Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to both witnesses. I apologize for the technical challenges. These days we are all zoomed out, and so is our equipment. I think it's about time I had a new one.
I want to thank both witnesses for joining us this morning—morning in British Columbia, but of course afternoon in other parts of our great nation.
I have glanced through the International Labour Organization's report, which is 526 pages. Of course, I'm not quoting all of it, so don't worry about that. I would like to quote one line at least. “Care work, both paid and unpaid, is at the heart of humanity in our societies. Economies depend on care work to survive and thrive.”
I think this is a good quote to start this last session of our five days of studies.
Why should we also look at the global scenario? It's not unique to Canada. It's all over the world now. We are looking at a much wider scope, in which unpaid carers can enjoy the rewards of care provision without paying social and economic penalties.
In your presentations, both of you mentioned that many family caregivers—we call them informal family caregivers—lose their productivity. This is especially the case when they are well educated and have well-paid jobs, yet they have to give up their jobs to go into part-time work so they can fulfill their caregiving responsibilities.
I would like to ask both of you what role you think the employer can play in making their employees who are caregivers more productive, but allowing them more support and also creating a working environment in which the other colleagues understand that if they are absent it's not because they are lazy. Very often their colleagues will say, “You're taking leave again, and I'm doing your job.”
I would like one of you to shed light on this part.