Status of Women Committee on July 8th, 2020

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I hope that the ministers will give me concrete and brief answers.

The pandemic has demonstrated that women are more likely to hold precarious and part-time jobs. This brings me to a question regarding employment insurance.

Ms. Qualtrough, do you acknowledge that the current employment insurance system really discriminates against women? If so, how do you plan to address this issue in a concrete manner when the pandemic is over?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you for your question.

In concrete terms, I can assure you that we've learned many lessons from the employment insurance situation during this pandemic and that we'll work hard to modernize this program. This will be part of the legacy of this crisis. It's true that not all part-time workers are receiving the same services from this program. We're looking at how to address this issue. I can guarantee that this will be part of the solution.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Okay. I want to come back to Ms. Monsef.

Ms. Monsef, do you have a time frame for the national action plan on gender-based violence?

I also want to speak to you about projects that were set up in my region during the pandemic to work on the issue of sexual exploitation, and about the sexual assault centres, or CALACS. Yesterday, I met with the director of one centre. Your department has made investments. However, in Quebec, only three CALACS out of seven have received financial support. The other centres weren't eligible.

Wouldn't assisting these centres be a way to help more women find a way out of this sexual exploitation situation?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, I'm afraid I didn't get the translation there. Could you repeat the translation, please?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Andréanne, go ahead.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Ms. Monsef, do you have a time frame for the national action plan on gender-based violence?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

We do not, but I will say that we are working very closely with the provinces and territories. Those conversations have begun, and it is in my mandate—

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Okay.

I want to wrap up this topic and ask another question that the interpreter didn't have the opportunity to translate.

We're talking a great deal about sexual exploitation and the importance of helping women find a way out of it. I was saying that, in my constituency, only three out of seven CALACS have managed to receive funding from you. Four CALACS haven't received funding and are working hard to break the cycle of violence against women.

Wouldn't it be possible to give these centres more help or to make the criteria for support measures more flexible?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Okay, we are already 20 seconds over time, even with the translation. I'm going to have to move on.

Lindsay, you have two and a half minutes.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Thank you.

Minister Qualtrough, many pregnant women who would have been entitled to maternity benefits have found out that, because of losing their jobs during the pandemic, they won't have collected enough hours at work to qualify for EI, and they were counting on that money.

In April, you stated that they will have full access to their maternity and parental entitlements and that there isn't a scenario where this won't be made right for people. Now it's July, so can you tell us how you have made this right for people? Have you done that yet? What's the delay for the benefits that these parents are counting on?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

In April, I was referring to the challenge within the CERB system of people not having access to CERB and maternity and parental benefits. That has been remedied, so people will have access. They won't be penalized in any way for any time or any systemic issues.

In terms of the reality, there are many workers who are concerned that they have not met minimal requirements to qualify for EI regular or special benefits. In particular, women are worried about their inability to access maternity, special and parental benefits. Of course, the timelines for giving birth are fixed, and there's much uncertainty.

I can tell you that this is my number one priority. We are working on a solution that will assist many women, and in the coming days—and when I say “in the coming days”, I mean it—I will be announcing a path forward on this very issue.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

I'm glad to hear that.

I'd like to quickly address the issue of unpaid work, which so many women are obviously facing, and the recognition of that unpaid work. Certainly one of the things we can move forward on, in terms of progress on this, is something like paid sick leave and recognizing the need for that across the board, which your government has promised, and we're looking forward to seeing action on that.

Can you address ways that you believe your government could better recognize women's unpaid work? I specifically point to ILO conventions C190 and C189. Has your government talked about the ratification of those conventions?

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

I apologize; I don't know the details of those conventions. However, I can assure you that we need...and we talk very often about recognizing, certainly, the unpaid work done by women. Sorry, my brain is working faster than my mouth. As my colleague Minister Monsef said, if nothing else, this pandemic has highlighted the need to recognize unpaid care and the myriad of—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you, Minister Qualtrough. Our time is just so short.

We will go on to our final round. Due to equality, we'll give three minutes to the CPC and three minutes to the government.

I will pass the floor over to Raquel for three minutes.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Thank you, Chair.

Before I get into my questions, I want to mention that I had some questions that didn't get answered. The Bloc also had some really great questions that we ran out of time for. I'm wondering if the ministers would commit to getting us our answers in writing as soon as possible. I see nodding. Thank you very much. I think that would be great.

I'm also wondering whether we could get the ministers to commit to returning to the committee. We had a good discussion yesterday. We may very well be at this again in the fall, to expand on our study, and we'd very much appreciate it if both ministers would join us again then, if they are available. I see more nodding. Okay, perfect.

For my final questions, I want to ask a little bit more about the GBA+. I completely understand that everything was rolled out extremely quickly. I do recognize that. I do have some concerns, though, particularly for women entrepreneurs. Many of them don't use chequing accounts. They aren't able to access any of the business-centred programs your government rolled out in very rapid succession. I do believe that a GBA+ applied then, or applied now, would show that.

Minister Monsef, could you commit to bringing that to your cabinet colleagues so that we can get some amendments to these business programs in favour of entrepreneurial women?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

We are working on that, absolutely, on the women entrepreneurship program on its own. I also want to say that shortly after things were rolled out in the first phase, we established a GBA+ task force that combed through all the measures the government had introduced. This was after the first month. It was able to provide that intersectional gendered lens and do the analysis as well as provide guidance.

That task force is working very closely with the Minister of Finance, as well as every other government department, because we recognize that the vulnerable have been hit the hardest.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Yes, absolutely. I do appreciate that. When you're working with that task force, perhaps you could also look at the Canada commercial rent assist program. That one in particular seems not to be going very well for women. If you could really home in on those, it would mean a lot to the women in my riding who own small businesses.

I'll just end off quickly—

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Do you want me to respond on the rent assist, MP Dancho?

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

No. If you could just commit to looking at it, that would be great.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

We're working on it with the provinces and territories. They have the most levers there.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Great.

Finally, with regard to LAWC, the London Abused Women's Centre, I do recognize, from your definition, that it wasn't a cut and the funding was up, but I am very disappointed that you, as the minister of this department, did not renew it. I think they were doing really good work—really good, non-partisan work—and I still can't really understand why you didn't deem them to be a good organization to fund. I really can't understand that.

If you could commit to looking at that funding model, particularly under your new funding under Public Safety, and commit to looking at the London Abused Women's Centre, really looking at funding them and very seriously taking that back to your desk, I'd appreciate it.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

The London Abused Women's Centre has received funding from the department—

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Not specifically for human trafficking—

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

They have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much. Our time is over.

Anju, you have the floor for three minutes.