Status of Women Committee on Dec. 10th, 2020

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you.

In terms of the response rate, you said some are more difficult to get responses from. What are some of those areas that are difficult to get responses from?

[Tina Chui]

I mentioned the time use survey because it's a diary-based survey, so it's a lot more challenging to achieve a good response rate. However, at Statistics Canada we are continually looking at ways to improve, how to get better measures and achieve the desired response rate. We are planning as we go. When we collect in the field, we look at where we might need the domains of estimations for certain populations. If the response for that category is not good enough, then we will have follow-up. Let's say, if the survey is an electronic questionnaire, we will have reminder letters. We send out reminder letters and encourage people to respond. We also have a field follow-up by telephone with an interviewer.

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you.

During this COVID pandemic, has it been more challenging to gather information? Could you speak to what it's been like and areas where you found data that was predominant?

[Tina Chui]

We have a series of crowd source surveys and web panels that were measured during COVID. We have had a very good response, I must say, because I think these issues are really important to Canadians. We have a very concerted effort of communications to encourage people to come to our website to respond to those surveys. In fact, with some surveys we have had a very good response.

Perhaps my colleague, Vince, could speak to his experience with the labour force survey.

[Vincent Dale, Director, Centre for Labour Market Information, Statistics Canada]

Sure. Thank you for the question.

The labour force survey is conducted every month using a combination of face-to-face and telephone interviews. We have seen a decrease in the response rate over the COVID period, largely because we have suspended face-to-face or personal visit interviews. That has resulted in a drop in the response rate.

The good news is that the quality of the survey remains very high. The LFS is a very accurate reflection of the labour market, but we are taking a series of measures to restore those response rates to where they were pre-COVID.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Now we'll go to Monsieur Serré.

You have the floor for five minutes.

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you very much.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks also to the witnesses.

I' d like to begin by pointing out that 70% of Statistics Canada's employees in Ontario are in Sturgeon Falls, in my riding. I want to thank the bilingual employees who provide Statistics Canada services.

My first question is for Ms. Bégin.

Can you provide the committee chair with a summary of statistics pertaining to rural life in Canada?

[Josée Bégin]

I'll answer the question briefly. Geography is an important component of our survey…

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Excuse me, Ms. Bégin, But I don't have a lot of time and I have other questions. Could you simply provide a statistical report on rural life to the committee?

[Josée Bégin]

Yes, we could do that after the meeting.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Good. Thank you very much.

I will now move on to my second question.

Your last study on women and paid employment was published in 2017. You publish these types of reports from time to time. I would imagine that the next study will be around 2022.

Are you in a position to study the repercussions over the past few years of the changes made to your parental leave system and the Canada child benefit, or will we have to wait until the next study, probably in 2022?

[Josée Bégin]

I'll answer first, and then my colleague Mr. Dale will provide additional information.

Statistics Canada has information on Canadians' tax returns. Every year, we publish statistics that include the Canada child benefit. We could send this information to the committee after the meeting.

We also have statistics on employment insurance and on those who are eligible for employment insurance benefits, as well as additional data on parental leave. We can certainly provide the committee with information and compare the situation before the pandemic with what follows.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you for being willing to send us this information.

My other question is about our government introducing disaggregated data, which gives us the ability to respond to different populations. The previous government was anti-data, so we introduced this measure.

What kind of impact has that had on your collection of data?

[Josée Bégin]

Madam Chair, I will turn to my colleague, Tina, to start the response.

[Tina Chui]

Thank you.

Thank you for your question. I'll reply in English.

As we are all well aware, the pandemic actually exacerbates the inequalities faced by many communities, vulnerable communities, indigenous populations, racialized communities and whatnot. We have put a number of measures in place for the diversity and inclusion lens, and one involved the work of my colleague, Vince.

In the labour force survey, and since July, we incorporated population questions, group questions, which we could use to derive the visible minority population. We also include in the general social survey the cycle on social identity, which looks at trust, a sense of belonging, trust of institutions, etc.

For that survey, we actually increased, through work with Canadian Heritage, the sample so we can provide estimates on a number of visible minority groups as well as education and income levels. There are a couple of efforts we have already put in place to provide that disaggregated data lens and the diversity and inclusions.

Going forward in the work we are going to do, we hope to, for any of our analyses, include the diversity and inclusion lens analysis. I'm responsible for—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry, but that's your time.

Now we're going to Madam Larouche.

You have two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

This is the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. In 2010, at my home, a large group of women stood against the decision to eliminate Statistics Canada's long-form census, which contained questions about invisible work. These women condemned the situation because they felt that it was essential to measure invisible work so that it could receive social and economic recognition.

I would like your opinion on that. Since 2010, how has the discontinuance of the long-form census had an impact analysis of invisible work?

[Josée Bégin]

Factors related to unpaid work were measured in the 1996, 2001 and 2006 censuses. These were based on three questions, about household tasks, gardening work and house maintenance.

Following each census, we conduct exhaustive consultations to ensure that questions are included that could address new legislation, new programs, or policy requirements. At the time, it was decided that these questions on unpaid work would not be part of the 2011 census or the national household survey.

We acknowledge the importance of these concepts as they pertain to unpaid work. We feel that the general social survey is the best vehicle because it allows for more questions to respondents and provides more context about the unpaid work of Canadian men and women.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

As we know, not only does unpaid work take-up personal toll, meaning at home, but it also has a social impact. That's why it's essential for governments to recognize it. This can be done in different ways, for example by creating an invisible work awareness day, by including this work in the GDP calculation, by offering an offsetting benefit or refundable tax credits.

According to you, what link could be established between the statistics you have and the measures that governments might introduce to make people more aware of invisible work?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

We'll go now to Ms. Mathyssen for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We know that child care is becoming increasingly expensive. There's a stat on families spending nearly a quarter of their household income on child care. We heard from you about how many fewer women are taking on that full-time work or how they move to more part-time work because of their responsibilities of unpaid care work. Do you have statistics, as recent as possible, on how much money is lost by women on a yearly basis because they are taking on that additional unpaid work?

[Josée Bégin]

We don't have information that would allow us to estimate the total value of foregone income. The labour force survey provides information about women's work and their place in the labour market. The survey also obtains information about the absence of women in the labour market. However, we do not have information about the financial losses this could represent. It's a question of research—one that we should focus on.

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

If a government were to include that in the future, how would they dictate to StatsCan to make the decision to include that cost analysis?

[Josée Bégin]

There's more than one way to decide on research priorities. The Canadian government's priorities clearly dictate Statistics Canada's work, but we also have partnerships in the federal government and provincial governments, as well as outside government.