Mr. Assistant Deputy Chairperson (Gerry McAlpine): The next set of Estimates to be considered in this section of the Committee of Supply sitting in Room 255 is the Estimates for the Status of Women.
Are the minister and the critic for the official opposition ready to proceed? Does the honourable Minister responsible for the Status of Women have opening comments?
Hon. Rosemary Vodrey (Minister responsible for the Status of Women): I am pleased to present today the working Estimates of Manitoba Status of Women ministry for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1996.
This year marks the 125th anniversary of our province in Canadian Confederation, and all Manitobans can reflect upon an impressive history of accomplishment. Manitobans from across the province have worked together to share new ideas and explore new opportunities to build a strong province and to enable future generations to meet the challenges which still lie ahead.
Throughout the past 125 years, Manitobans have witnessed significant change and progress in all facets of their lives. Women have and continue to be among the chief architects of that change and progress in Manitoba. Pioneer women worked hard to enhance the quality of life on the prairies and were key in establishing schools and other community services. The courageous women of the Grey Nuns order brought Manitoba its first hospital. Political activists such as Nellie McClung and Margaret Benedictssen worked tirelessly for women's suffrage and succeeded in making Manitoba the first province in Canada where women could vote.
Although women do not have a long history of being in the workplace in great numbers, as early as 1881, Dr. Charlotte Ross became the first woman to practise medicine in Manitoba, and Marion Ironquil Meadmore became the first aboriginal woman to be called to the bar in Manitoba in 1978.
Manitoba Status of Women ministry, through the work of both the Manitoba Women's Directorate and the Manitoba Women's Advisory Council, works to ensure the women of Manitoba continue to achieve and participate fully in all aspects of Manitoba life. The Manitoba Women's Directorate is the department of government which works to ensure that the needs and concerns of Manitoba women are understood by government in the establishment of its legislative policies and programs. The directorate carries out its mandate through the establishment of co-operative partnerships with other government departments, jurisdictions across Canada, the business sector, community groups and other external organizations. The directorate is not involved in the direct delivery of service.
The Manitoba Women's Directorate, through its participation in federal-provincial-territorial working groups on education and training, gender equality in the justice system and violence against women, has worked with its counterparts across the country to address issues such as socialization of children and young women, violence against women as well as maintenance enforcement and economic equality for women.
The education and training working group participated in the development of the video and print material, Raising Young Voices, an educational package to raise awareness among parents, teachers, principals and administrators of the effects of socialization of girls and women. This program has been designed so that educators and community groups can use the material for workshops and discussion groups with a view to minimize sex-role stereotyping in raising and educating young people. It will be distributed this fall with the co-operation of Manitoba Education and Training.
The directorate has established partnerships with other departments of government and external agencies and this year partnered with Investors Group and the University of Winnipeg to produce the poster, Role Models, featuring members of the very successful University of Winnipeg women's basketball team, thereby promoting both women's sport and academic excellence.
This year, the Women's Directorate worked hard, with the support of other departments and corporate sponsors, to organize Moving Ahead, the very successful conference for women. The conference provided a forum in which more than 700 women from across the province were able to discuss topics which impact greatly on their very busy lives and share strategies for success.
As most Manitoba women of working age are in the paid labour force, the challenges now are to enhance women's career and financial prospects as well as to bring balance and manageability to the competing demands of work and family responsibilities. The conference, with sessions on strategic approaches to training, financial planning, stress management and healthy lifestyles, was enthusiastically welcomed by participants as timely, relevant and useful.
Moving Ahead also showcased the wealth and diversity of Manitoba women's expertise and accomplishments as well as their willingness to share their experience with other women, a real highlight cited by many of the participants.
Also last year, the directorate developed Training for Tomorrow, an exciting new scholarship awards program for women, which encourages them to take a strategic approach to post-secondary training, high skills training leading to viable long-term careers in high-demand occupations, in other words, ensuring a good job waits at the end of their training rather than a place at the head of the unemployment line. Training for Tomorrow, administered by the directorate with the guidance of the labour market researchers in the Ministry of Education and Training as well as community-based advisory committee, provides 50 scholarship awards of $1,000 each to women pursuing two-year diploma courses in math-, science- and technology-related fields at Manitoba's community colleges.
This program not only underscores the importance of education in achieving economic self-sufficiency, it also puts the recommendations of the Roblin report into action. The view of the report of the Manitoba Skills Training Advisory Committee, that colleges need to attract a larger share of high school graduates, is shared by the University Education Review Commission. In its report, the commission recommends that new resources be directed to this area of our post-secondary system in order to expand practical career choices for high school graduates while enhancing our capacity for economic growth and competitiveness.
They further state that community college diploma programs are essential to creating a pool of highly trained individuals who will bring advanced knowledge to the running of production processes, to the use and maintenance of sophisticated equipment such as that used in medical settings, and to the application of complex technological design to a variety of work settings.
It is very important for women to maximize their employment opportunities in this high-tech workplace of the future in order to achieve economic self-sufficiency for themselves and for their families. This government is committed to promoting the well-being of families and children. The economic well-being of Manitoba's single-parent families, most of whom are headed by women, is all too frequently jeopardized by the failure of noncustodial parents to pay their maintenance.
Maintenance enforcement has been and continues to be a primary focus of the Women's Directorate. The directorate works closely with officials of the Maintenance Enforcement Program of the Department of Justice and participated in the recently held community consultations. The first automated enforcement program in Canada was created in Manitoba as the direct response to this problem of maintenance default. Now our goal is to strengthen the program and create the most effective deterrence for those seeking to evade its reach. It is not acceptable to have families and children live in poverty because court-ordered maintenance payments are ignored. We have introduced legislation to send the message that paying maintenance is a payer's first obligation. The best interests of the family demand these payments be made.
Highlights of the legislation include suspending and refusing drivers' licences and motor vehicle registrations; reporting delinquent payers to the Credit Bureau; increasing the maximum jail term to 90 days from 30 days and raising the maximum fine to $1,000 from $500 for wilfully avoiding payments; introducing measures to seize assets owned by the payer with other people, such as jointly held bank accounts and other assets; and assessing accumulated pension benefit credits before retirement payouts begin.
Administrative changes are also underway to improve the Maintenance Enforcement Program's ability to enforce payments: the automated voice response system to provide 24-hour seven-day access to payment and enforcement information; an improved computer system to speed up and enhance enforcement efforts; information sessions for recipients and family law lawyers; implementation of more convenient ways for payers to make their payments with the introduction of a direct payment debit card and a drop box for maintenance cheques. The program will also establish a payment plan for delinquent payers who want to catch up on their payments.
At the recent annual meeting of ministers responsible for the Status of Women, ministers pledged to work collaboratively to enhance the reciprocal enforcement of maintenance among all jurisdictions. In Manitoba, we continue to lobby the federal government for greater access to its information resources to enhance both the location of payers as well as payment.
Nowhere is this government's commitment to the women of our province more evident than in our efforts to address violence against women. As Minister responsible for the Status of Women and, as well, as Minister of Justice, I am able to ensure that Manitoba's justice policies and initiatives directly reflect the reality of women's lives.
The Manitoba government has worked to develop a system that responds to the special needs of women in crises and aids women who want to end the violence in their lives. Such policies and programs include a policy of zero tolerance whereby persons, usually women, who are being abused by their partners will not be ignored by the justice system when they need help. This policy ensures action and firm intervention to put an end to the violence; prompt and effective action by the police will be supported by vigorous prosecution of offenders.
The establishment of a specialized Family Violence Court that considers the unique nature of wife assault, child abuse and elder abuse cases in the court; this is the first court of its kind across Canada. An aggressive prosecutions protocol for Crown attorneys which directs the Crown to proceed in a manner consistent with its legal and ethical obligations and which ensures that the criminal justice system helps victims of violence.
As well, the protocol directs all Crown attorneys to take a more aggressive approach with respect to orders made for the protection of women: restraining orders, protection orders and peace bonds, for example. Prosecutors have been instructed to assist and assume conduct of peace bond applications on behalf of the victim.
The expansion of the Women's Advocacy Program, both in Winnipeg and across the province to assist women who are faced with the justice system as a result of abuse by their partners.
Manitoba has one of the most comprehensive shelter funding models in Canada with volume-sensitive per diem rates, follow-up counselling and children's counselling services. The new model was implemented in 1992, doubling the operating grants and reducing per diem rates thereby ensuring the financial stability of smaller shelters as well as 24-hour access.
A 12-week educational program for abusers, as well as long-term treatment has been established. All sentence offenders are required to participate in a treatment program.
The creation of a simple, easily assessable nonmolestation order to be served by police under The Family Maintenance Act. Nonmolestation orders were introduced January 1, 1993, and a central registry for domestic violence has been established and is assessable to all law enforcement agencies in Manitoba. All orders of noncommunication and weapons restrictions are now centrally recorded.
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As well, the province of Manitoba has taken a tough stand on issues outside of provincial jurisdiction. As Minister of Justice, I have lobbied the federal government to strengthen Bill C-68, the gun control legislation. The Manitoba government believes that this bill as it currently exists will not increase public safety. We have lobbied for tougher sentences for offenders who commit violent acts with a weapon, not just a firearm as is noted in the bill, this includes all types of weapons, not just firearms.
Criminal harassment and stalking has also been a major issue for this government, and I have lobbied the federal Minister of Justice to change the current legislation to be tougher on offenders who stalk their victims. Recommendations from Manitoba include notification of the victim upon release of the offender from jail, enhanced penalties for stalkers who violate protective orders, and the implementation of a reverse onus for bail where an accused is charged with stalking.
These initiatives demonstrate this government's tough stand on violence against women and its commitment toward making Manitoba a violence-free zone. That is a commitment to Manitobans that I take very seriously.
In addition to its research and analysis functions it performs within the government, the directorate also provides an outreach function to the women of Manitoba. The outreach staff has been a source of information, referral and support services to women's groups as well as to individual women throughout the province.
Members of the outreach staff are based in Portage la Prairie, Thompson and Winnipeg and to ensure a truly province-wide service. Staff of the unit have reached out in the past year to a number of rural and northern communities, including Cross Lake, Snow Lake, Cranberry Portage, Russell, Carman and Oak Bluff, to name a few.
A toll-free women's information line has been established in order to provide women from any part of the province with easily assessable information on programs and services within government and the community. In support of this initiative the Women's Directorate continues to enhance an extensive database of government and community-based programs and services. Information capabilities will include retrieval according to specific concerns and according to geographical regions of the province. Information gathering for the databases is ongoing and updated on a regular basis.
In order to keep up with the steadily increasing demand for speakers on a variety of topics of interest to young girls and women, the directorate established a speakers' bureau, which includes speakers from within government, the private sector and the community. The bureau provides community groups and other interested organizations with knowledgeable speakers for their functions.
During the past year, two expanded issues of the popular About Women newsletter were produced and distributed to interested Manitoba women. Through the Profiles on Women newsletter segment, several prominent successful Manitoba women were featured as a tribute to the contributions of all Manitoba women. Through this ongoing feature the directorate will continue profiling the successes of Manitoba women in future issues of About Women.
The Manitoba Women's Advisory Council is an arm's length body whose members are appointed by the government. They represent the different geographical regions of the province and various communities of interest, providing advice on issues of concern to women. In August 1994, a council consisting of 13 new members, two reappointments and a new chairperson was appointed. To date, council has held five meetings and one outreach meeting in the Interlake area of Manitoba. A strategic plan was developed and council determined its priorities to be health, education and training, women in politics, women appointed to boards and commissions, the challenges facing recent immigrant women, and violence against women.
At its meetings since August, the council has invited a number of guest speakers to make presentations on topics such as rural child care, women travelling alone, the experiences of Filipino domestic workers in Manitoba, zero tolerance, profiles of Winnipeg resource centres, a review of Bill C-68, and the underrepresentation of women among the faculty at Manitoba's universities.
In August 1994, council participated in the national nongovernmental organization's preparatory meeting for the Beijing World Forum. Since then, the council has facilitated biweekly meetings for the Manitoba-Beijing network. The meetings have consisted of representations of a minimum of 20 nongovernment organizations. Attendees have discussed policies set forth, the process for changes to platform and the logistics of going to Beijing. The Beijing network is comprised of rural and urban women, and the council regularly mails out information to the more than 100 participants.
The Manitoba Women's Advisory Council prepared a brief for presentation to the federal Ministerial Task Force on Social Security Reform. The brief stressed the contribution women can and do make to Canada's economic and social well-being. The council also stressed its deep concern regarding the plight of single-parent families and urged consideration of the impact on children of social security reform. The Manitoba Women's Advisory Council made a number of recommendations to the task force aimed at enhancing the lives of single-parent mothers as well as enhancements to unemployment insurance as it relates to women.
Once again, the council has been updating its highly successfully Parenting On Your Own, a handbook containing descriptions of a comprehensive list of services available to single-parent families. The council is now seeking to partner with the community to ensure the ongoing life of this resource. A committee has been established to find partners to co-finance the third printing of the handbook. Council is hoping to have the reprint available in the not too distant future.
Parenting On Your Own continues to be immensely popular. To date, over 7,000 copies have been distributed. Council continues to receive requests for copies of the handbook from agencies such as the Fort Garry Women's Resource Centre, Aboriginal Training and Employment Service of Manitoba, Manitoba Health, the Social Services Advisory Committee, and Winnipeg Child and Family Services.
Council assisted in the organization of the Moving Ahead conference, the 1995 celebration of International Women's Day. Council was instrumental in the development of the French panel, The New Economy: A Franco-Manitoban Perspective. Council has worked in conjunction with the University of Manitoba Advanced Communications class to create a pilot project to develop a marketing strategy for council to enhance its profile in the community and expand opportunities for the public to have input into council's priority setting. The new approach is already having an impact. In 1995, the council will reach out to the students at the University of Manitoba to create, in young women, an awareness of the council's role.
The Manitoba Women's Advisory Council continues to develop a broad base of resource material in its library. Council is in the process of making its informational resources more accessible to the public by creating a computer data bank. University and high school students, teachers, professors, women's organizations and other individuals have found council's library helpful and one that fills a need for a wide variety of information.
Council continues to make faxing, photocopying and mailing services available to numerous women's organizations. Council also makes the Status of Women boardroom available to nonprofit women's organizations for meetings, upon request. The council has continued to participate on a consultative basis in women's project and event planning committees, when asked. The council attended meetings that focused on key issues of concern to all women in Manitoba such as maintenance enforcement, single-parent consultation, social security reform, judicial code and municipal act review.
The council assisted the Coalition for the Education and Training of Women with the preparation for its political forum debate, and council looks forward to another productive year. In keeping with its mandate, council will continue to work with all women and women's organizations. I am very proud of the successes of both the Manitoba Women's Advisory Council and the Women's Directorate, and during the coming year I am confident that both organizations will continue their work to ensure equal opportunities and equal participation for Manitoba women in all aspects of our society.
Mr. Assistant Deputy Chairperson: I thank the honourable minister for those comments. Does the critic for the official opposition, the honourable member for Osborne, have opening comments?
Ms. Diane McGifford (Osborne): I too would like to thank the minister for her opening statement. This is my first Estimates for the Status of Women, so I look forward to becoming more familiar with the ministry. I have had, however, in the past, experience in working both with the advisory council and the Women's Directorate in another capacity so I do know something about the working of the ministry.
I want to begin by making some points about my own political background and point of view and begin by making the point that I came to politics by way of feminism and that I bring to this ministry a feminist perspective. I was going to say a feminist perspective to the political arena but note, in passing, that arena is such a value-laden term these days, I perhaps should not use it.
My political influences are those feminist thinkers of the 19th and 20th Centuries who are much too numerous to mention, so I simply will not do that. As far as my beliefs, I believe that we as women live in a culture where sexism is alive and where misogyny thrives or at least, I suppose not thrives, lives. I have an alternate vision, a vision of a community where men and women are full and equal participants living together in support of harmony, and I think I want to make the point here that feminism embraces the masculine. It is patriarchy and hierarchy that we take issue with.
Of course, there is a great deal of difference between the ideal and the real, or as T.S. Eliot said, between the ideal and the real, the shadow falls, and there is certainly a shadow characterizing the lives of women in Manitoba. For example, and I am going to give several examples which, I am sure, the minister is familiar with, but I think it is important that we give these examples over and over again.
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We live in a society where women still earn 72 cents for every dollar that men earn. We live in a society where women are more likely to live in poverty, to be single parents, to bear the economic and actual burdens of child rearing, and I am thinking here of the emotional and physical costs of bringing up children as well as the economic costs of bringing up children.
Women are still far less likely than men to hold powerful or prestigious positions, whether these be political positions, whether they be ones in corporations, high-level administrative positions in universities or school principals. Most of our medical models, apart from when work is done in specifically female diseases, are based on the male body and the ways in which disease threatens and attacks the male body.
Interesting in this regard, one day last week I attended the annual general meeting of the Women's Health Clinic, and the speaker there pointed out not only has there been a massive neglect of women's health issues, but where women's health has been highlighted, she said the accent on the differences between men and women has led to some very dangerous social policies for women. I could share those with the minister at another time if she were interested.
Back to some of the examples of the inequity between men and women in our society, I noticed that our language and our education remain basically dominated by patriarchal norms and expectation. Curricula at all levels often do not include materials written by or about women, and as I say, this is true of education at all levels, and I think particularly true at the university level of which I have some direct experience. So I was very glad to hear of the work that the advisory council was undertaking with the university system. True, there has been some progress, but some is not enough, and I think women in Manitoba are still not satisfied.
I might add here the findings of the recent Report of the Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Climate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Manitoba--that is quite a title is it not?--and its findings of a chilly climate, to put it very mildly. I think it is a pretty frigid climate. Certainly this report is an index to the barriers bedeviling women, even those who we usually think of as very privileged, and it is also an index to the misogyny in what we usually think of as a very progressive institution. Certainly that report makes clear some of the difficulties women are experiencing at the university level, and I think it needs to be taken very seriously.
The last example of this nature that I want to provide, although I note this is far from the last instance of the inequalities plaguing women, the last example I want to mention is violence against women. We still live in a society, of course, blemished by domestic assault on women where numbers of women each year are murdered by their partners or their husbands or their ex-partners. I believe it was 14 women murdered by their partners or ex-partners in 1994.
Other kinds of domestic assault on women abound, but they are not indictable offenses. I am thinking of things like women who live with years and years and years of verbal assault or who are denied money or other family resources. Those certainly are in my opinion examples of abuse, and certainly they are endemic in our culture.
I point also to sexual assault and sexual harassment. They continue to undermine the quality of women's lives and to keep some women subservient, compliant, frightened and disempowered and, I think, to keep all women frightened and a little wary. So certainly any kind of violence is felt by us all, even if we are not the direct recipients of violence. We live in a violent society. Sadly and shamefully I think many women live lives where they are subjected to a number of the injustices that I mentioned. Poverty, humiliation often permeate the lives of many Manitoba women.
I guess I would like to just mention without pointing out the double jeopardy in which women living with disabilities or immigrant women or aboriginal women or visible-minority women face. Certainly their road is a tough one.
To repeat then, my perspective, as the critic for the Status of Women, is informed by feminist analysis. I believe that the personal is the political and that there are political legislative solutions to personal injustices, though, I point out, these need to be accompanied by educational programs and social services which target women.
My theoretical stance is combined with some very practical hands-on experience. I have a long history of work in the women's community that I would like to share with the minister. For example, I have been a counsellor at Planned Parenthood in family planning. I have been a sexual assault counsellor at Klinic. I have worked at the YWCA Women's Resource Centre. I have been president of Fort Garry Women's Resource Centre. I have taught women's studies at the University of Winnipeg. I have been president of the December 6 Women's Memorial Committee, a member of the Urban Safety Project for Women and Children. I have written extensively on women's issues for local, national and international magazines, and I have been an editor of Contemporary Verse 2 which is one of Canada's few feminist poetry magazines.
As the critic, I continue to consult with these groups and with other women's community groups, seeing my duty as critic to be maintaining the lines of communications with community women and their concerns. I see the important issues challenging women to be, as always, economic, sociocultural, educational and the empowerment of women.
I would like to talk about what is standing in our way. When I had the opportunity to speak in the House on Bill 3, The Maintenance Enforcement Act, I made the point that what we need to do, as men and women, what we need to do is change the world, and I believe the best ways of working towards that goal are through legislation, education and social service supports.
As far as legislative policies are concerned, I think we need sound visionary legislation and policies which are cognizant of the misogyny in our culture and which promote the full and equal participation of all women, especially the marginalized women in our communities. I recognize that I myself, and I think most of the women sitting at this table, of which there are four, are probably very advantaged, but certainly this is not true of women throughout our culture. So I think it is really important that we have policies that are designed to look after all women, especially the marginalized.
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I believe here we need to renew our commitment to affirmative action and continue to enact legislation that protects women against violence. We need to increase support so that specialized family court can fill its mandate as providing expedient resolutions to matters of family violence. As the minister knows, I believe we need to enact amendments to Bill 3 if maintenance enforcement legislation is to indeed fulfill its goals.
Legislation, I think, needs to be accompanied by educational programs and community development. We need educational programs and curricula which take issue with the cultural biases that perpetuate inequalities. We need to replace antiquated curricula with models that recognize the perspectives, achievements, cultures and values of both women and men. We need education and training which provides women with the knowledge and skills they require to live with economic independence and to be competitive. We need to encourage women to enter those vocations, those disciplines that are thought of as masculine. In other words, we need to educate women to set themselves at odds with tradition and create new traditions.
As far as community outreach, I think we need community outreach which meets women on their own terms and in their own places, which locates, encourages, supports and empowers the disenfranchised and the marginalized women in our society. We need to be able to reach these women because their self-esteem is not such that they can go out and seek these programs out. Healing has to begin before change can happen. Just as change requires sound legislation and appropriate community education programs and outreach in education, so does the full and equal participation of women depend on the social service supports which honour women's perspectives and which recognize women's social inequality. I think these are necessary for some very obvious reasons.
First of all, women need supports, counselling resources, information and advocacy if they are going to be in a position to take advantage of educational programs. But as well, and perhaps more important, if women are to be full and equal participants in our society, it is vital and necessary that they have a safe place where they can explore their individuality, where they can heal, where they can gain self-esteem and where they can begin to discover their own personal resources and their own strengths. I think for these reasons women's resource centres or programs that target women are absolutely vital if we are to change.
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Within government itself, I think it is clear that we need concerted and frequent consultations and communications between the various ministries and the Minister for the Status of Women. I think we need to do this if we are to move women from the margins into the centre.
During the past few weeks I have spent some time visiting women's community groups and consulting with them. It has not been easy. I have certainly been involved on a steep learning curve, but anyway I have managed to squeeze in a few consultations. My consultations with women's groups suggest that many are nervous. History tells women that during times of economic upheaval or restraint, our needs, desires, aspirations are often the first to suffer. Though we are not the cause of economic problems, we are often expected to shelve our personal and political agendas in order to provide solutions.
The women's groups with whom I have spoken feel threatened by the cuts to the federal transfer payments and by the provincial planned balanced budget legislation. They know that arenas and bridges are often valued more than women's centres and shelters. They know that social assistance and its benefits are always on the table. They know that innovations and women's education and community development programs are always at risk. I think women know too that daycare is always at risk. One of the things that I was busy in in the 1980s was working with the then-NDP government on daycare standards.
One of the things that I just find startling is that it is 1995, and I can go to a meeting of women and one of the first issues that still comes up always is daycare. This was happening in 1970, and we still have not resolved our daycare needs. I find it just absolutely astounding. Until we have a daycare program that meets the needs of Manitoba children, women are not going to be able to enter fully into our society or fully into the workforce. Anyway, that was a diversion.
I was talking about my consultations with women's centres, and one of the things that I want to say here is that women know that all too often a 'blame the victim' psychology pervades, and that women are blamed for the social, economic and educational inequalities in which they live when the real culprit, of course in my opinion, is the patriarchal and hierarchical nature of our culture. Indeed our times are volatile and when it comes to equality and social services, some women and some women's groups feel that they are under siege. They feel that there is a greater and greater disparity between the haves and have-nots, between the rich and powerful, and the poor and the disenfranchised. Therefore, at this time it seems to me leadership in the women's community is particularly important--leadership from the minister, from the Women's Directorate and from the Manitoba Women's Advisory Council. I am very interested in the activity--activities, let me use the plural--activities of the Women's Directorate and of the advisory council. I am interested in their priorities for the future and the activities of the past year. I am interested in their leadership. I am sure that the minister will honour my questions. I promise, in return, my commitment to work for, and here I borrow from the established goals from the advisory council: To work for the full and equal participation of women in society and to promote changes in cultural, social, legal, and economic structures in order to advance that end.
Finally, as I have implied earlier and perhaps throughout my remarks, I look for a community that honours and values all of its members equally, a community which will be characterized by fairness and justice, and I sincerely hope this vision will be realized before the end of the second millennium.
Mr. Assistant Deputy Chairperson: I thank the critic for the official opposition for those comments.
We will return to 1.(a)(1) Status of Women, Manitoba Women's Advisory Council, Salaries and Employee Benefits, on page 136 of the main Estimates book.
At this time I would like to invite the minister's staff to come forward and the minister to introduce her staff at present.
Mrs. Vodrey: I would just like to take a moment to introduce to the committee Theresa Harvey, who is the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Women's Directorate; Ruth Mitchell, who is the manager of the Policy Unit; and Betty Nordrum, who is an analyst with the advisory council; and Maggie Nashimura, who is the chairperson of the advisory council for the Status of Women.
Mr. Assistant Deputy Chairperson: I thank the minister for that information. It is customary for the committee to proceed line by line. What is the will of the committee in this instance?
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Ms. McGifford: If it is acceptable to the minister, I would like to just ask some questions basically about the Women's Advisory Council and then pass on to the Women's Directorate. I suppose in one way that is proceeding line by line, is it not?
Mr. Assistant Deputy Chairperson: Is it the will of the committee to proceed line by line, then? [agreed]
We will now proceed with line 22.1(a) Manitoba Women's Advisory Council (1) Salaries and Employee Benefits $175,500.
Ms. McGifford: I would like to ask the minister a few questions about the--I suppose more about the employees--but a couple of questions about the salaries. The minister has identified two women present as working at the advisory council and also identified their titles. I wonder if I could ask the minister basically what these people do.
Mrs. Vodrey: I just wanted to take a moment because, as the member for Osborne (Ms. McGifford) knows, the advisory council is at arm's length to government and they operate at arm's length. So in the questioning which follows, I will be making sure that I am representing them fairly to the member in Estimates.
The two people who I identified, let me start with Betty Nordrum who is sitting here who is an analyst with the advisory council. Her role is very wide ranging. She reviews issues, she is responsible for also looking at what the policy issues might be as she is reviewing issues, she organizes consultations, she liaises with women's groups, she also liaises with students, her role is as a staff person with the advisory council, and she provides staff support in relation to the issues which come forward.
Maggie Nashimura is the chairperson of the advisory council, and her role is to set the agenda with members of the advisory council on the issues that the advisory council will be working on. The advisory council's role is to reflect what issues are within all of Manitoba that are of interest and concern to government, and their role is particularly important because they are not employees of the Government of Manitoba. They are not looking at the issues with that kind of an eye. They look at the issues instead as representatives of their own community group whether it is a geographical and a professional group and what issues have been represented to them and to bring them forward to the council and then to in turn pass those on as the minister's advisory council.
Ms. McGifford: Could the minister explain to me how the chair is appointed?
Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, the chair of the advisory council is appointed by Order-in-Council by government.
Ms. McGifford: Well, who gives the Order-in-Council? How does that evolve?
Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, the Order-in-Council is brought forward by the Minister responsible for the Status of Women and presented as a recommendation to government.
Ms. McGifford: So the Minister for the Status of Women makes a recommendation in regard to the chair.
Mrs. Vodrey: That is correct.
Ms. McGifford: I wanted to ask also about the increases in wages, and I want to preface that I am always happy to find that women's salaries are going up, but I do notice a difference between 1995-96 and '94-95, and of course we are continuing with Filmon Fridays.
Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, the numbers are going up due to the benefits to employees.
Ms. McGifford: So these increases are natural increments?
Mrs. Vodrey: Yes, that is correct.
Ms. McGifford: I guess I should have said usual increments as opposed to natural ones.
On June 8 in the House I asked the minister if and when the executive director's position would be advertised and posted through the Civil Service Commission, and the minister told me in response that she believed this process was underway. I would like to have a report on the process and how it is progressing and indeed when we can expect the advisory council to hire an executive director.
Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, I can tell the member that we are following a procedure set out by the civil service. In fact, when I made that response to her, yes, things were in progress internally, and I am told that there will be an ad placed in the Free Press within two weeks and it is expected that the position will be filled by the beginning of August.
Ms. McGifford: Will the executive director's position be a full-time position?
Mrs. Vodrey: Yes, it is.
Ms. McGifford: If it is going to be a full-time position, I guess I would like to take a look at the staff years and I wonder where it would fit into the staff years allocated, which I see are 3.3.
Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, it would be the managerial position.
Ms. McGifford: Then the executive director is the managerial position and that is one staff year; and I am assuming that the professional/technical position is that of the policy analyst and that is one staff year; and that the administrative support people, who are not with us, that is the 1.39. Is the chair position not included here then?
Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, I understand that the chair's position is part of the operational budget.
Ms. McGifford: It seems to me that if there will be less than one month between the ad in the Free Press and the appointment of the executive director that that is going to be a very hasty process. I wonder if the minister could comment on that.
Mrs. Vodrey: Certainly we are not looking in any way to short circuit the process, so I am told by staff from the directorate that it may be unlikely that the competition can be completed by the beginning of August, although the advisory council has indicated their anxiousness to proceed in the filling of the position. If it is not possible to have processed all of those people who are interested and to have done the interviews and the competition according to the civil service, then we will take a little bit longer.
I am advised it could take up to six weeks, though the goal of the advisory council is to have someone in that position as soon as possible. They would like the position filled by August 1. However, if it takes a bit longer, then it will, in order to comply with everything that is required.
Ms. McGifford: How long has the position been vacant?
Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, the position has been vacant since January 1.
Ms. McGifford: Is it usual for it to require six months before there is anything done about it?
Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, I am told sometimes yes, that it is possible for positions to be held vacant. The new chair, who is relatively new, also had an opportunity to get to know what she was requiring in terms of an executive director as well, and so it has taken a little bit of time. However, we are looking to have that finished as quickly as possible.
Mr. Assistant Deputy Chairperson: Order, please. The hour being six o'clock, the committee will recess until 8 p.m. We will resume back here at 8 p.m. to continue on with the Estimates of the Status of Women.