Status of Women committee  I run a very small operational organization. One of my staff has just taken leave because she needs to care for her children with disabilities. It puts us in a very difficult situation because we don't have the resources to replace her when she's one leave. I think there is just

Status of Women committee  I think that the best place to begin inclusion is in early childhood, so that the child with the disability is included with their peers at a very early age when they're beginning to learn. It is incredibly beneficial, both in terms of learning and their long-term prospects of in

Status of Women committee  I think we have that in Canada. It's a question of how we deploy it. Those resources exist. It may require that we figure out how best to deploy them in a child care environment.

Status of Women committee  Yes, and I would include in that category people with mental health issues. One of the growing issues for women caregivers, women with disabilities, and women in general, is the episodic nature of mental health issues and reasons for leaving the workplace. I think that's a critic

Status of Women committee  I think that families have long-term economic insecurity. It's what you're pointing to in their relationship to the labour market. Having access to CPP disability would be a potential longer-term income security piece. I think though that the challenges are related not just to di

Status of Women committee  Thank you for that question. I think that's a really important issue for women and men with disabilities. I think the real challenge is to distinguish between the costs associated with the person's disability—some of the things you've just mentioned—and the income security piece

Status of Women committee  There are some ways.... Exactly. I think one of the challenges is to get the provinces to keep their disability supports in place when people go to work. So, it's about ensuring that they not retract those, and then about making sure that, at the tax level, we're recognizing the

Status of Women committee  There are actually some very good examples in Canada. Interestingly, one that is close to your riding is in Milton. There's an association for community living in Milton that provides support to inclusive child care initiatives. They don't provide the child care; they support the

Status of Women committee  That's fantastic news. I did not know that.

Status of Women committee  I absolutely do. I'm not completely up to date, province by province, in terms of restrictions. I think a lot of that has to do with the interaction between the provincial supports that a person might receive. The $5-a-day employment is really not an employment; it has much more

Status of Women committee  Are we running out of time? Are we getting the signal?

Status of Women committee  I'll just finish with that. Minister Qualtrough is here in New York as part of the discussions on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. She's talking to her colleagues from other countries about the ways in which the disability act could be strengthened to

Status of Women committee  Thanks, Pam. It's very nice to see you, and thanks for this opportunity. As I mentioned at the beginning of my comments, we're here at the United Nations talking about the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. With the increasing focus on the issues of people w

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee, and to the committee for your work on this important issue. As you said, I am the executive director of Inclusion International. We are an organization for people with intellectual disabilities and their families. I am sp