Wonderful. Thank you very much.
Good morning. My name is Katie Allen, and I am a Ph.D. candidate in rural studies at the University of Guelph. It's my honour to be here with you today. My contributions to this discussion today are informed by my academic studies as well as my experience as a leader in supporting women’s participation in rural society. I will discuss access to services, employment and labour and accessibility for affordable housing and emergency and second-stage shelter space. I will follow up on these challenges with recommendations for your consideration.
Regionalization and the downloading of responsibilities to local government, non-profit and charitable organizations—without the matched support of funding—has had significant impacts on women’s ability to access critical health, social and justice services. Additionally, the closure of schools and postal offices, the loss of local infrastructure like gas stations, and limited access to broadband and telecommunications infrastructure continue to further isolate rural women from critical services. Without access to these services in their local communities, rural women face poorer outcomes across the board in terms of their social and economic well-being, health and safety, and engagement in decision-making processes that impact their lives. A lack of public transportation options exacerbates these challenges and particularly impacts senior women.
Often, social and health-related programs and services are downloaded to local non-profit charitable organizations or local governments in an attempt to fill gaps in service delivery. However, this process is often not supported by increased funding to these agencies, resulting in pressure on sectors that do not have the financial capacity or the human resources to adequately and appropriately deliver on their new responsibilities. COVID-19 has intensified the fragility of these sectors and exacerbated gaps in capacity and financial instability.
The composition of rural economies and labour market landscapes impacts employment quality, often producing conditions that lead to precarious employment and significant out-migration of rural youth. Precarious employment, particularly in care and service industries, continues to create challenges for women in finding secure, stable, full-time employment in their home communities. The lack of affordable transportation and housing further compounds these dynamics. Financing options for women engaging in entrepreneurship can be limited or difficult to obtain. With limited options for diverse, stable employment and post-secondary education and training required to attain higher-paying employment, rural women and youth are often stuck with making difficult choices about where and what education and employment opportunities they can access, creating a vicious cycle of low wages, few opportunities, unsuitable housing and insufficient transportation. These factors, combined with limited emergency and second-stage housing for women and children, also produce significant health and safety risks for rural women looking to leave unstable home environments and gender-based violence.
I'll now briefly discuss three recommendations for your consideration to address some of the challenges that I have overviewed.
The first is the essential need for access to broadband and telecommunications infrastructure. In some instances, service providers have digitized services and created space for online or telephone cellular support meetings. This is beneficial to those who have access to broadband and telecommunications infrastructure and technology. However, this is not the reality for many rural women. Access to broadband can also provide opportunities for professional development, training, and education.
The second recommendation is for stable and secure operational funding sources that allow for flexibility and pivoting for organizations delivering essential services. These would provide increased resource capacity to deliver essential programs and services, as well as the stability and flexibility required to respond to challenges as they arise. As we look to the future and shift towards recovery from COVID-19, long-term secure funding sources for organizations delivering those critical services to communities are imperative to ensuring that women do not fall through the cracks of various jurisdictional configurations.
The third piece for consideration is the need to address rural data gaps. Canada is a data-poor country, with a significant deficit of rural-specific data. It is impossible to produce evidence-informed responses if there is insufficient data and understanding of the unique needs and contexts of rural Canadians. Data must be publicly accessible and provided across not only socio-economic strata but gender and race as well. Open data on federal funding provided to address gender-based programming in rural communities should be clearly available in order to address barriers in applying for such funding programs. This is a particularly critical time to gather data on the unique impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on safety and emergency services. Data collection on the different stages of the pandemic can offer insights into how to strengthen the support for women during emergencies and in times of crisis.
Gender equality is a cornerstone of inclusive and sustainable growth. Policy-makers across all orders of government must dedicate time and resources to understanding rural women's issues if we are to develop effective and targeted solutions. Closing the data gap will help inform the use of gender-based analysis plus policies. It is essential that decision-makers like you integrate GBA+ and a clearly articulated rural lens to post-COVID-19 economic recovery policies for rural communities. As realities change, integrating GBA+ and a rural lens will provide opportunities to address some—