems and models that are more inclusive and holistic. As we recognize the longevity of this current period of staged recovery, we're continuing to be proactive by offering interest-only payments for the next six months to provide a much-needed cash runway, to relieve financial stress and to enable business owners time to adapt, plan and be more proactive instead of reactive.

Another example of a new model is a partnership launched last month between the Women's Enterprise Centre and Vancity, one of Canada's largest credit unions, which is based in British Columbia. In consultation with the Women's Enterprise Centre, Vancity launched a new loan product specifically designed for women entrepreneurs, keeping in mind their unique needs. The program combines Vancity's loan with the Women's Enterprise Centre's services as wraparound support.

We launched this at the end of June, and there has been a surge of applications, indicating that there are still gaps that exist. This is also significant, as fewer than 30% of women business owners surveyed last year felt that banks, credit unions and government-funded lenders recognize and respond to their unique goals, wants and needs. We want to change this, one credit union and one financial institution at a time.

Helping entrepreneurs navigate all these programs and resources, adapt business models and manage cash flow while maintaining a positive mindset and juggling increased household duties has been the focus of our dedicated team, and we're seeing this with our colleagues across the country. With that, we'd like to suggest the following recommendations for consideration.

The first is about data collection. We know the importance of this. We'd like to request that financial institutions and investors build diversity and inclusion metrics into the key performance reporting metrics for all divisions and sections of their companies that work with and for women entrepreneurs. We want government to apply a gender and diversity lens across economic development, research and innovation, and support for small businesses, including in the COVID-19 recovery programs. For example, tracking the percentage of women entrepreneurs accessing the Canada emergency business account loans would provide valuable insight and identify key gaps.

A second recommendation, which I know this committee has heard several times, is to create a national child care policy. This would enable women to have personal space to focus on business growth during their child-bearing years.

A short-term solution to consider is even a caregiver grant: offering a grant to women entrepreneurs who have taken on additional caregiving responsibilities, which has resulted in decreased productivity—

4:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

I'm sorry, Jill. I know you have—

4:35 p.m.

Interim Chief Executive Officer, Women's Enterprise Centre

Jill Earthy

I'm just wrapping up.

4:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Great. We just have a few seconds. Thanks.

4:35 p.m.

Interim Chief Executive Officer, Women's Enterprise Centre

Jill Earthy

Okay.

Also, we recommend considering a matching grant or micro-grant initiative, unlocking new capital by offering tax incentives for private investors to invest with a gender and sustainability lens, and of course continuing to deepen support for training and support across the country.

As we rise out of this global crisis, women entrepreneurs represent a critical part of economic recovery, so let's ensure that women entrepreneurs are poised to thrive.

Thank you.

4:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Excellent. Great job, especially in your first three months. I hope they're helping you out with those 90 days. If not, we'll write you a letter saying, “She's awesome.”

4:35 p.m.

Interim Chief Executive Officer, Women's Enterprise Centre

Jill Earthy

It has not been boring. Thank you very much.

4:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

What a 90 days.

We're now going to move on to Linda Gavsie, who is with the Universal Learning Institute.

Linda, you have the floor for 10 minutes.

4:35 p.m.

Linda Gavsie Senior Vice President, Universal Learning Institute

Thank you. I'm honoured to be a witness for this committee.

I've been with the Universal Learning Institute for 25 years in a variety of roles. For me as a woman, a senior citizen, a full-time employee in the private post-secondary education field and as someone who is severely hearing-impaired, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on my sense of security and well-being and has had the same impact school-wide.

The women at ULI are local and international students, administrative staff and team members, and teachers. The senior team at ULI is female. As senior vice-president and as someone who has owned my own school in the past, I understand the entrepreneurial needs of the workplace. Today I will focus on the experience of our female constituency.

With COVID-19, many women were losing their part-time jobs or having hours cut, thus losing social connections and not always able to meet the technological requirements for studying or working from home. This has led to an assortment of issues for the businesses and for the individuals. The business of ULI lost expected revenue, and the students and staff were challenged to be resilient with all the changes and concerns coming at them at once. What follows are some of the insights from your guidelines.

I'm in the unique position of having designed, managed and experienced the difficult transition from face-to-face learning to online learning. I moved the entire school to work from home, 100%, as the school was required to shelter at home while we navigated this pandemic together. The greatest obstacles for students and staff were technology skills, the availability of appropriate equipment and child care responsibilities. It was a steep learning curve for employees, as they were not hired to teach or work online, and also for students, who did not sign up for online courses.

Classes and streaming were happening for students with and without the appropriate bandwidth, equipment or resources. This proved to be a great emotional stressor for both students and teachers, who struggled with technology and the use of new platforms, as well as the sudden loss of social interaction.

For many women, working and studying from home created conflict and tension. For example, classroom requirements were complicated by children at home needing a home computer for their own schooling, thus competing with the working mom and caregiver for limited computer resources, all at the same time.

Some places are crowded, with housemates requesting use of space or equipment in an interruptive manner. Balancing both home dynamics and the work and school requirements, plus the increase in domestic unpaid work, led to additional obstacles to completion of programs. Unpaid care work has increased with children out of school and with the heightened care needs of older persons, as well as domestic responsibilities. Those living with seniors were worried about spreading COVID-19 to their healthy loved ones. Those with children were worried about their cognitive and personal development if the children did not have the stimulation they needed. Add the loss of social interaction, and the formula for continued resilience is lessened and the potential for frustration is heightened.

The female international students seemed to carry a significant level of burden as their world of connections in Canada is small and their families are separated. Many of our domestic and international stakeholders are single parents, have satellite partners, live in crowded housing, live alone or, in the case of international students improving themselves, have children and family in their home country with less success in containment of COVID-19 than Canada has.

Luckily, in B.C. and Canada, we have many resources. We were able to post and advertise to give the mental health information readily to all and to create internal social and academic circles on Zoom and social media sites that seemed to assist in reducing some pressures and, most of all, in connecting students and staff to each other and creating new communities.

We had to address the needs of women whose power at home, or lack thereof, exacerbated the challenge of studying with a teacher who is driven by curriculum requirements, attendance feeds to regulators and a push to progress.

Many students fell behind due to the distractions at home. This was a hard cost to schools, as extra tutorials and classes were needed to ensure success, an additional expense during a time of declining revenue. This was based on very little new enrolment or withdrawals of expected enrolments—not a great formula for a strong bottom line.

We are grateful that some of the Canadian federal government programs such as CERB and CESB, rental assistance, wage subsidies and other programs have been and are very effective for the life of the business as well as the lives of our female students who lost jobs, financial stability, social security and support systems.

An important additional support was the federal government IRCC adjustment to allow us to teach international students with student visas online, which allowed the female students the freedom to continue in their path towards a credential, albeit it with a quickly changed methodology. It is hoped that this adjustment will be extended as needed to service local and overseas students as the pandemic cycle continues.

The value added to this policy is the opportunity to maintain revenue in an industry that, in education and at ULI, is a substantially female population in health care and in management. For wave two, the technology part could be easier with assistance for the cost and process of having the right number of computers per family or living situation, and in the school, as well as the right type of Internet bandwidth for classroom streaming, and computers, cameras and microphones.

The Canadian government has been most generous in helping Canadian students this summer. I anticipate it will ease the burden of managing the household as well as redirecting resources to equipment for family needs. Additional individual and business support for technology would be most helpful in the reduction of stress and anxiety with the second wave.

Currently, with the opening of the economy, many students are returning to their part-time jobs. We now know that the burden of financial pressures and social isolation can be handled and will be less frightening should there be a shutdown again. We all recognize the temporary nature a second time around.

The challenge of working or studying from home for a woman is daunting. When the second wave arrives, although parts of the transition will be easier, in some ways it will be a bigger challenge as people suffer from pandemic fatigue.

I see the government offering some credit relief programs such as tax breaks for equipment, as well as pandemic education to maintain the energy to stay safe at home. as well as reinforced education about social distancing, wearing a mask and appropriate pandemic behaviour, including balancing staying on track with every aspect of the lives of women.

A more level playing field between private and public post-secondary institutions is a policy aspect of the experience that could help our students stay on track, such as allowing the many students who qualify to come to Canada if they choose the path of a vocational school. This will include a look at the postgraduate work permit and spousal and family visas to help encourage students who have study visas to complete their studies if their families have an opportunity to come to Canada as well.

We just graduated a class of eight caregivers and 35 postgraduate nurses, all of whom had a variety of the personal challenges listed above. Most of the postgraduate nurses are currently still working, either in their co-op position or as sponsored employees across Canada in the health care field. Their personal journeys and stories are yet to be told as they watch their home countries being ravaged by COVID-19.