Status of Women Committee on Nov. 19th, 2020

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

No. There isn't any interpretation at all.

[Maya Roy]

I'm sorry.

I can continue in French, if that's fine with you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

We're supposed to have it in both official languages.

Can the technicians verify?

[The Clerk]

Perhaps, Madam Roy, if you could speak as loudly and slowly as possible, we'll give it another try. I do apologize for the many technical problems that we're having today.

[Maya Roy]

Yes, apologies. I would just leave it as this. This pandemic has only accelerated job loss due to automation.

[Anjum Sultana]

If I can supplement with respect to the child care question, one of the things that we would like to see is a nationwide approach to child care, similar to the Canada Health Act. I think that's an excellent model to look at. What we need is high-quality child care across the country in rural, remote and northern communities from coast to coast. One of the challenges that we found—and Maya talked about this—is that there are recruitment and retention challenges right now, and currently, we're at a deficit. We actually don't have the number of care workers that we need, and that means communities are being left behind, and people are being left behind.

I think, absolutely, that a nationwide approach is necessary. It would help to create clarity around standards, around workforce development and also around recruiting for the future. Many economists have talked about how we are entering a period of slow growth, so that means we need all hands on deck. Every single barrier that is stopping labour market participation needs to be addressed, and child care is one of the biggest ones that we've seen in our work.

With respect to gender-based violence, again, there's an economic cost. It's also an infringement on human rights. The communities that we're part of across the country, they talk about.... We can't talk about economic recovery in a climate of hate, fear, discrimination and hate crimes. Those all have to be addressed for us to all get back to recovery so that we don't have that K-shaped recovery that has been talked about quite a bit, so that we don't see that disparity in building back better.

I'll leave it there. Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good.

We don't have time for a full second round. Would the will of the committee be to have each party ask one question? Would that be acceptable? Okay.

We'll start with Ms. Wong, then.

[Alice Wong, Conservative, Richmond Centre, BC]

Thank you. To save time, I just want to make sure that I still thank everybody.

You brought a lot of perspectives to our study. Mental wellness is one big thing, like seniors in social isolation. Suicide is coming up. There was a sad case in Vancouver lately where a woman with depression, from the Chinese community, disappeared and her body was found in Stanley Park. This has bothered a lot of people.

My question for the panellists is this. How can you prevent suicide at this very, very challenging time? One of our colleagues proposed a 988 number with people who would have training so that they would be able to persuade people with suicidal intentions to give up the idea of killing themselves.

I'll throw this question out to all of you, to whoever wants to pick it up.

[Sharon Williston]

It's a very important question that you put forward.

I'm involved with a number of different things with regard to suicide prevention, including the applied suicide intervention skills training. We provide that to grow capacity within our communities as often as possible. It's to break down the stigma that's associated with suicide. It's allowing folks to have those safe places to talk about suicide, their thoughts of it, and not be judged for it. It's giving them the opportunity to share their stories and have someone who's going to listen and meet them where they are. Having those folks available through a phone, yes, is great, but we also need to have people who are available within the communities to provide that.

There are different ways of doing that. The person with applied suicide intervention skills training is able to help dismantle the plan for suicide, if the person has a plan. Then they will help to create a safety-for-now plan. With regard to safeTALK training, the individuals can be 16 years of age or older to take part in the training. It's great to have our youth involved in that. It's, once again, how to identify when a person may be having thoughts of suicide, how to ask that difficult question, “Are you thinking about suicide?” and what to do when the person responds, “Yes.”

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent.

[Sharon Williston]

Now, changing it around a bit, there's also availability through different organizations. I mentioned Eastern Door Feather Carriers. They're looking at suicide prevention through an indigenous lens to help people reconnect with the land, with their culture, with their traditions and with elders, so once again—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry, but I have to cut you off. We're trying to keep these short.

We'll go to Ms. Dhillon for one question.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for being here.

Since we're short on time, I can't delve deeper into these questions.

I would like to hear from Ms. Williston or Ms. Roy about the impacts. We speak a lot about the impact on women and the elderly, but I would like to know about the impact that isolation has had on children who are in a situation of domestic abuse, watching their mother being abused.

What impact has this had on children? Has there been any help for children psychologically to deal with these issues? The mother is dealing with her own issues, whether they're psychological, emotional or physical, with violence or abuse, and the child is watching this, but she also has to protect her child.

Can you shed some light on that? I think it's very important, because these are future generations, and we have to find a way to help children and protect them.

[Maya Roy]

We have a number of YWCAs, such as YWCA Lethbridge and District. It has developed the Amethyst Project, which is a trauma-informed mental health program for children who have witnessed domestic violence. However, that's just one community in many communities across Canada.

Unfortunately, schools being shut down will simply intensify the impact of trauma on children. We know how it impacts children developmentally. There's no difference between being abused oneself and witnessing abuse of a parent.

I thank you for raising this very important issue. We need a nationwide strategy, because it's going to impact the economy and education and development outcomes for generations.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Ms. Larouche, you have time to ask a question.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I want to thank Ms. Williston, Ms. Roy, Ms. David and Ms. Sultana for being here.

Ms. Roy and Ms. Sultana, thank you for recognizing the work of economist Pierre Fortin on child care services in Quebec.

You touched on different areas where women are disproportionately affected by the pandemic. You really emphasized the importance of making progress on many issues to promote a feminist economic recovery. These issues include the Pay Equity Act, which still isn't being enforced; the Internet, which is recognized as an essential service for both women and seniors; access to drinking water on indigenous reserves; and domestic violence. We must find ways to help women break out of the cycle of violence.

In short, why is it important to include a gender-based analysis in all post-COVID economic recovery measures?

[Anjum Sultana]

What the research tells us and what our experience on the ground in 300 communities across the country also demonstrates is that mathematically we cannot have a recovery if we don't look at the experiences and needs of women. We need all hands on deck. Any single barrier—a gendered barrier, a barrier based on racialization or a barrier against people with disabilities—will hurt all of us.

I really want to make clear that it's mathematically impossible to have an economic recovery if we don't have a gender lens and a feminist lens.

Another part of what we need to do is start to measure what matters. Every month I look at the labour force numbers and we look at whether jobs are coming back to pre-COVID levels.

In addition to that, we need to look at job quality. Is it permanent? Is it full time? Does it have good benefits and decent pay? In precarious work, people face further risks from COVID because they can't go back to work and can't be there for their families. That hurts all communities.

Another piece of it is.... I really appreciate this committee's focus on gender-based violence and on housing and homelessness, because oftentimes economic recovery is just focused on GDP and job numbers. What we've seen is that when homelessness is on the rise and gender-based violence is on the rise, this stymies economic recovery. When we look at what we want to see for our future society, we need to change what we use as measures of success so that they're more fulsome, given the actual realities on the ground.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Ms. Mathyssen.

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

That was a perfect segue because my question is about just that. It is about national housing and the affordability crisis.

I have certainly seen this in London, the growing numbers of those who are living rough on the streets. There is a 5,000-family wait-list for affordable housing. This morning I was speaking specifically to a woman who was fleeing an abuser. She is in second-stage housing, but it isn't sufficient. It isn't as she needs it, and the options and choices are extremely limited. She is being shut out of that system.

I would love to hear from you about how important that second-stage housing specifically is to women fleeing violence—the adequacy of it—and about the investment in a national housing strategy focused on that affordability piece and how that plays out for women.

[Anjum Sultana]

I can share a bit, and then I'll pass it to my colleague, Ms. Roy.

One of the things that we have seen and we were pleased to see in the national housing strategy is a 33% carve-out for gender-responsive investments. That is the type of mechanism that would allow us to have more second-stage housing.

The challenge has been that we haven't seen the full rollout of that money. What we would like to see is that all investments, anything related to housing, have that in-built gendered focus, because when we don't do that, we see the rise in hidden homelessness as previous testimonials today have talked about. Oftentimes, the measure of homelessness is an under-representation, so we need to consciously have that gendered focus.

I'll pass it over to my colleague, Ms. Roy.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Quickly.

[Maya Roy]

Especially for northern and remote communities, we need affordable housing. We've seen an increase in landlords sexually coercing women who are behind on their rent payments, so this is very important.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Mr. Erskine-Smith, welcome to our committee. Would you like to take the last question on this panel?

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Sure.

I guess I'm most interested in the benefits, particularly as they relate to families that wouldn't be able to afford child care. Maybe you can speak to the impact this can have specifically for families that otherwise can't afford it.

[Cindy David]

I'm no expert on child care, but I will say that, in British Columbia, the experience is access. Child care services are typically full with a long wait-list, so focusing on wait-lists and accessibility, what you would have to do, I would imagine, is support business owners getting into that line of work, again, typically run by women. There would be tax incentives. There would be streamlining regulations again, encouraging child care.

Real estate is very expensive. There are many aspects to how you can increase the number of day cares and the number of workers in day cares.