FEWO Committee Report

Liberal Party

Supplementary Opinion on a report entitled: Towards Improving Access to EI Benefits for Women in Canada

The Liberal Party was pleased to move the motion that requested that the Standing Committee of the Status of Women undertake a study on the consequences and effects the current Employment Insurance (EI) programs have on Women in Canada.

The Liberal Party understands fully the profound impact, on citizens, of an inflexible unemployment insurance program. 

When Liberals formed government in 1993, it was necessary to deal with the negative consequences of massive, structural unemployment left by the then-Conservative government, during the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Liberal government had to recreate a new system that was flexible enough to respond to regional employment/unemployment rates while, at the same time, rebuild the EI fund and address the massive general, fiscal deficit. This new system was set within a booming economy and record low unemployment.

However, Canada is once again in a recession, and unemployment rates are rising at a rapid rate. Because of the nature of their work patterns, many women have been unable to gain access to employment benefits. Some find themselves the first to be laid off, especially if they are part-time workers, or are on maternity/parental leave or are pregnant. This report makes recommendations that are flexible and responsive to that reality.

While not reflected in the report's recommendations, we would like to draw attention to certain points repeatedly made by many witnesses. They made it clear that issues of child care, immigrant/refugee and disability status were integral to women's participation in paid work. The matter of the importance of pro active pay equity legislation was also raised by witnesses.

Liberals realised this linkage and were disappointed when the sudden 2006 election put an end to the $6 billion dollar, National Early Childhood Development and Child Care Program which, had been negotiated with the provinces; but which was not honoured by the new Conservative government. The Liberal party remains committed to that national objective.

Similarly the Liberal Government's comprehensive, Internationally Trained Worker Initiative (ITWI), was cancelled by the Conservative government , it would have provided immigrant/refugee women with the tools of language training, credential recognition and apprenticeship that could allow them to find work commensurate with their skills; thus improving their earning power. Liberals remain committed to the ITWI.

Moreover, understanding the difficulty that disabled persons face in gaining access to training and education; a Liberal Government had put in place the building blocks that improved access to post-secondary education and training for disabled women. The Liberal party remains committed to enhancing this access, which has been ignored by the current government.

A Liberal government will reinstate the Liberal-initiated Court Challenges Program, also cancelled by the Conservative government, which would have allowed these vulnerable groups of women to fight discriminatory policies in the workplace.

The committee heard the need for pro active pay equity legislation and is now studying Pay Equity for the second time. The 2005 Liberal government response by the then Ministers of Labour and Justice to the Standing Committee of the Status of Women report on Pay Equity committed to the introduction of pro active pay equity legislation in early 2006. It was intended that this legislation would be reviewed and commented on by all stakeholder groups. The Conservative government did not choose to honour this commitment.

Moreover, we would like to point out that if the recommendation of a 360-hour requirement to obtain EI benefits were accepted, the many women in part-time employment will continue to take twice as long to achieve those requirements.

It is unfortunate that the key Ministers of Status of Women, Finance and HRSDC did not appear before the Committee, as requested, to answer these questions. It would also have provided an opportunity for the Committee to hear from these Ministers, whether Gender Based Analysis had been done on the economic stimulus package that contained the recent EI changes.

This report is a thoughtful effort at ameliorating some of the gender barriers that women face in gaining access to EI and other leave-benefits, such as maternity/parental benefits, and compassionate care benefits (CCB). But, it is incomplete in that there are many unanswered questions with regard to the reasons for so called "voluntary unemployment" and for the low uptake of parental benefits among men, in provinces outside of Quebec. These unanswered questions highlight a significant gap in information-gathering and reveal a lack of readily available data disaggregated by sex, and age.  

Notwithstanding, the recommendations in the report could, if adopted, take a significant first step toward narrowing the gender inequality gap in the work place. For that reason, we fully support it.