:
Hello. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to make a presentation to this important committee, which has always played a role in ensuring that women's rights are respected and promoted in Canada. I truly appreciate it.
[English]
The Public Service Alliance of Canada is the largest federal public sector union. We represent more than 180,000 people from coast to coast to coast. While the majority of PSAC members work for the federal government and its agencies, PSAC also represents workers in the private sector.
I have prepared some written notes. Unfortunately, the translation was not ready, but I would invite the clerk of the committee to share the notes with you as soon as they are available. I will be presenting a summary of those notes today.
The theme that this committee is looking at today is truly an important theme. The need to improve the economic prospects for girls is a response to the fact that girls still remain confronted with the reality of discrimination and oppression in their early years.
Incest and sexual abuse is often perpetrated within the family. We know that two-thirds of sexual abuse occurs in a private home, and most victims of sexual assault are assaulted before the age of 25.
Racism, Islamophobia, discrimination against aboriginal peoples, homophobia, and discrimination against young girls with disabilities remain endemic. At least one in 10 girls lives in poverty. I'm not advocating child labour here, but when girls or young women work, they often work for minimum wages, part-time, and in jobs without benefits and that are dead-end.
Young girls living in rural regions—about 20% of the population—often do not have access to public transportation. There is little, if any, child care, and important services are sometimes not offered. I'm thinking, for example, of abortion services in regions. Young lesbians and queer girls are often isolated and even more marginalized in rural regions.
The proposed changes to the immigration and refugee law being discussed in this budget will further marginalize and disadvantage young girls. Thousands of people now receiving medication under the interim federal health program will no longer, as of June 30, 2012, be able to access that program. This will surely have a very harsh impact on young immigrant and refugee girls.
[Translation]
It goes without saying that there is much to be done to improve the economic status of girls. All in all, the measures that must be taken to improve their condition are similar to those that need to be taken to improve the situation of women. We are talking about political and social reforms that seek to transform the systemic nature of violence and discrimination against women, including economic discrimination.
What needs to be done to attack this problem? We will provide some suggestions, which of course do not make up an exhaustive list.
[English]
One of the first things we would consider and find important is improving health care for girl children on reserve. We know there is a very high birth rate among aboriginal girls, yet it's very difficult having a baby on a remote reserve, and in fact it's dangerous. We know, for example, that first nations women in Manitoba are twice as likely to watch their babies die as non-aboriginal women. Also, about 20% of babies in some Manitoban communities end up back in the hospital with respiratory tract disease. Fewer than one third of the babies born between 2003 and 2005 in Hollow Water and Sagkeeng, Manitoba, received routine vaccinations.
The federal government has a really important role to play here because it's the federal government that is responsible for health care on reserves. Funding is urgently needed, and safe water is urgently needed. We know that there are over 100 aboriginal communities under boil water advisories right now. Yet the federal government is about to pass Bill , the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act, which will shift responsibility to reserves but does not provide the funding necessary for this change.
[Translation]
Another program that is essential to the well-being of young girls is adequate funding for early childhood education. Canada is one of the richest countries in the world, and yet we rank at the low end of the international scale in terms of the quality of our childcare and our access to such services. In Canada, over 70% of mothers with children under the age of five are currently working outside the home. Yet, only 20% of children have access to regulated child care spaces. Quebec is one of the only provinces that has really invested public funds in daycares, with its famous $7 a day daycare. A recent study showed that the government brings in more money than it spends by subsidizing public child care networks.
Nevertheless, despite this evidence, in 2006, the federal government did away with the federal-provincial-territorial agreements regarding funding for child care services and replaced them with a benefit that costs a lot of money and, when it comes right down to it, offers parents very few choices.
[English]
Education of young girls on reserve is another key component of a successful strategy for economic prosperity. We know that the income gap disappears between aboriginal people and non-aboriginal people when university degrees are attained. However, only 8% of aboriginal people, compared to 22%, actually have university degrees at this time. So federal funding is urgently needed to ensure a better education on reserve.
[Translation]
With regard to employment equity policies, even today, seven out of 10 women still work in traditional fields: office work, education, social services and so on. The federal government's economic action plan and the Plan Nord in Quebec both contain two large projects that give very little to women because women are still excluded from the construction industry and major projects.
Employment equity policies need to be improved. In the budget that was tabled a few weeks ago, we once again see a step backward in terms of employment equity because the measures the federal government just announced will seriously weaken employment equity obligations for federal contractors.
Effective measures to protect young girls against workplace discrimination and harassment must be developed. They must be given information and help in exercising their rights. They must be given legal assistance and mechanisms for accessing justice. Once again, what do we see at the federal level? The federal government is attacking access to justice mechanisms. It eliminated the regional offices of the Canadian Human Rights Commission and abolished the court challenges program and the Law Reform Commission of Canada. That is not the path we should be following.
Pay equity is also needed. We know that, 30 years after the Canadian Human Rights Act was passed, women are still experiencing discrimination in the labour market and earn, on average, 70% less than men when they work full time year-round. In 2004, the federal government's pay equity task force recommended that a federal pay equity law be passed. Nevertheless, as soon as this government was elected, it announced that it had no intention of following those recommendations. We believe that this is an essential measure.
We recently won a pay equity case for our Canada Post members at the Supreme Court level. The women had to fight in court for almost 30 years for this. Clearly, the current system is not working and is ineffective.
We must protect public sector jobs. Jobs in the federal public service are a good source of employment for girls and women, and the cuts—
:
Hello. I want to thank you for inviting us.
I want to talk about improving economic opportunities for girls in Canada from the perspective of the École Rosalie-Jetté, a secondary school in Montreal for pregnant girls and young mothers between 12 and 18. I will address our point of view in three sections.
I will begin by talking about the economic situation of our students and the history of the school. The story that brings us to our school's current mission began in 1845. That was the year when Rosalie Cadron-Jetté from Lavaltrie, a widow and mother of 11 children, took in unwed mothers, as they were called at the time, and their children. A few years later, the bishop at the time, Monsignor Ignace Bourget, convinced Ms. Cadron-Jetté to move to Montreal to found a religious community that would pursue her charitable work. Rosalie Cadron-Jetté became Sister Marie of the Nativity and continued her mission until her death in 1864, after which the congregation carried on her work.
Almost 100 years later, around 1964, school services were offered first to the children and then to the mothers. At first they were taught the essentials and eventually they were learning to type, about the plastic arts, and home economics. Despite the commendable and charitable efforts of the nuns, these young women would obtain low-paid, under-valued jobs. That schooling would last roughly 10 years.
In 1974, the Montreal Catholic School Commission, which is now the Montreal school board, opened a vocational school specifically for single mothers. École Rosalie-Jetté was established in east Montreal. It offered general studies and courses in child psychology, nutrition and sewing, the plastic arts, and typing. Five years later, a child care centre opened. The complete program of regular courses, from the first to the fifth year of secondary school, was first offered in the 1976-1977 school year. Professional staff and student services were later added, which brings us to the school we have today in 2012. Future prospects are a little more encouraging.
Thanks to the diversity of paths we have taken over the years, our students can obtain a high school diploma, which opens to door to cégeps and possibly universities. The students can acquire the necessary skills to take a training program and learn a trade. They can obtain a training certificate leading up to a semi-specialized trade and join the workforce.
As far as post-secondary education is concerned, we know that opportunity exceeds probability. A number of the students drop out of high school and before acquiring the necessary skills to take a training program. When they arrive at our school, they are already behind in their learning. They are frequently absent, including for reasons related to motherhood and a psychosocial experience that poses many challenges.
For a number of our students it is very difficult to get a well-paid job that would afford them housing and decent financial support for themselves and their child. Jobs stemming from employee training and semi-specialized jobs offer average or very low salaries. Jobs obtained after earning a bachelor's degree are better, but in those cases our students end up paying back student loans for years.
Second, I will speak about the programs and subsidies that are helping us right now.
While our students are with us, they receive financial help from one or more programs, depending on their individual situation. We have social assistance benefits, family allowances, a program for pregnant students and a program for young students with children. Some of these students have the help of a parent and some live with a partner who is working. Breakfast is available at school to all of them and their children for 25¢. Free snacks are offered twice a day, and our used clothing store offers new and used baby clothes for 10¢ an item.
We have a foundation that provides assistance to the students who need it most. Most of them are receiving enough money to pay for essentials. Our challenge is to help them learn to manage a budget on a very small income.
Finally, I would like to speak about personal finance education and make a recommendation. Many high school students do not want to learn about personal finances. Our students are no exception. They know that they have to manage their money but they cannot stand the subject. They are also at an age where many of them spend money to conform to the dictates of fashion. The adults who are in a position to offer them advice often have a tendency to pass value judgments when they see a mother with a new haircut who is late paying her daycare fees. It is very difficult not to reprove such behaviour, but doing so does not solve anything.
Most adolescents who become pregnant between the ages of 12 and 18 are already experiencing shame, isolation resulting from rejection, abuse and a lack of resources. They need more support that takes into account their reality rather than attempts to bring them onto one right path or another. They need their identity to be recognized.
In terms of a recommendation on improving economic prospects for Canadian girls, we believe, in light of what we have seen at École Rosalie-Jetté, that it would make sense to invest in personal finance education with a focus on specialized training for teachers who are open, inclusive and creative and on the creation of content adapted for this training, testing methods that respect the path these girls are on, and a participatory training plan.
In summary, we must make learning on subjects such as credit card interest, the differences between a personal loan and a line of credit, how to deal with banking documents received by mail, how to prepare an income tax return and how to manage a bank account dynamic and useful. Making students aware of these things at a young age can only help them to develop confidence in their personal worth and a conviction that they can access decent income.
That is all. Thank you.
:
Thank you for the question.
This is a really important issue. It has impacts in many ways. The cuts in the long-form census will have a huge impact on our capacity to implement employment equity, because employment equity is based on the market availability of women and the other equity groups—aboriginal people, racialized people, and people with disabilities. We look at their availability in the labour market.
So a lot of the information we need to have informed social policy in the workplace, at schools, and in society will be affected by our loss of knowledge of our social and economic reality.
The cuts in research also have an impact on our capacity to identify where the social policy gaps are, where the problems that are lived by different groups of women in society are, and then to develop policy options for how we can deal with them.
We have basically lost the Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Women in the last few years. I know they're struggling to survive. They used to do research and offer information sheets that would be very useful in the labour movement and in the women's groups and I'm sure in the academic setting.
We've also lost funding for advocacy. The National Association of Women and the Law has shut its doors, and they used to do a lot of research and make law reform proposals concerning how to improve our laws and policies in Canada to ensure that we respect and promote women's equality rights.
This is my first time in this study. I'm very interested in the subject. I understand it's a committee that's working constructively in the public interest.
I just want to pick up on a couple of your comments.
We're talking about impacts that get in the way of economic success for girls and women. You talked about the federal government's role in ameliorating conditions, Madam Côté. Some of the organizations that have been de-funded make it more difficult. Some programs have been de-funded. You mentioned child care. So those are some direct impacts.
But I'm very interested in the advocacy side, which you also mentioned. The statistics from 2009 are pretty amazing on the charitable sector: $7.8 billion in charitable giving; 23% of families claim charitable deductions; 5.6 million donors; 161,000 organizations; and 6.5 million volunteers.
Does your organization partner with some of these 161,000 groups, and do they have an important role to play in some of the conditions that are in the way of girls' success, or to help facilitate girls' success?
:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would like to continue along the same lines as MP Murray, with regard to some of the information we're getting from statistics.
At the beginning of our study we were all given the book, the sixth edition of “Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report”. Every year the Government of Canada publishes this report, so we received this big thick stack. I wish I had it with me here today, but I have a couple of quotations from it and a few statistics I'd like to ask our witnesses about.
Maybe I missed it because I was chatting, but MP Murray mentioned some statistics on charities. I'm not sure where they came from. Perhaps they came from the same book, but if you could let us know at some point when it's your turn, I would appreciate that.
As for this sixth edition, let me just read to you a couple of sentences about labour market statistics. I quote:
Women in nearly all age groups were affected by the recent downturn in the labour market. Women aged 15 to 24 were particularly hard hit: their employment rate fell from 60.3% in 2008 to 57.1% in 2009. Even with this decline, they fared better than young men, whose employment rate dropped from 58.9% to 53.6% over the same period....
Certainly it’s a pattern of concern.
Madam Côté, is this the type of data that would be helpful to you when looking at these issues?
:
We'd certainly be happy to give you a copy of this report, “Women in Canada”. I think it might be helpful to you, because I know you mentioned you were looking for this kind of information.
Also according to the sixth edition of “Women in Canada”:
The majority of employed women continue to work in occupations in which they have been traditionally concentrated.
You know, those jobs we tend to think of as female jobs: nursing, teaching....
But the numbers of women entering the non-traditional fields, which has been touched on a few times today, are increasing as well, and the report gives us some good statistics on that on page 127.
Do you think it's just a matter of time before these gaps close? The report shows we are moving in the right direction, which I find encouraging. That's question number one. Do you think it's just a matter of time, and that at least we're moving in the right direction?
As well, I have a question for both of you. Have you been able to identify reasons why girls are growing up to enter non-traditional industries? What are the factors that would drive them toward a non-traditional field of work?
:
Thanks for the question.
One of the factors that would drive the young girls, obviously, is good pay, because these are jobs that really pay much more than doing hair and selling things in a store.
There has been a slight increase. We've been working hard, as a women's movement, to ensure that increase over the last 40 years, actually. So the increase is slow, and the increase is the result of policies, of funding groups such as Action travail des femmes in Montreal, which someone mentioned earlier, and the CIAFT, Conseil d' intervention pour l'accès des femmes au travail. Those kinds of groups have helped train women, mentor them in access. But I think what's also really important in having access to those jobs, in what studies I've seen, is whether or not you have child care. Often those are jobs that don't necessarily have the regular nine to five hours, that have a lot of overtime obligations to them, so you need to have access to child care.
For them to be attractive, you also need—
:
I would first like to take a moment to thank the committee for inviting the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women to speak today.
Additionally, on behalf of our coalition, I would like to thank you for taking the time to explore how we might make more secure futures for our young girls.
My name is Stefanie Lomatski, and I am executive director of the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women, also referred to as OCTEVAW. I am here today with Bailey Reid, chair of our public engagement committee.
OCTEVAW is a coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to ending violence against women through leadership, education, advocacy, and political action. We want to promote a coordinated response to women and their children who have experienced abuse.
The coalition is built on a strong core value that includes working collaboratively to achieve equality of rights, fair access to resources and services, and social justice for women and their children.
It is our concern today that young Canadian women are experiencing high rates of intimate partner and sexual violence and that the impact of violence and gender inequity is creating a gender disparity in young women's ability to thrive.
In Ontario approximately 46% of high school girls report being targeted for unwanted sexual comments. Additionally, in Canada, we know that when young women enter university and college, four out of five undergraduates are victims of violence in dating relationships. We encourage our young women to attain higher education; however, we do not explicitly say that in the first eight weeks of their undergrad they're at high risk of being raped by someone they know. We also do not tell them that they will be guaranteed to earn less upon graduation because they are women.
We need to work toward giving our young women the message that we are concerned about their ability to be safe and secure and to have the opportunity to use self-agency. In order to create a cultural shift that will facilitate the empowerment of young women, we need to prevent the violence they are experiencing and to understand that women can be further marginalized. It is vital that we consider how racism, ability, and socio-economic status create layers of systemic oppression that build barriers between our young women and their chance to live a life of opportunity.
We'd like to start with our first recommendation, which is school-based violence prevention programs. When preventing violence, we need to have the strength to recognize that violence is not neutral, which is the concern that the current bullying campaigns in schools focus on. In our opinion, these programs are not deconstructing forms of violence, such as sexism and racism, but are instead grouping violence, and therefore deflecting accountability. When we speak of ending violence against girls and women, we need to accept that even at the grade school and high school levels, the beliefs about roles of girls and boys, men and women, are being maintained.
What makes for successful prevention programs? First, we need to make a commitment financially to maintaining and promoting programs that focus on changing attitudes. Second, the programs need to focus on changing attitudes over time.
To make substantial change, Canada needs to incorporate this learning into school culture. Young men and women still do not understand or value what healthy relationships are. Their concepts of sexual violence remain informed by myths—for example, that most sexual violence is perpetrated by strangers.
This is an issue that needs a national commitment. Within Ottawa we have seen the success of such programs as In Love and In Danger, a program that seeks to mentor young men and women so that they can build dialogues within their own schools. Programs like this use peer influence in order to make positive change.
I would also like to take this opportunity to make an important point about OCTEVAW. We find that it is vital that young women are provided with spaces to be mentored. It is also important to us that young men be included in making change.
OCTEVAW began engaging men approximately two years ago. It is one of our priorities, and we believe that a change in community culture is only possible when we involve men.
Recently, in fall 2011, we began our program called I Can MANifest Change. It focuses on engaging young men in ending violence against women through exploring such topics as masculinity, femininity, sexism, and sexual violence. It is a program that has hope and celebrates that not all men are perpetrators of violence.
I will now pass it over to Bailey Reid, the chair of our public engagement committee, to continue our presentation.
I'm also the executive director of an organization in Ottawa called Sisters Achieving Excellence, which provides literacy and mentoring for criminalized women. One of the most important things we can do to increase economic opportunity for girls is to provide literacy and mentoring programs for them. We can start this very easily, and change for young girls can happen almost immediately.
The Canadian Council on Learning found that Canada is experiencing about a 48% illiteracy rate, so 48% of Canadians possess skills that are below those that are internationally identified to function in society.
Consider that you are an illiterate girl. You feel powerless because you cannot read or write. Your sense of inadequacy may be heightened because you have a history of abuse, exploitation, or mental health concerns. Certainly you've experienced inequality simply because you are a girl. Perhaps you're a young woman of colour, so that increases the chance that you will be further marginalized and therefore illiterate.
According to Craig Alexander, deputy chief economist at TD Bank Financial Group, the Canadian economy could experience a $32 billion boost if literacy rates were improved by only 1%. This is a mutually beneficial outcome: we raise strong, confident girls who can advocate for their needs and everything they need to access, and Canada's economy is strengthened.
We must increase the capacity for young girls and women to advocate for themselves, find equitable employment, and become empowered. We can easily use literacy as a vehicle for all of these things. The government must acknowledge illiteracy as a huge factor in economic access and provide funding to community literacy programs as well as schools. I know that education is a provincial responsibility; however, I believe that literacy is a human right and therefore a federal responsibility. Without the skills required to function in society, it is impossible to achieve financial equity.
Finally, our third recommendation is that we increase the use of gender analysis in all policy shifts. We believe it's vital for the continued and further use of gender analysis when we make policies in a variety of different sectors. We believe it would be a powerful statement to girls and young women for every policy—whether it be government policy, school policy, or health care policy—that gender analysis be part of our accountability system. If we are to create a more equitable society for girls and women, we must make advancements and commitments to critically examine how decisions will impact them as women or girls.
We need to recognize how policies impact the diverse women within Canada and ensure that all young women are provided with the same opportunities. For example, we need to be guided by our aboriginal sisters and create and maintain programs that provide equitable opportunities for them. It is necessary to show young aboriginal women that they are valued by providing resources, education, and health care.
Thank you so much for having us. It has been wonderful to speak and share some of our thoughts on how we can empower girls and young women. We want to create safe and secure futures for them, and it would be our pleasure to work with you on building a sustainable future and change for Canadian girls. We are always pleased to help advise and support this committee in policy shifts.
Thank you.
:
I want to speak to the point of order as well.
I'm glad you actually stressed that the purpose of this study is to study the economic prospects and leadership of our young girls in Canada. We have to remember, too, that what we decided this committee would study is basically....
Again, I'm saying it because it's really what the Status of Women can do. The Status of Women actually has no control over a private member's motion, so I'm not sure where this line of questioning is going. Obviously the Status of Women is not going to take a personal opinion or approach on a private member's motion that the government has currently said they are not actually supporting.
So I just want to reiterate...because we've had a number of witnesses come in, opposition witnesses from the other side, talking about lots and lots of issues that are of importance but are certainly not relevant to the scope of this committee's study, which is the economic prosperity, prospects, direction, leadership of our young girls and what the Status of Women can do.
I want to clearly state that.