Good morning, Madam Chair.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee today.
I speak to you today as the mayor of the Ville de Magog but also as a past president of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities. My comments to you will be in both languages.
First, let me talk a little about rural Canada. As we've seen, rural Canada is extremely diverse in terms of population size, density and degree of remoteness or proximity to urban centres. For example, a rural township of 11,000 in the greater Toronto area, compared to a community of 13,000 in northern Alberta, will experience very different lifestyles, opportunities and challenges. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach to rural policy will not work.
Rural communities, which are often very attractive to retired Canadians, are facing major demographic challenges. Those retirees need specific access to social services or housing. While the aging population is not a factor only in rural regions, those are the regions that have fewer resources to deal with it.
In addition, the vitality of our rural communities depends on their ability to attract and retain youth. The exodus of young people to larger centres, for opportunities in either education or employment, is a challenge.
Rural municipal leaders are working hard to address this demographic shift. To secure the talent and skills needed to generate local economic growth, these communities must attract and retain new residents, including young people, immigrants, indigenous people and women. Retention requires having the right support in place. For example, immigrants, in particular women, who find themselves unemployed or underemployed often turn to local governments for help, and if they don't find the resources that becomes a big problem.
Now let me say a few words about FCM's program toward gender parity.
At FCM, we believe that being part of the solution starts at the local level. To ensure more inclusivity, part of that solution needs to be about electing more women to municipal office. We need to help change the face of leadership, so that people elected to make decisions reflect the people they serve. We also have to identify systemic bias, recognize and acknowledge racism, and tackle gender-based violence in all its forms. There is a growing momentum and discussion about not only the impact of discrimination in society, but the need to do better.
Despite our efforts in recent years, women remain underrepresented in municipal politics. Only one fifth of our mayors are women, with a few provinces around 30%. Only the Yukon and the Northwest Territories have attained parity.
Much work remains to ensure that women are represented all across the country. This is particularly true for young women in rural communities.
FCM's program called “Toward parity in municipal politics” launched two new tools in 2020 that outline strategies and tangible ways to achieve parity: our pan-Canadian framework, which we've called “Run, win, lead”, and our knowledge hub, a collection of more than a hundred resources. Both were developed through consultation and collaboration with many of you on this call, and others across the country.
An additional factor that rural women in leadership face is that being a councillor is usually a part-time job, and you have to combine that with your workload, family responsibilities and a poor salary.
I would now like to talk to you about violence against women.
Women who live in rural areas are also victims of a number of forms of violence. In addition, they are isolated and have less access to resources than elsewhere.
The real cost of gender-based violence is this. Half of all women over the age of 16 in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence. Approximately every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner; indigenous women are killed at six times that rate. In April 2020, seven out of 10 women reported being concerned or extremely concerned about violence at home as a result of COVID-19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the isolation of women in rural communities. They have experienced more economic hardship than elsewhere, either because of job losses or more difficult employment situations. These are often the women who provide health care to the public. Their access to services is limited, with the closure of a number of shelters for victims of violence against women, as those centres are sustained by volunteers. They have problems with transportation, not to mention that some transportation services have closed down, and with connectivity, leading to difficulties in employability and education.
I would like to end with recommendations and reflections.
In order to address challenges faced by women in rural Canada at the local level, particularly in the response to COVID-19, we need to collectively uphold and fund services to reduce gender-based violence; ensure that women’s voices and interests are reflected in the decision-making around the pandemic and the response; collect and analyze data by gender, age, race and other vulnerability factors to underpin policy, service design and budget decisions; improve the working conditions of women; involve women in COVID-19 specialized groups or task forces; promote women’s and girls’ access to information; and put gender equality policies at the forefront of the recovery plans.
Thank you very much for your attention.
