FEWO Committee Report

Solutions adapted to the women of Québec

Supplementary opinion from the du Bloc Québécois

Since last spring, we have known that the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health measures taken in response to it would affect the lives of women and alter our perception of the status of women. The pandemic would also highlight the realities of women’s social role, such as the fact that they hold the majority of jobs in the health care and family support fields.

It was natural that the Standing Committee on the Status of Women would address the issue of the pandemic’s impact on women in greater depth. We participated fully in this exercise and want to acknowledge the indispensable contribution of the many witnesses who allowed the Committee to deepen its understanding of the phenomenon while exploring the entire range of situations that women and girls have experienced in the past year.

COVID-19 has been a societal challenge that has required every sector of society to adapt. That being said, it is incumbent upon us, while we fight day to day against the virus, to sincerely, humbly and with full hearts thank those who take care of us. We are thinking of those who nurse us, those who look after our elderly, those who take care of their loved ones and those who are working so hard to counteract the pandemic’s effects on the education and instruction of our young people.

The pandemic has hurt millions of women and girls around the world. It is essential that we evaluate this impact. The fact that the pandemic affects women and men in different ways is now common knowledge, because the facts and figures speak for themselves.

In Quebec, women have the highest COVID-19 infection rate, somewhere between 54% and 60%. Women are more affected because they are more exposed. They represent 79% of infections among health care staff.

In Quebec last year, 120,000 women lost their jobs, while 55,100 men did so. In November 2020, 84% of women got their job back, while the figure for men was 89%.

But women’s work extends beyond the statistical realm, and confinement has added new burdens in the domestic sphere. Mothers attest to it in both opinion polls and personal testimonies: caring for children while teleworking is exhausting.

Nor can we ignore one of the most alarming consequences: we are facing a marked and observable increase in acts of violence against women and girls. In Canada, one violent crime out of four reported to the police is a case of conjugal violence. Confinement exacerbates the danger of isolation, and isolation amplifies the violence.

In short, the impacts are many and varied. They must be properly analysed, and the authorities must take them into account in their response to the pandemic and their future restoration efforts.

The Bloc Québécois sees the main contribution from the Committee being the expansion of the knowledge of women’s reality during a pandemic and the greater understanding that Parliamentarians can derive from that. Government interventions must focus on women who work directly with the public: professionals in the health care network, teachers and educators, and community workers, as well as women’s groups.

While the pandemic has affected women in various ways, in terms of physical and mental health, work and economic security, and personal physical security, the majority of the most direct public assistance has come through the health and social services sectors.

In Quebec, this aid is provided in a complementary fashion by the public health care system and partners in the community sector who work directly with clients. So, most of the women who are on the front lines providing care are in Quebec’s public sector.

Many of the recommendations to the Government developed by the Committee are solutions that may be appropriate for Canada but that are not necessarily adapted to Quebec, often because Quebec has already developed a response to the problem in question. Quebec has developed its own programs and policies in the areas where the Constitution gives it jurisdiction.  

In reality, in the areas of family policy, social policy and the structure of its social support network, Quebec is in a class by itself. Quebec has a single, coherent and integrated network of health care services and social programs, and uniform federal policies often duplicate and complicate the application of Quebec’s programs in areas where the Government of Quebec does not have sole jurisdiction.

This reality must be acknowledged and considered in order to design a federal response that is both effective and respectful of the Quebec’s uniqueness. Recognizing Quebec’s special nature is consubstantial with a federal response that works for Quebec and for the women and girls of Quebec.

Quebec has opted for social solidarity. Although middle-class families with children pay more taxes, when their benefits are taken into consideration, they end up with more in their pockets than families elsewhere in Canada. Quebec still has less income inequality than any other jurisdiction in North America.

A family policy that encourages women to participate in the labour market

A number of the Committee’s recommendations do not really relate to Quebec, whose family policy is radically different from that of Canada.

Consider daycare services. According to the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OCED):

Quebec “has launched one of the most ambitious early education and care policies in North America. (…) [N]one of these [Canadian] provinces showed the same clarity of vision as Quebec in addressing the needs of young children and families.”[1]

We understand the Committee’s calling for Canadian measures inspired by those that the women of Quebec already enjoy. Provided that Quebec is completely exempt from any federal interference, we can only support their approach.

In fact, Quebec’s family policy has had a spectacular effect on women’s participation in the labour market. The employment rate for Quebec women of childbearing age (25-44 years) rose by 10% between 1997 (year in which the early childhood centres were created) and 2015, from 69.7% to 79.3%. During that time, the rate increased by only 3% in Ontario, from 72.8% to 75.9%.

And there is parental leave.

In Canada, maternal leave (offered to women) and parental leave (which can be taken by either parent) takes the form of a special employment insurance benefit. Not everyone has access to it, and the benefit is not very high.

So, after many years of struggle led in large part by women’s groups, Quebec succeeded in withdrawing from the Canadian plan 15 years ago, in 2006, to create the Québec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP).

More accessible and more generous, Quebec’s plan bore fruit. More women in Quebec benefit from a paid maternity leave than in Canada (97.3% versus 83.1%) and it lasts six weeks longer on average (45.4 weeks versus 39.6).[2]

No to interference; yes to federal programs adapted to the reality of women in Quebec

It was only by withdrawing Quebec from federal programs that Quebecers were able to makes these advances. And that is the main reason that the Bloc Québécois systematically opposes federal interference and pan-Canadian standards. The freer our society is, the better it is for the people of Quebec.

However, in the areas under federal jurisdiction, the least that Ottawa can do is to stop penalizing Quebec when it makes different and feminist choices.

At present, access to the employment insurance plan is based on the number of hours worked in the previous year. With the one year of maternity leave that we have in Quebec, the women of Quebec are systematically excluded from employment insurance if they lose their job during their leave. The federal government should adjust its program to the reality of Quebec’s women rather than discriminating against them.

This simple measure is obviously not a replacement for the needed overhaul of employment insurance. The plan, which was designed in the industrial era, is simply not adapted to the current reality of the labour market. Women suffer the effects more profoundly. More women work in atypical jobs and thus have less access to the plan than men do. More than 60% of women who lose their job do not have access to employment insurance and are at risk of falling into poverty.

Paying its fair share for health care

The federal government can and must act to attenuate COVID-19’s harmful effects on women. The best way to do so is to assume its responsibilities in its areas of jurisdiction.

In the area of health care, the federal responsibility is to pay its part of the funding, which has gone from 50% in the 1960s to 22% today. It is imperative that the federal government respond to the provinces’ common front and increase the Canada Health Transfers (CHT). The Bloc Québécois is calling for the federal contribution to increase to 35% of costs this year.

The Government must also stop trying to impose national standards on the programs that it puts in place. The parliamentarians of the Bloc Québécois are opposed to the federal Government’s effort to claim the right to dictate to Quebec and the provinces what is good for their people. This hierarchic vision of the Canadian federation is paternalistic and contrary to the principle of asymmetric federalism.

Long-term health care establishments do not need standards; they need resources. National standards do not take into account regional characteristics and provinces’ specific needs.

Equal pay for equal work

The federal government must act on pay equity. Canada adopted its first Pay Equity Act in 2018, which applies to the federal public sector and to the private sector under federal regulation, but it has not yet come into force. We are still waiting for government regulations.

The wage gap between the sexes is not the same in Quebec and Canada.  In Quebec, women earn on average 90% of men’s salaries; outside Quebec the figure is 78%. This gap can be explained in large part by the fact that, in Quebec, pay equity is a right that has been provided for in the Pay Equity Act since 1996.

All workers in Quebec should enjoy the same rights. The federal government should act to ensure that women working in sectors under its jurisdiction are no longer subject to a wage gap.

The Bloc Québécois is proactive about an inclusive relaunch

The Bloc Québécois is working hard to make sure its proposals hit the mark. Our expectations for the upcoming budget focus on responding to women’s real needs, providing elderly women with assistance as quickly as possible and supporting everyone else, particularly in the regions of Quebec, in their personal commitment to relaunching our economy.

The post-pandemic revival is an opportunity to make full use of our assets as a nation, which includes a leadership role for the women of Quebec and their full participation in public decision-making.

While we work relentlessly to keep constructing our model of society in order to reduce poverty and reinforce societal equality, we also wish the best for the women and girls of Canada, who must also be able to count on institutions and policies that establish equality of opportunity and have a real positive effect on their well-being.