:
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for inviting me here this morning.
I am pleased to represent the Réseau des femmes d'affaires du Québec before this committee. Our network is made up of more than 2,000 women throughout Quebec, and its influence is felt both in Canada and internationally. Our director is Ms. Ruth Vachon.
My name is Louise Champoux-Paillé. I teach governance and risk management at UQAM, and I serve on a number of boards of directors, including those of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal and of the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine.
I have worked as a volunteer for over 30 years now promoting women at the highest levels of our organizations.
My objective this morning is to speak to your mandate, which is to examine ways to increase the entry, participation, retention and representation of women at high-level positions.
I will proceed as follows: I will present two of my key findings in this regard and then offer recommendations to increase the government's involvement.
To begin, I would like to provide an overview of the representation of women at the executive level of our organizations. Since there are no statistics on career paths in Canada, I will outline the situation in the United States, as it can be assumed that our situation is not so different from that in the United States.
Although women are almost equally represented initially, we have found that men become much more strongly represented in executive positions over time.
We have heard about the glass ceiling and the sticky floor, but there is also an organizational maze in which a number of women seem to get lost. What are the reasons for this? We find that women often begin their careers at lower levels than men do, have fewer advancement opportunities in key sectors, and that men have access to more seasoned mentors, which greatly accelerates the advancement of men. Finally, work-life balance policies are not still not widely enough available in our organizations. This maze is also created by a number of stereotypes, such as that women lack strong leadership to manage teams or that they are not interested in executive positions.
My second point pertains to the representation of women on company boards of directors. My most recent study pertains to the disclosures by Canadian publicly traded companies after the Canadian securities administrators, or CSA, adopted reporting requirements with respect to their diversity practices. Although there has been some improvement in recent years—26% at large corporations—, progress is very slow. As people say, the balanced representation of men and women will not happen tomorrow. The situation has become very worrisome at the executive level, since just 15% of women hold those positions.
What can we do to increase the representation of women at all levels of our organizations? My recommendations here will focus on potential actions by the federal government. Here are 10 recommendations.
First, all crown corporations and companies in which the government is a majority shareholder must adopt gender diversity policies with targets and timelines by 2018, with the ultimate objective of approaching gender equality at all levels in the next five years.
The second recommendation is to ensure that ministers who have the authority to suggest candidates for boards of directors are invited to suggest one man and one woman for each position.
Third, as part of Bill , the government should adopt regulations imposing reporting requirements on companies valued at $2 billion or more in order to achieve 40% representation of women by 2025.
Fourth, we have to create a strong pool of women among the next generation in the public service by creating an interdepartmental committee with the mandate to promote women's rights in the government's areas of activity.
Fifth, efforts to promote women entrepreneurs must be increased. Let us recall that women own 15.7% of SMEs in Canada, businesses that create more than 1.5 million jobs. Let us also recall that businesses owned by women are among the group of small businesses with the strongest growth. So it is important for the government to take action to support their growth, specifically by including more women in its supply chain.
Sixth, efforts must be made to mobilize Canadian banks so they better inform women business creators about the solutions available to help them, and conduct internal activities to promote entrepreneurship among women.
Seventh, we recommend that a national database of women candidates be created to showcase qualified women for director and senior management positions.
Eighth, data must be gathered and disseminated on appropriate government websites regarding the representation of women and men in other decision-making roles in order to inform the public and companies about best practices for gender diversity.
Ninth, executive recruitment firms must make a commitment to put forward at least one woman in the final list of potential candidates.
Tenth, the efforts by the to promote greater gender diversity in private and public organizations must be continued and intensified, along with those related to the development of women entrepreneurs.
Achieving greater gender balance requires changes in mentality, perception and ways of doing things, and the federal government can be a key driver of change.
Thank you for your attention.
I will be pleased to answer your questions.
:
Thank you. I have to say that I agree with the first speaker on many points.
I'm honoured to have been invited to appear before this committee to be a witness on the economic security of women in Canada. Thank you for the invitation. I would particularly like to thank the gentlemen who are on this committee for serving and for fighting for the rights of women. It seems like this is a problem that we women have worked on—mostly as volunteer work—for a very long time. It is just not possible to right all of these problems without the engagement of men. Thank you for being here.
My name is Catherine Mavriplis, and I'm a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Ottawa. I also hold the NSERC chair for women in science and engineering for Ontario, and I'm representing the five chairs across the country today, as well, in my comments. I've also spoken to many of our stakeholders and other participants in our programs, and to my friends and colleagues in other non-science and engineering arenas to create my comments today.
I was told that you might be interested in a description of what my career path has been in science and engineering, as an example of the lives of women in these fields. I'll start with that, and then make some comments on the economic security of women and ways in which we can improve the situation. There is much to cover. I read all the comments from the previous witnesses, so I'm going to try to add things that perhaps you've not heard before.
I grew up in Montreal and obtained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from McGill University. I really, really, really wanted to work in industry. I kept looking in the newspaper for jobs, and all I could see were these girl Friday ads and HVAC engineering. I had no idea what those things were and what they could do for me. I figured that if I went to work in industry, I would probably just get swallowed up by the men there and be an insignificant person in a big company, so I decided to get a higher degree. That's what a lot of women do. They get more education and more pieces of paper, thinking that it will help them to establish themselves.
After obtaining a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from one of the top institutions in the world, I interviewed and received a job offer from the Boeing aerospace company at 15% less pay than my almost identical classmate. I was told there was absolutely nothing I could do about it; that was just the way it was. I did see that there was a class action suit against Boeing by some women a number of years later, and I thought that was kind of interesting. I didn't have the fortitude to do something like that, but it was vindication, perhaps, for what I'd experienced.
I decided to go into academia, thinking it would be flexible for having kids—I have four children. Unfortunately, I did this in the U.S., and I ended up with zero maternity leave. I had to plan for all of my children to be born during the summer so I could go without pay and come back to work, which is hard to do. Luckily, I was able to keep my job. I did work as a professor. I did become unemployed for two years. I have worked part time for three years. I returned to Canada nine years ago, and making that transition was difficult after being unemployed.
I offer you this glimpse of my path as an example of many women who I have met over my 37 years in the engineering community. I've created and helped organize workshops for over 1,500 doctoral women in science and engineering, and I've run activities for about 6,000 women—mostly women, but also men—to promote diversity in technical fields.
The elements of my story are not uncommon to the past or the present. People are still experiencing these things. Women are opting for postgraduate degrees to gain more credentials. They have non-linear career paths. They have periods of unemployment or part-time employment. They have a large share of unrecognized, unpaid, family-related work and responsibility. They have wage gaps and a lack of paths to career-building.
Many of us who succeed in this male-dominated field feel like we're on a treadmill. We feel that we have to be superwomen, and at the same time be ladylike and not offend sensibilities. There needs to be a critical mass of women in these fields. Engineers Canada has proposed a 30 by 30 initiative in which 30% of newly licensed engineers would be women by 2030, but some of us wonder why that goal is not 50%. Within our group—and perhaps we're conditioned by being in a male-dominated group—there are people who are radical about going to fifty-fifty, and there are the other people who say that we shouldn't ask for too much. Again, it's this perception of women in society that we're very wary about as well.
What does all of this have to do with economic security? STEM jobs are key to economic security for women. Statistics show that STEM jobs are more permanent, and offer full-time and well-paid employment.
Furthermore, the demand for qualified science and engineering workers is increasing, yet we hear of industry going to other countries to fill these positions. I really don't understand why we don't train the people who are here to fill those jobs.
Women hold only a fraction of those jobs. The statistics are improving, but at a very slow rate. In some fields, such as medicine or life sciences, parity has been or is close to being reached, but then again, we hear of salary levels dropping as more women join the field. The government is one area where parity has been achieved and this is a good result. This is a result of fair and transparent practices and it's a good way to achieve equity, although some say that maybe it's the low wages that keep the more competitive men out of this area.
Generally, women tend to fare better at large organizations where a set of rules are in place. There have been some studies of women in large organizations versus more organic, perhaps groovy, start-up places. In the end, women do better in the large organizations because there's less of a “bro culture” and there are more checks and balances, let's say.
In the face of unemployment, many women go into entrepreneurship, but it's very difficult for them. They often lack financial know-how and they lack access to capital. At the University of Ottawa, we've run a women in entrepreneurship mentoring program for the last two years and that has instantly increased the participation of women in this area.
What can we do about it? I will go to some recommendations. My first recommendation is to lead by example. We've seen some wonderful things happen in the past couple of years. First of all, the balanced cabinet of was something that was heard around the world. Certainly, when I visit other countries, that's the first thing they ask me about. The Ontario Securities Commission's comply or explain disclosure policy is also something that we're keen on. The B.C. government added computer programming to the school curriculum in 2016. These are bold measures and we applaud them. We also want to say that we're in support of recent decision to get after universities for the Canada research chair targets.
With little time left, the last thing I will say is that we're hosting the next Gender Summit this year in Montreal and I hope we will put on as good a performance as the Europeans. At these European-organized events, we see male politicians and university administrators debate the issues and we learn about their countries' national programs for gender equity. What will Canada have to show by this November?
:
Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for this opportunity.
The Women Unlimited Association is a not-for-profit organization in Nova Scotia that supports diverse women to build careers in the trades and technology fields. Cited as a best practice in Canada, we work with relevant industries, unions, governments, apprenticeship, educational institutions, and the community to address the systemic barriers diverse women face and to support their recruitment, retention, and advancement in the trades and technology fields.
Women Unlimited works with women like Denise Watters, who we'll hear from shortly this morning, who are dedicated to building careers in the skilled trades. Although women represent 50% of the workforce, they make up only 5% of our skilled trades workers. Trades jobs offer women a living wage with benefits. We know that when you improve a women's economic situation, there's a ripple effect that spreads to her children, her family, and her community. Women's economic prosperity is a gift that keeps on giving.
Our model is designed to encourage and support diverse women along a multi-year journey from recruitment to career exploration, through college level trades and technology training, to employment, and along the apprenticeship pathway to certification. Women are with us for between three and seven years, some 10.
Since 2006, we have supported more than 650 diverse women to build careers in these fields. To date, 94% have completed our programs. More than 80% have proceeded to college level training and on to employment, many of them at the top of their class, I might add.
A recruitment process sets diversity goals. As a result, 50% of those selected self-identify as African Nova Scotian, indigenous women, immigrant women, women living with disabilities, and women from the LGBTQ community. As well, more than 65% are youth, and almost 50%—47% to be exact—are lone parents. I'm also proud to say that 75% of our dedicated professional staff self-identify as diverse, thus creating a culture wherein diversity can thrive.
More than 175 Nova Scotian employers have hired our graduates, employers such as Irving Shipbuilding, through the national shipbuilding procurement strategy, and Emera Newfoundland and Labrador, through the Maritime link project. They have significant partnerships with Women Unlimited to increase gender diversity in their workplaces.
Through complex consortiums and partnerships, Women Unlimited has demonstrated what can be accomplished when resources and commitments are combined to achieve the common goal of addressing the systemic barriers diverse women face and supporting their successful recruitment, retention, and advancement in these fields. The greatest barrier diverse women face is finding employers who are not only willing to hire them but also committed to supporting them through the apprenticeship journey to certification and to addressing the workplace culture in a comprehensive, sustainable way.
Women Unlimited's partnership with Irving Shipbuilding is a good example of what an effective consortium can achieve. In 2011, when Irving Shipbuilding was awarded the combat vessel package under the national shipbuilding strategy, Women Unlimited saw it as an opportunity to increase the number of women working in the trades at the Halifax shipyard. Within a year, Irving Shipbuilding began a partnership with the Nova Scotia Community College called Irving Shipbuilding's centre of excellence.
Irving committed to invest $250,000 annually over the life of the contract to create opportunities for Nova Scotians to participate in shipbuilding, with a specific focus on under-represented groups: women, African Nova Scotians, indigenous persons, and persons with disabilities. Women represented only 3.7% of Irving Shipbuilding's trades workforce, so this investment could change that. We had a vehicle.
The Irving Shipbuilding-Women Unlimited partnership was launched in April 2015. Twenty diverse women were recruited through a joint selection process with Women Unlimited and Irving. With the support of the Government of Nova Scotia, they participated in a 14-week career exploration program focused on the metal trades. The following year they entered college-level welding and metal fabrication programs with a letter of intent to hire from Irving. With the support from the Canadian Women's Foundation, Women Unlimited provided wraparound support so that challenges associated with child care, transportation, driver education, books, tools, and tutoring were addressed.
With the support of Status of Women Canada, Women Unlimited is working with Irving Shipbuilding and others in the marine sector, including the Nova Scotia Boatbuilders Association, to build gender equity strategies to support both their retention and advancement in these fields. Advancement in a skilled trade also depends on achieving a Red Seal certification. It is the other post-secondary venue.
Status of Women Canada is also supporting Women Unlimited to work with our industry and apprenticeship partners to build a more inclusive and respectful apprenticeship system for diverse women. We will be building a gender equity plan, a women-in-trades network, and participating in the pan-Canadian network of women leaders.
The Irving Shipbuilding-Women Unlimited partnership is ground-breaking. Why?
First, this national contract had requirements for diversity hiring. As a result we built an intentional coalition between more than eight diverse partners—Irving Shipbuilding, Unifor, Women Unlimited, the Nova Scotia Community College, the governments of both Nova Scotia and Canada, the Nova Scotia Apprenticeship Agency, the Canadian Welding Association Foundation, and Praxair Canada—through a vehicle called the Irving Shipbuilding centre of excellence.
Second, we have demonstrated excellence in women-centred programming through a model of best practice. Third, we are working to shift the workplace and apprenticeship culture. Fourth, we are broadening our impact. Irving Shipbuilding has committed to two more projects with Women Unlimited. The second group started this April, in 2017, and the third will be in 2019.
These are my recommendations.
I recommend that the Government of Canada establish procurement and employment agreements on all infrastructure funding proposals requiring diversity plans with a goal of achieving employment equity and gender diversity in the trades. Second, we recommend that the Government of Canada establish a five-year national funding strategy to support the full and equitable participation of diverse women in apprenticeship in the skilled trades.
Thank you.
To what extent does this have to start young?
Thank you, Ms. Mavriplis, for talking about your personal story. In my case, in grade 10, my highest marks were in math and I decided I wanted to be an astrophysicist. Somehow, by grade 12, I was telling everyone I hated math and I wanted to be an historian. I've thought to myself, over and over, what was it that caused that transition, even if being an historian has been wonderful.
You talked about the economic impact and sometimes there are self-limitations that come from these systemic barriers. I notice all of you work on mentoring, on workshops, and on training. To what extent should perhaps that be done amongst pre-university, the younger pre-college, and the younger age groups?
Karen Ludwig, unfortunately, is not here with us today, but I'll tell you the line that she likes to use, “If you can't see it, you can't be it.” That's something I, too, fully agree with.
Catherine, I wanted to start with you. Last week we had somebody here and she was saying that young girls are very interested in science courses, and then you see a change when they start getting into more of the male teachers.
Within your own fields, as you graduate, many of the primary school teachers are young women, and then you're getting into more males. On that, Catherine, how many women would be currently teaching at the University of Ottawa in some of the STEM fields? What would the percentage be there?
I want to move on to this next issue, because I think this ties into economic security for women as well. As we know, women leave the workforce for unpaid work. It's not that child care and child-rearing are unimportant. It's the most important thing certainly in my life, but that being said, you're often forced to leave the workforce. That impacts your economic security during that time. As well, when you grow older, it has impacts on your pension.
Part of the issue, of course, is access to defined pension benefits. That's important, but part of that equation is supporting women through CPP. We have heard recommendations from the United Steelworkers and from Professor Kathleen Lahey for an expansion of the child-rearing component dropout in CPP. I wonder if I could get your comments around that. Do you agree that there needs to be a specific provision in CPP to ensure that women are not penalized for taking time out for child-rearing or other unpaid work?
Louise, maybe I can start with you, please.
:
Thank you for your question.
I believe deeply, I really do, that we need diversity targets. I really do. The success we've seen over the years with projects in these fields, where women are so significantly under-represented.... If targets and diversity plans are not put in place, then it doesn't happen and women continue to be under-represented.
I guess I don't see these as social issues. I see these very clearly as economic issues. I believe that we need to be at those economic tables and that there need to be diversity targets. It needs to be part of procurement, as we have seen through our work with the Maritime link project, for example. It's a wonderful way of working with employers.
Women Unlimited in Cape Breton has worked with employers there to support them in hiring women on that project, and it has been very successful for the employers and for the women. I believe, yes, very strongly that it needs to be attached—
I'll come back to you, Doreen, because I do think skilled trades are a terrific career for young women.
I have a parliamentary intern in my office who has been organizing a young women in leadership program, which we're going to be running in May. We're partnering young women with various careers. We have STEM. We have two female surgeons, firefighters, and entrepreneurs. We have men and women mentors. But the one area where we've had zero success is in the skilled trades.
It wasn't for lack of trying. I think part of it is that there isn't a critical mass of women in those fields. Also, there were concerns about the safety of the young women going to a job site, which I totally understand.
There are great groups, such as the Halton Industry Education Council, that have women as career coaches and bring out women from skilled trades, but we're still not seeing movement there. Do you have any suggestions on that?
:
Colleagues, we have our second panel, so I'd invite you to take your seats.
We have an interesting mix for our panel today. From Irving Shipbuilding, we have Sarah Simpson, who is the manager of value proposition and community relations. We have Denise Watters, who is a welding intern with Women Unlimited. We also have, by video conference from Women Building Futures, Jacqueline Andersen, who is the director of industry relations there. By teleconference we have, from the Women's Enterprise Centre in British Columbia, Laurel Douglas, who is the CEO.
Ladies, welcome, and we will give each of you an opportunity to make your remarks.
We'll start with the ladies from Irving Shipbuilding, for seven minutes.
:
Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee.
[Translation]
Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today.
[English]
At Irving Shipbuilding we have a proud history of building ships for Canada. We've built more than 80% of Canada's current fleet and have been maintaining ships for the Royal Canadian Navy since its inception.
Today we're proudly building the navy's future fleet as part of the national shipbuilding strategy. Since being selected in 2011 as Canada's combatant shipbuilder, we've invested over $360 million to construct state-of-the-art facilities with the best equipment for the efficient building of Canada's naval ships. We're committed not only to doing a great job building ships for Canada, but also to making sure that the industry remains sustainable for the long term. We're investing in training and education programs to develop 21st-century shipbuilders and modernize the face of shipbuilding.
Shipbuilding, like many trades-related industries, has traditionally been a male industry. In 2011, 85 women in total were employed by Irving Shipbuilding. Today, 179 of our 1,400 employees are women, including 44 in trade-related positions. It's clear that there's still more work to be done, but we are making some progress. At Irving Shipbuilding we believe a sustainable industry includes a diverse and representative workforce. In 2012 we entered into a partnership with the Nova Scotia Community College to establish the Irving Shipbuilding centre of excellence.
I'm please to have Odette Merchant, project manager of the centre of excellence with us here today. Through the centre of excellence, Irving Shipbuilding invests $250,000 annually in the centre. The mandate for the centre is to create opportunities and pathways for people to participate in shipbuilding, with a focus on under-represented groups: women, African-Canadians, indigenous people, and people with disabilities.
Through the centre of excellence, we've partnered with Women Unlimited. You just heard from Doreen Parsons about the transformational work of their organization. Our program with Women Unlimited is specific to Irving Shipbuilding, so we're focused on training women for employment at the Halifax shipyard. To date, that's been in the welding and metal fabrication trades because that's where our demand will be.
We partnered with Women Unlimited, the Nova Scotia Community College, the Canadian Welding Association Foundation, Praxair, Unifor, the Government of Nova Scotia, and the Government of Canada to provide educational bursaries, safety equipment, tools, and support programs for the participants while they study at the community college and then through their work terms at Irving Shipbuilding as well.
Currently, 15 women, including Denise, are completing their final work term at Irving Shipbuilding, and that's their second of two. After receiving their diploma from NSCC next month, if hiring requirements are met and if positions are available, the women will be employed at the Halifax shipyard as apprentice welders and iron workers. We've also established our second program with Women Unlimited, so another group of women is just starting. They started in April, and they'll do the same program, so two years from now they'll be ready to work.
We've been very pleased with the progress of this project, the commitment of the partners, and the lessons we've learned so far. In fact, we were so pleased with this project that we actually modelled a new program after the Women Unlimited program, which is our pathways to shipbuilding program for indigenous students. We also have 19 male and female students studying metal fabrication at the Nova Scotia Community College currently. They have that same commitment that, if all requirements are met, they'll come to the shipyard as well.
Programs like Women Unlimited and pathways to shipbuilding would not be possible without the long-term commitment of the national shipbuilding strategy and the partnerships between employers, educators, government, labour, and non-profit organizations. It's important to work together to continue to address the gender gap and to create opportunities based on ability and not gender.
I'm honoured to welcome Denise Watters to say a few words about her experience in the Irving Shipbuilding Women Unlimited program.
Thank you, everyone.
In 2015 I found myself struggling with life and what I was to do next. I'd lost a job of three years to downsizing at that time, with the company relocating to New Brunswick. I could have gone with the company, but it wasn't an option for me because I was a single mom with four kids, ages 18, 13, and a set of twins who were four. There was no way I could move and leave all my support system in Halifax, so what was I to do next?
One of my friends of 21 years had mentioned the Women Unlimited program was recruiting and was about to come around again and I should call for an interview. I knew very little about the program, only that my girlfriend had been in her first year of welding and was exposed to this trade because of the Women Unlimited program, WU as we call it, the career exploration program.
I love to learn new things and have always been a hands-on person so I said to myself I'd give it a try and hopefully make a career out of it. Welding was my preference because of the shipbuilding project in the city, and I figured there would be work available once I graduated. I called WU, Women Unlimited, and had an interview and in less than a week I was accepted into the program. To my surprise, Irving joined forces with WU, and we were offered the pilot program for the metal trades during that year.
I knew this was where I needed to be. The program was 14 weeks and included a 36-hour introduction to welding. During the 14 weeks we had full support from our instructors, Shelley Wallace and Yvette Jarvis, and I felt I was part of a sisterhood. WU helped me find resources, such as child care, transportation, and educational bursaries, along with the tools and equipment that I needed to make me successful. Every day they empowered me and encouraged us to be the best we could to ourselves and to each other.
WU was not only academic work; it was also about personal growth. WU made my opportunities endless, and I thank the organization with all their wonderful sponsors. While I was in WU I found myself taking a leadership role and carried that with me over my two-year journey. I was always around for the other ladies, giving advice, lending a hand, or just being there for when they needed it, and they were there for me in return. I was on the honour roll both years. I became the student association president of the Nova Scotia Community College Akerley Campus. I was hired as a part-time employee of the campus and all these things were accomplishments I had not expected along my journey.
Now that I have finally finished school and am at the Irving Shipyard doing my five-week placement in hopes that I will be hired as a shipbuilder, I know that Irving is the place for me. It's where I can be at home to be close to my family, friends, and my support system. I know I will be financially secure to take care of my family, and most of all, this is where I can retire.
I can't thank everyone enough, WU and Irving and all the sponsors, for helping make my dreams come true. I once said that I couldn't wait to get my hands on the first ship, and now I can say I did and I'm a part of history.
Some hon. members: Hear, hear!
Good morning. I'm the director of industry relations at Women Building Futures. I'll be speaking about the measures and strategies that we use, and that can be used, to increase women's entry, participation, retention, and representation in positions of economic leadership.
Since 1998 Women Building Futures, or WBF, as we call ourselves, has been the leader in preparing women for economically prosperous careers in industries where women have historically been under-represented. We have focused on construction, maintenance, and transportation. These careers lead to economic freedom, personal confidence, and growth, which are, as you can see, transformational for women, their families, and communities. WBF has extensive experience in recruiting and ensuring career success for women within these industries at a consistent employment rate of over 90%.
What is the reality today? Let's start there. Women make up almost half the workforce in Canada, yet they are still under-represented in these industries. According to Statistics Canada, the number of women who held trade certificates in 2015 was 7%, as compared with 10% in 1991, so we're actually decreasing. The number of women involved in apprenticeships is still low, with 86% of trades apprenticeships held by men. Women Building Futures is working hard to change that.
The average woman working full time in Canada, as we likely all know, makes an average of $32,000 per year, which is 66% less than the average for a male. There are many reasons for that, which I'm sure others will go into, but one key reason is that women are still working in occupations that have lower wages. Higher education was once an argument for why women made less, but we know now that although more women in Canada have post-secondary degrees as compared with men, they're still making less. For example, truck drivers, 97% of whom are male, make an average annual wage of $45,000, whereas childhood educators, 97% of whom are female, make $25,000. This is why at WBF we focus on economic leadership through entry-level careers that can be broken into very easily, relatively quickly, and lead to economic prosperity. We teach career paths from there.
A really good example is that in 2016, the average hourly wage for industrial, electrical, and construction trades, including carpenters, was about $28 per hour, translating to an annual wage of roughly $58,000. A career path for a carpenter could lead to construction project manager, and an average senior-level construction project manager with between five and 10 years of experience makes over $100,000. That's a really good example of career-pathing, starting from the trades, that leads to true economic leadership and prosperity.
Women who enter our programs at WBF tend to be underemployed. They make between $10 and $14 per hour, sometimes in multiple jobs. Oftentimes they don't have a high school diploma, 34% are indigenous, and yet they enter our programs and graduate with a success rate of 94%. They're employed with a success rate of 90%. Their incomes rise by 132% from day of hire. Now, that's a true pathway into economic leadership.
What is preventing women from entering these economically prosperous careers? There are many things. There is certainly child care and a lack of education and awareness about these types of roles. Women don't see themselves doing these roles. Employers are often reluctant to hire what we call “starters” in the construction industry and to register them as apprentices. Though things are changing, industry is also oftentimes reluctant to hire women.
What can we do? Our approach at WBF really starts with education. We educate women that these careers are options for them, and we educate industry that women are a source of labour. After education, we provide support to women to remove those barriers. We prepare them to meet or exceed industry standards for safety and productivity before they enter into the industry. We support women and we support employers all the way through that process. Industry values WBF for that preparation and support, because it leads to good workers, and the industry continues hiring our workers. That cycle of economic prosperity continues for women.
We also focus on “thought leadership” on best practices. We examine, through research, the best practices for hiring and retaining tradeswomen. Then we teach them to tradeswomen and to employers so that we can further that cycle of economic prosperity and leadership. We also examine whether these best practices are different for indigenous women.
I'll move now to some recommendations for the committee. First and foremost, we need affordable, sustainable child care that makes sense. Without child care, women are unable to participate fully in economic life. This holds especially true in the construction industry. We need child care that's affordable, that's universal, that's standardized, and that works construction hours.
The second piece is a streamlined form of multi-year funding for organizations, such as WBF, that have proven impact.
What happens at not-for-profits like WBF is that we spend a huge amount of resources and time securing funding through multiple ministries at multiple levels every year. This time could be spent doing the work we do and establishing the partnerships that are so absolutely critical to making these things work between labour, not-for-profits, employers, women, and government.
With that, I thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to speak.
:
Hello, and thank you very much for allowing me to present to your standing committee.
I am Laurel Douglas, the CEO of Women's Enterprise Centre in British Columbia. I'm also on the board of the Women's Enterprise Organizations of Canada, which is our national association of service providers to women entrepreneurs.
I thought what I would like to do today is to give you a little bit of background about Women's Enterprise Centre. I think you heard from my colleague Sandra Altner last week, so I won't go into too much detail about that. I'll also talk a little bit about our national association, some barriers that women entrepreneurs face, some solutions, and some recommendations.
As you might already know, the Women's Enterprise Initiative was created in 1995, so we've been around for a little over 20 years now. We provide business loans of up to $150,000, training on business skills, and business advisory services. We also respond to inquiries for business information.
Every year, we help about 3,000 women business owners in B.C., provide a couple of thousand business advisory services, and lend a couple of million dollars. This lending is actually really important for us because one of the main barriers women entrepreneurs face is access to capital. In addition to the lending we provide, we also help women business owners access capital from other sources.
The loan program—this entire initiative—was created by a federal government regional development agency, Western Economic Diversification. The reason is that at the time we started, and since then, they've done studies to determine whether there are gaps or challenges that are specifically unique to women business owners, and if so, what they are and how the federal government can help.
Basically, women entrepreneurs start businesses with less business training and management experience than their male counterparts, so that's something we can help with. In addition, they do have some barriers in terms of accessing capital that men don't typically face. They also have some attitudinal and motivational differences in terms of why they start their businesses and what motivates them to grow.
Overall, obtaining financing is repeatedly the most common barrier that women entrepreneurs face to grow their businesses. Some of the reasons that is the case are their own perceived need for financing and their tendency to borrow smaller amounts.
Our organization does two things. It helps with the hard skills, but it also helps change attitudes so that the women entrepreneurs understand that if they borrow an adequate amount of money to finance their growth, they will end up succeeding much better.
Even at start-up, they have a different pattern of financing. The average woman business owner right now borrows $65,000, and the average male business owner has $350,000 of debt. You might perceive that as a higher exposure, but it also means that male-owned businesses have more capital with which to expand their businesses and invest.
Women also have lower approval ratings for short-term credit, and they feel that their limited track record makes it harder for them to access financing from traditional sources.
There are numerous barriers that we try to help them overcome. These include their own confidence levels and their own resources and skills.
The national association that we have, WEOC, works hard to make sure that those resources are available across the country. Personally, I just got back from the W20, the summit related to the women's engagement group, which is part of the G20 and which you may have heard about in the news. It was very high-profile this year because Ivanka Trump was one of the participants at it.
We have a communiqué, which all G20 countries agreed to, calling on G20 member states to support women entrepreneurs, to help them start and scale their operations, build capacity, ensure equal access to finance and markets, and ensure their fair share in global value chains.
Global value chains are definitely an opportunity for women business owners. Procurement from large corporations and government agencies is a major part of the economy, and it's an area in which women have typically been left out because of a lack of networks and lack of experience in that area.
Overall, I think my colleague would have mentioned that right now we'd like to help women entrepreneurs across the country access the same services that WD has helped us provide in western Canada through a national loan fund, working with our member organizations. We really think it's important to share best practices across the country, so that women anywhere in the country can access the far-reaching holistic services we're able to provide and achieve the performance we're able to help them get.
Thank you very much for your attention.
:
Thank you, Eva. I certainly can tell you about that. That is a big question.
It starts with attraction. Attraction starts with education and informed career decision-making. We teach women that they can do these sorts of roles. Often they believe that they can't; they haven't thought of it. We do it through media, through information sessions, through exercises in career decision-making.
Then we move into a pre-screening process, when a woman applies through us, and we take her through a bit of an exercise to help her identify whether or not she's a fit for these sorts of roles, and if she is and if she chooses to proceed, what gaps exist.
Our approach is never no. Certainly our mission is women's economic prosperity, so in cases in which there are gaps, we work hard to identify what those are and to create action plans for the woman, so that she understands what it is she needs to do and has the supports to get her there, whether academic supports or child care—whatever barriers exist. That takes care of that piece.
We work and we do training in our facility at WBF in Edmonton and also train through partnership. We do what we call your best practices for success in construction. Those are such things as accepting feedback.
Often a woman or even a new person in construction hasn't worked in those sorts of environments. They're very different from an office environment, so there are things such as the importance of finding a mentor, learning how people communicate, and taking care of yourself, whether through nutrition or a fitness regime. Every one of our courses and programs has an element of financial literacy, which is extremely important when you're raising women's income by 132%.
That's the piece we do. For the hands-on skill building, things such as using tools and equipment, some things are trade-specific; some aren't. We do that in-house, partially. We can also do it through partnership, and that's the way in which we're planning to expand our model across the province and across the country.
The supports exist throughout the program and then also after the program. We keep in touch with both the employers and the women who work through our program, to make sure that they're mentored and supported all the way along.
Does that answer your question?
I'm going to ask about the approach that I think Irving Shipbuilding has taken in their partnership with the Women Unlimited Association, which is fantastic. We heard earlier from Doreen about the successes.
In British Columbia, where I come from with my colleague , when the government built the Vancouver Island Highway, we mandated equity requirements, and from there it went from 2% to 20% in the labour force in the sector, which is fairly significant. We've heard that if you can't see it, you can't be it. We've heard this over and over again at this committee.
From that perspective, is it time for a government to use examples like yours as a template? We have a lot of infrastructure programs coming up. Is this not a template or a model to say that for all of these contracts, here's the requirement?
I will go around the table on that, starting with Sarah.
:
Women Building Futures has had the opportunity to engage in many successful partnerships with industry that have yielded amazing results through partnership and through owners really working with us to ensure that their contractors are hiring the women who come through our programs.
I have a couple of examples with Suncor Energy. We have put 50 women to work in the mines in northern Alberta at Fort Hills and at Millennium mine, and 88% of them have stayed. Their income increased about 168%, and that was all through the initiative of Suncor. Suncor realized that diversity of workforce leads to diversity of thought, and it also realized that this was a much more palatable option, cost-wise, than importing labour from outside of the country and from other provinces. Its workforce right now in operators—those who drive the trucks in the mines—is just about 20% women.
Another partnership we've had that has been extremely successful is with North West Refining, the largest refinery in western Canada over the last 50 years. That was a tripartite agreement between the unions—the iron workers, the carpenters, and the insulators—North West Refining, and WBF...and their contractors as well. NWR was forward-thinking enough to really fund and spearhead this partnership with us, and we went to the unions to help us with the training.
With regard to Denise's point, the women knew they had employment after, so there was that light at the end of the tunnel. Through that partnership we have 50 women who have successfully been trained as iron workers, carpenters, scaffolders, and insulators, and who started their careers as apprentices at the refinery.
:
In your first two years, I'll say, you need 6,000 hours to go back to school to do your Red Seal. When you leave community college, you have a little over 2,000 hours. Then you go in and work with a company for the rest of the hours, and you go back and do your Red Seal.
In the first two years, you get four tickets, which are your stick and flux core tickets; you have flat and horizontal. In the second year, you do your vertical and overhead. So you do leave the school, hopefully.... You don't have to do them, but basically that's what they want you to have when you finish your two years of school.
I was fortunate enough to be hired by the school as a part-time welder for things they needed, and they gave me the opportunity to do my tickets without having to pay for them. You can train through the college. I came out with 11 tickets, so I have more than I need. I'm just going to work more.
They have a training facility at Irving, so once I am there, or if I am there, I will obviously be training to get more tickets and some specialty tickets, as well. Once I reach my 6,000 hours in the apprenticeship program, I go back to school for seven weeks and I do my Red Seal.
One of the goals of the national shipbuilding strategy is to build a sustainable marine industry in Canada, and so avoid the traditional boom and bust of shipbuilding industries. Really, in order to build that industry of the future that we want to see, we have to have a representative workforce. I know someone mentioned earlier that bringing diversity in brings diversity of ideas, and that is something we're really looking at. We have experienced shipbuilders working with us who have said that it's great bringing in female tradespeople, that they have great attention to detail, that they bring a new outlook to the workforce, so that's something we're certainly interested in. The investment for us is really for the industry. It diversifies our workforce, but it also helps the trades industry in general.
One observation the Nova Scotia Community College has made is that even having the female students in the trades classes exposes their male classmates to women at the top of their class in welding and in metal fabrication, and when they go to the workforce they know that these are their equals coming in. That builds the workforce that we want to have and the future that we want to see in the trades industry, in the marine industry, and the shipbuilding industry across the board.
It's certainly a long-term outlook and it's part of building that entire workforce.