STATUS OF WOMEN

Mr. Chairperson (Marcel Laurendeau): Will the Committee of Supply please come to order. This section of the Committee of Supply will be considering the Estimates for Status of Women. Does the honourable minister responsible have an opening statement?

Hon. Rosemary Vodrey (Minister responsible for the Status of Women): Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present today the working Estimates of the Manitoba Status of Women ministry for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1997.

Manitoba Women's Directorate is the department of government which works to ensure that the needs and concerns of Manitoba women are understood and considered 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 and jurisdictions across Canada, also the business sector, community groups and other external organizations.

The Manitoba Women's Directorate, through its participation in federal-provincial- territorial working groups on education and training, gender equality and 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 called 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 the sex-role stereotyping in raising and educating young people. The video was distributed to every high school in the province in January of this year with the co-operation of Manitoba Education and Training.

The directorate was also a member of the federal-provincial-territorial senior officials working group on violence against women and participated in the development of Beyond the Violence. It is a national listing of violence initiatives which was tabled at the Ministers responsible for the Status of Women meeting in May and it will be distributed in the coming months across the province.

The directorate has established partnerships with other departments of government and external agencies and this year partnered with the Royal Bank to present Money Matters, The A to Z of Finances for Women Explained. Money Matters has now been modularized and is available to interested groups for presentation either in single modules or for a full-day workshop.

The directorate worked in co-operation with Manitoba Justice to develop and distribute Stop the Violence, a resource guide for service providers. This guide will be a valuable resource for service providers dealing with the tragedy of domestic violence. The directorate has taken responsibility for the distribution of this document.

In September 1995, I was honoured to be a member of Canada's delegation to the fourth UN conference on women held in Beijing, China. It was truly inspiring to be part of a meeting of women from all over the world, to hear women such as Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, and to speak with many delegates from countries throughout the world. One of the most important things I got from the conference was a sense of energy and dedication and the purpose of women from every corner of the globe.

I also realized although we as Canadians and Manitobans have goals that we have not yet reached, we are very fortunate people. For example, nowhere in Manitoba do we have a situation where girls are not allowed to go to school, where boys are given the food and girls go without. One thing that resonated throughout the platform for action that does have application for Canadians and Manitoba is the need for women to assume leadership and decision-making roles in all aspects of public and private life. As a consequence, we are concentrating on incorporating a gender perspective as an integral part of our decision making as government. For example, the Women's Directorate has worked in co-operation with Manitoba Education and Training labour market officials to ensure that the impact on women of changes to the Employment Insurance program has been considered by governments, both provincial and federal, as a part of their analysis.

On returning from Beijing, I met with the Beijing network in November 1995 and I was pleased to arrange a meeting for the United Nations Platform for Action Committee Manitoba with the cabinet ministers who deal directly with major issues raised in the platform for action, including training, poverty, health and child care, in April of this year. Ministers of Health, Family Services, Education and Training, along with myself, received presentations from--the group is now called UNPAC and what it means is the United Nations Platform for Action Committee, so it is just the first letter of each word. The dialogue between UNPAC and ministers has been very successful, and UNPAC has volunteered to act with a community resource to work with ministers towards the goal of equality for women.

We are continuing the Training for Tomorrow scholarship awards program for women. A total of ninety-six $1,000 scholarships have now been awarded to women entering two-year diploma courses in math and science and technology-related programs at the province's three community colleges.

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 enforcement maintenance payments. Maintenance enforcement has been and continues to be a primary focus of our government. It is our belief that noncustodial parents must fulfill their obligations to their children. It is not acceptable to have families and children live in poverty because court-ordered maintenance payments are ignored. During the last session of the Legislature we passed legislation to send the message that paying maintenance is a payor's first obligation. The best interests of the family demand these payments be made.

Nowhere is this government's commitment to the women of our province more evident than in the efforts to address violence against women. As Minister responsible for the Status of Women 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 crisis and aids women who want to end the violence in their lives.

Manitoba does have 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 operating grants and reducing per diem rates, thereby ensuring the financial stability of smaller shelters as well as 24 access. Funding to shelters has increased by 168 percent from 1987 to 1988 to the present time, an indication of our commitment to ensuring that women and children have supports when trying to end the violence in their lives.

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In the area of criminal harassment and stalking, this has also been major issue for this government. I have lobbied the federal Justice minister, Allan Rock, to change the current legislation to be tougher on offenders who stalk their victims. Recommendations from Manitoba included notification of the victim upon release of the offender from jail, enhanced penalties for stalkers who violate protective orders and implementation of the reverse onus provision for bail. I am pleased to say that changes have been made to the federal legislation that reflect the tough recommendations made by Manitoba. They did not go as far as we would like but they have indicated some changes, and I believe that is in a bill before Parliament.

To further protect victims of stalking, we have recently made changes to the computerized names index in the Land Titles Office, so that the names of victims who are in possession of a nonmolestation order, a peace bond or a restraining order may apply for a protected name status. Only Land Titles staff with the highest security clearance will be able to use the name search on the protected name.

These initiatives clearly demonstrate this government's zero-tolerance stance on violence against women and its commitment towards making Manitoba a violence-free zone. That is a commitment to Manitobans that I take very seriously.

Recognizing that hopes for a prosperous future for young Manitobans is based in part upon equipping our children with the skills they need to be productive and healthy citizens in the future, the Women's Directorate has sharpened its focus on promoting the development of healthy young women and young people. We believe that equipping our young women with the skills they need for the future must reflect a holistic approach which encourages them to lead positive lives. We want to encourage them to do things such as be active, stop smoking and refrain from early sexual activity. We want to encourage young women to replace unhealthy behaviours with healthy ones and towards that end, Manitoba Status of Women has launched Take the Challenge.

Take the Challenge is a comprehensive initiative still in its developmental stages which is designed to address issues affecting most teenage girls. Its goal is to provide positive call for action for girls to assist them in making responsible and healthy life decisions. The directorate has sought out partnerships with stakeholders, service deliverers and community organizations to maximize the effectiveness of a major campaign to bring about attitudinal change.

The first part of Take the Challenge was unveiled in 1996 International Women's Day celebrations and it focuses on the benefits of physical activity for girls. The directorate, together with Manitoba Sport and the Department of Health, provided $4,000 to help the Manitoba Physical Education Teachers Association hold the very successful and hands-on training conference. The workshop was held May 1 to 3, and it brought together 30 teachers from across the province to examine issues contributing to the low participation rate of young women in physical education activities and to develop strategies to encourage them.

To take this message directly to young women, the directorate developed a complementary poster called Do It for You. This poster will be distributed to junior and senior high schools across the province. During the development of the poster, the directorate formed a new partnership with the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport and Physical Activity. That is called CAAWS. This organization asked to purchase 1,000 posters which it will distribute across the country and, better still, CAAWS asked to borrow the Do It for You design to title its four-and-a-half minute motivational video and it has credited Manitoba. The poster, the video, the prototype T-shirt emblazoned with full-colour image of the poster on it were unveiled at CAAWS's recent Breakthrough awards dinner in Ottawa where Manitoba received national recognition for its Take the Challenge initiative.

The directorate will be establishing partnerships with a number of organizations to develop further segments of Take the Challenge relating to other issues affecting teenage girls. In addition to its research and analysis function it performs within government, the directorate 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 to ensure truly province-wide service. Staff of the unit have visited a number of rural and northern communities during the past year including Swan River, Cranberry Portage, Russell, Domain, Brandon, Souris, to name but 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 accessible information on programs and services within government and the community. 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 and 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 About Women.

Mr. Chair, I just also have a couple of comments to make on the Manitoba Women's Advisory Council which is an arm's-length body appointed by government to advance the equal participation of women in society and to promote changes in social, legal and economic structures to that end. In appointing members to the council, the Manitoba government endeavours to select persons who are representative of various geographic and ethnocultural and socioeconomic sectors. In August 1994, a council consisting of 13 new members, two reappointments and a new chairperson was appointed. Currently, the council membership is representative of urban, rural, northern women, Francophone and aboriginal women and visible minority women. These members are from a variety of backgrounds and bring to council a well-rounded perspective on areas of concern to women including health, business, education, immigration, paid and unpaid labour, parenting, seniors, agriculture, youth and the justice system.

Mr. Chair, I have a listing of the names of the members, and I will table that during the Estimates or provide it to the member immediately following.

The council's role is to promote equality of opportunity for Manitoba women, and community liaison work has been and continues to be a top priority of this advisory council. The following are examples of some of the statistics compiled in the 1995-96 fiscal year ending March 31, '96. Council liaised with over 100 community organizations, participated in or attended more than 60 workshops, meetings and conferences pertaining to issues of concern to women, provided expertise, co-sponsorship, committee representation or consultation for many community events and conferences pertaining to issues of concern to women.

A major council liaison project was undertaken with the Manitoba Bar Association gender issue section and it highlights how council brought the community to the process of judicial selection. Council facilitated this by mailing and faxing out information and resources to all qualified women encouraging them to apply for judicial appointment, as well as launching a successful federal lobbying campaign. The result was that four women were appointed to the bench.

As well, council participated in a grassroots campaign to raise funds to fight an important legal battle before the courts regarding the issue of confidentiality and the counselling records of sexual assault victims. A committee of women active in the community joined council in initiating a mail campaign to raise funds to defray some of the court costs involved in this precedent-setting case. I followed that up by raising that at the federal-provincial-territorial Ministers of Justice conference and, most recently, the conference for the ministers for the Status of Women, and have prepared a letter to the community to that effect.

Council has also instituted bimonthly open-house events to actively promote partnerships and networking among women and women's organizations. The first three functions marked important events or topics of concern to women: First, the honouring of Nellie McClung on the 80th anniversary of women's right to vote; the day for elimination of racial discrimination; and the issues surrounding women's unpaid work as tracked by the census and Canada Pension Plan reforms. I am very concerned about the Canada Pension Plan reforms and prepared to talk about that further during Estimates.

In the area of women's health, council has facilitated and co-sponsored a number of events pertaining to women's health such as the conference on women and tobacco called Lifting the Smoke Screen. Partners for this conference included Women's Health Clinic, Manitoba Health, Health Canada, the Federation of Medical Women in Canada, Native Women's Transition Centre and Women Business Owners of Canada. The goal of this collaborative effort was to mobilize and challenge women's organizations and government to think about tobacco as a women's issue.

The council has also undertaken active planning and an advocacy role for the development of the prairie region centre for excellence for women's health. As a result of this initiative to work together in the planning stages of the centre, organizations such as the Manitoba Women's Advisory Council, the Women's Health Clinic facilitated the development of stronger partnerships with other community groups and academics. As well, conferences and presentations and meetings regarding health were attended by council with the various topics being discussed such as midwifery, new reproductive technologies and breast cancer.

In education and training, council has been active in advocating for individuals and accessing the council office for assistance and referrals. One of the major areas of concern has been the number of women phoning who require assistance to upgrade their job readiness skills. Council has also worked directly with students on several occasions. One example included liaising with Francophone students regarding French entrepreneurial programs. Another student-related initiative undertaken by council included three separate corporate liaison projects with the Faculty of Management students at the University of Manitoba. This led to the development of a council brochure, a needs assessment survey and an upcoming newsletter for the fall of 1996. As a result of the work and the consultation with both students and the women's community, council has had its belief in the importance of ongoing education of young people about equality issues and the work of council reinforced.

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Other areas that have been considered by council are women in politics, immigrant, Francophone and aboriginal women's issues, and that has been a high priority for this current Advisory Council. They have been actively involved with the Filipino community through participation and discussion groups on topics such as elder abuse, family violence, healthy aging and domestic workers' issues.

The area of violence against women has been another major focus of this present council. They brought the issue to the forefront of the community with their liaison work, and the current council activities in relation to this include involvement and participation in cross-cultural committees on domestic abuse, the coalition opposing violence against women and maintaining ties with women's resource centres. The social policy review was another very important facet of the council's work. They have taken a proactive stance in response to concerns expressed by the women's community regarding recent social policy changes or prospective reforms.

Then they have been active with the fourth World Conference on Women. Council undertook a pivotal role and they facilitated the biweekly meetings on site for the Beijing network. As a result of those meetings, over 30 women from grassroots organizations attended the conference.

There has also been consultation with rural women and they have also established further future directions for themselves, a reference library and continue to provide assistance to the community.

I am very proud, Mr. Chair, of the successes of the Advisory Council and the Women's Directorate both, and during the coming year I am confident that both organizations will continue their work to ensure equal opportunities to Manitoba women in all aspects of our society.

Mr. Chairperson: We thank the minister for those comments. Does the official opposition critic, the honourable member for Wellington, have an opening statement?

Ms. Becky Barrett (Wellington): My opening remarks are being read into the record by myself on behalf of the member for Osborne (Ms. McGifford). I want to begin by telling this committee that 1995-96 has been one of those years that supports the thesis of Susan Faludi's book, Backlash, that is, put simply, women are losing the battle for social equality and social justice, for full and equal participation in all facets of society. Make it clear that the responsibility for the declining status and income of Manitoba women does not rest with the staff and the ministry of the Status of Women, but with a government whose agenda is to attack programs and policies which enhance women's status and the quality of our lives. We know the common response to this: blame the federal government for the cuts in CAP and transfer payments and the creation of the CHST, and of course their scurrilous policies are regressive.

But actual federal revenues to Manitoba increased last year because of our own weak economy and the increase in equalization payments. Manitoba Conservatives, led by the Minister of Justice, who is also the Minister responsible for the Status of Women, flew to Ottawa to oppose gun control but stayed at home for the committee hearings on the social transfer. To oppose gun control unequivocally and say nothing about the block transfer which will have the greatest impact on women seems to me a dubious stance for the Minister for the Status of Women to take.

I would like to point out as well that the backlash against women in Manitoba began long before the cuts from '96-97 in federal transfer payments. I would like to share some of those statistics. One, there has been a steadily declining budget and staff years in the ministry responsible for the Status of Women, from 15 staff years and a budget of $923,900 in '92-93 to 12.13 staff years and a budget of $906,400 currently, which does not account for inflation, which must be at least 8 percent over this cumulative period at an inflation rate of 2 percent a year. This does not sound like a commitment to the Status of Women.

Secondly, before 1996-97, there were regressive changes to social assistance, like changes to CRISP and the repeal of the Manitoba cost-of-living and property tax credits, which have an especially heavy impact on single-parent families, 85 percent of which are headed by women.

Third, a lack of legislative initiatives regarding part-time workers and prorated employee benefits, the elimination of the pay equity office and the impacts on women who form the majority of this workforce.

Four, a cap on subsidized child care cases and increasing the cost to parents of subsidized spots from $1 a day to $2.40 a day.

Five, cutting the Access programs. These programs played an important role in providing many women from remote communities a post-secondary education.

I could continue and provide more examples of the way this government's policies have disproportionately impinged on the lives of women in areas like health, justice and housing, but I will now pass on to address more specifically the regressive policies of this forthcoming year, 1996-97.

I would like to put on the record the important question of where the Minister for the Status of Women was when these issues and decisions were being addressed and made. First, the plan to privatize home care which would mean layoffs and a 40 percent reduction in salary for workers, 98 percent of whom are women and a large majority of whom are immigrants. This appears a strategy to forget the most vulnerable of our workers, immigrant women. This plan is on hold for just two years, and we hope that the second time it arises the Minister responsible for the Status of Women exhibits more backbone on behalf of Manitoba's women.

Second, the decrease in welfare rates for single parents with children over six, especially the inflexibility of the changes. I have a woman in my constituency with two children over six, one seven and one nine, both of whom are asthmatic. This woman asked me if the government expected the nine-year-old asthmatic to care for the seven year old, and I had to say that I guess they did since the same government had frozen the number of subsidized daycare spaces, making it virtually impossible for newcomers to find subsidized spaces.

A second point is the difficulty of untrained, often unskilled, ill-educated women to access employment in a depressed labour market. Under this category the Taking Charge! program will deal with 700 clients a year. They have a waiting list and an entrance test. We do not have the statistics on the likelihood of students finding employment, and I think it would be incumbent on a single parent not to hold their breath about getting into the program, and once into the program, getting a job.

Secondly, the Workforce 2000 project housed at the Manitoba Fashion Institute is preparing workers for the garment industry, but the manual dexterity test eliminated approximately 80 percent of the applicants. This was a figure from the program's own director.

Third, it does not seem that the training and education programs which would train women and allow them to leave welfare are in place nor are the support programs necessary. Reductions in welfare are a direct assault on the poor and, in a year when the minister received an 11 percent increase in her own salary, are disgraceful.

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The 2 percent cut to Family Dispute. There was a corresponding 2 percent cut in '93-94, so in the past three years there has been one year of no cuts which coincidentally was an election year. Again, assuming a 2 percent annual inflation rate, the actual reduction in monies available to Family Dispute Services programming is in the order of 10 percent. This means of course a 10 percent cut to Family Dispute funded services, and workers there are in many cases being asked to accept a 2 percent wage cut. At the same time, the minister received an 11 percent wage increase.

At the Lavoie inquiry into the murder-suicide of Roy and Rhonda Lavoie, the co-ordinator of the EVOLVE program testified under oath that these cuts would mean more worker burnout and would have repercussions on the organization's ability to deliver quality programming--so much for this government's commitment to ending violence against women.

5) I would like to mention briefly the threat to public education, the cuts by 2 percent for the past several years to the public education system and this government's continued onslaught against teachers, specifically the Minister of Education's (Mrs. McIntosh) attempt to hamstring teachers by making sweeping changes to the collective bargaining process. I would like to include this here because the majority of public school teachers are women who are fortunately making a decent liveable wage. This government's response is to attack, and the Minister for the Status of Women offers teachers no support.

6) I would like to put on the record that there are many blatant examples of sexism at work, and in the Minister of Health's (Mr. McCrae) failure to appoint even one woman chair to the 10 regional health boards. Furthermore, we have repeatedly asked the Minister of Health for a list of appointments to the 10 boards, and he has stammered, delayed and prevaricated. The list promised last February is still not available, at least to me.

The obvious question is who will look after women's health needs in rural and northern Manitoba since when left to men, the result historically has been dismal. Women's special health needs have been ignored. Of course the question is again, where was the Minister responsible for the Status of Women when this decision was made.

In summary, I would like to state that the cumulative impact of these various policies is a province where women are asked to bear a disproportionate share of cost cutting and where women's status is once again being eroded. Feminists know that times of economic stress and one accompanied by regressive sharp swings to the right and by attacks either overt or covert on the economic social, and cultural lives of women--this is most certainly the case in Manitoba as this government, no doubt fuelled by its majority and by regressive policies in other jurisdictions, steps up it ideological drive to privatize and to cut programs.

À la Roger Douglas, the right-wing leader from New Zealand, the Filmon government basically ignores the marginalized and minority groups, that is, and to large extent, women. The sad truth is that the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women either follows suit or has no clout with her cabinet colleagues. These circumstances are reflected in this government's policies and legislation which disregard the realities of women's lives.

Mr. Chairperson: I thank the honourable critic.

We were on item 1. Status of Women (a) Manitoba Women's Advisory Council (1) Salaries and Employee Benefits $166,700--pass.

I would just like to remind the committee that we have had agreement that we will have the resolutions all passed by twelve o'clock. I have a number of resolutions yet to put through, so just a couple of short questions.

Mr. Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster): I just have a couple of questions.

Mr. Chairperson: Order, please. We will need the minister's staff in if we are going to be asking questions. That is the other problem we are going to have.

Mr. Lamoureux: If it is the will of the committee, I do not believe that I will need staff from the minister to come in for the type of questions that I have to ask. I will just pose, and if the minister feels that it is necessary to have them come in, she can call them in, if that is okay with the Chair?

Mrs. Vodrey: I am prepared to hear the question. If there is any detail, I will ask my staff to come in.

Mr. Lamoureux: Mr. Chairperson, over the health care discussions and debates that we have had over the last little while, there has been a great deal of debate in one area in which we believe there was a fairly significant impact on an issue which is very much a women's issue dealing with the home care services and the privatization of home care services. In fact, internally, from within our party, our own women's commission had conducted a panel discussion and come up with a number of thoughts and ideas about it. One of the things that was discussed between me and members of the panel on an individual basis was what role did the Minister responsible for the Status of Women play, if any role, in the whole privatization of home care services. I would be interested in hearing from the minister in terms of what her role was in this issue, if in fact she had any role.

Mrs. Vodrey: Mr. Chair, as the member knows, these are government decisions. These are not a single minister who simply makes a decision in isolation. That is true for all decisions, all Justice decisions, all other decisions in that ministers work together as a cabinet and a caucus, and in that cabinet and caucus we have the opportunity to make decisions as a government. I think that is really the best way to deal with it is to say that all members, these are government decisions.

The member clearly does not agree with the decision, and that has been clear during the course of the debate, but I believe the Minister of Health (Mr. McCrae) has provided our government's reasoning in this area, and the Minister of Health has provided, I believe, our government's position. I can just say to the member for Inkster that perhaps this is an unusual notion, but decisions are made by government as a whole. There is participation and decisions are reached, and he may not agree with this one.

Mr. Chairperson: I thank the honourable members. As previously agreed, I am going to require the last three minutes to conclude the department. I have this resolution and a number of other lines to pass.

Item 1. (a) Manitoba Women's Advisory Council (1) Salaries and Employee Benefits $166,700--pass; (2) Other Expenditures $110,000--pass.

(b) Women's Directorate (1) Salaries and Employee Benefits $479,500--pass; (2) Other Expenditures $96,200--pass; (3) Grants $54,000--pass.

Resolution 22.1: RESOLVED that there be granted to Her Majesty, a sum not exceeding $906,400 for the Status of Women for the fiscal year ending the 31st day of March, 1997.

This concludes the Status of Women.

The final resolution for consideration is for Capital Supply.

RESOLVED that there be granted to Her Majesty, a sum not exceeding $142,050,000 for Capital Supply for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1997.

That concludes the work of this committee. Committee rise. Call in the Speaker.