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Women’s work and the well being of households in Canada, a decade after ¹ [2] As it stands, government accountability in Canada for its national security laws and practices is wanting.

Canada’s selective acceptance of foreigners becomes more evident when it is noted that the number of temporary migrant workers entering Canada each year is greater than the number of landed immigrants accepted annually.² [2] Compared to the US, the phenomenon of undocumented workers in Canada is small, but the number of workers in this category of most vulnerable workers appears to be growing. So, similarly, is the phenomenon of temporary workers with permits. Not only is the work of workers with temporary permits undervalued; workers with temporary permits are denied the entitlements that all other workers in Canada get. A two tier labour force has been established, with no protective health and safety law coverage for temporary workers in some provinces, restrictions on unionization in some provinces, lower wages, and restricted employment mobility. Ultimately, workers with temporary work permits are dependent on the good graces of the employer for a fair relation. Women working with temporary work permits are employed overwhelmingly as domestic workers under Canada’s "Live in Caregiver Program". Increasingly, women with temporary permits are working in hotels and on farms. Workers with temporary permits have work only while the employer is in need, and then must leave the country. The right to entry and the right to remain are fought for in the context of trade agreements that make it easier for capital to cross borders while borders are kept in place against the free travel and free settlement of people.

2. Precarious work

For other workers, more specifically, for a significant portion of women, better work hasn’t followed from ³ [2] 27% of workers who are women of colour do work that’s either part time and temporary or part time and permanent, while only 7% of white men are employed in these categories of precarious work.⁴ [2] The public sector, in part because of collective bargaining, employs workers mostly in permanent, full time work. 1 in 4 women work in the public sector, for governments or government funded employers like schools and hospitals.⁵ [2] Increasingly, the public sector is contracting out work to private employers who tend to oppose unions and pay lower wages in favour of making greater profits. The privatization or contracting out of home care work in Ontario is an example, and the contracting out of laundry, cooking and cleaning services in British Columbia hospitals is another.

With regard to public services, trade agreements keep work standards low after work is contracted out by governments to for profit businesses. Before contracting out the work, with governments as employers, the work is more secure, and wages are higher with good benefits.⁶ [2] Work in health services is an example. As large employers, governments set high standards in the service industries. After work is contracted out to for profit businesses, work standards are lowered, and industry standards are lowered as a whole. But trade rules prevent governments from replacing for profit businesses and rehiring workers once the work has been contracted out. With contracting out, work standards in service industries remain low while for profit businesses minimize labour costs. Most women in Canada work in service industries, in finances, communications, tourism and in public services like education and health.

3. Neo liberalism

Neo liberalism is about ending governments’ involvement in the economy, except for promoting profit making for businesses. Federal and provincial governments, for example, are supporting businesses in laying off workers more easily and keeping wages low in a bid to lower business costs. At the same time, governments are decreasing support for workers in the workplace and in the household. Governments keep both unemployment benefits and social assistance difficult to access and the amounts of support low. Due to the rules of unemployment insurance, which make it more difficult for workers doing precarious work to get benefits, only 33% of unemployed women qualify for benefits compared to 44% of men.⁷ [2] Further, in neo liberal style, governments are spending less on public services like child care and elder care so that these services⁸ [2] must be bought now for a higher price. Following the lead of the province of Québec, governments in British Columbia and Ontario have begun putting in place publicly funded, low cost child care. It is to be seen whether the programs will have universal reach, allowing all parents requiring child care to have access. Publicly funded, publicly delivered, low cost elder care is not universally available in any province, currently. Without broad elder and child care programs in place, workers cannot rely on public services during lay offs and reduced hours. In order, then, to pay for these services, workers are dependent on wages, even the low or temporary wages that are offered with precarious work.

4. Trade agreements and public services

As it stands, trade rules are not keeping provincial governments from introducing universal, low fee child care of the Québec variety, which charges for each child only $7/ day. But the establishment of child care as a universal public service may be prevented by governments’ delay. Once large, for profit child care businesses already operating in the United States start delivering child care in Canada, governments will likely hesitate before putting in place publicly delivered child care. This is because displaced child care businesses would have to be compensated for lost profits under the rules of ⁹ [2] This followed more than 10 years of government cuts to public services like child care and home care. Public services meet the needs of workers and households in other countries; is the same not possible for Canada?

Conclusion

Governments in Canada have been promoting liberalized trade and investment rules for the benefit of Canadian businesses. At once, governments have demonstrated a disinclination, as employers, service or social service providers, from establishing policies in support of the well being of women. Unequal labour laws between temporary and permanent workers, the contracting out of public service work, unemployment insurance rules which are unfair to women workers, and sluggish child care policy are a few examples. Putting in place low cost, publicly delivered universal child care is an opportunity available to the federal and provincial governments to reverse this trend. Further opportunities the government of Canada can take include the promotion in trade negotiations of rules mandating social and economic policies that are supportive of women and households; and fair trade, with remuneration and work conditions that are not unjust but fair for all workers, domestically and internationally.

Research in this paper was conducted for the Canadian Labour Congress. Many thanks to Bob Baldwin, Pierre Laliberté, Penni Richmond and David Onyalo at the CLC. And many thanks to Nancy Peckford at FAFIA.

¹ Canadian Council for Refugees (nd) The issues: an introduction. Current issues [3]. Safe third country. 25/08/2004.
² Donna Baines and Nandita Sharma (2002) Migrant workers as non citizens: The case against citizenship as a social policy concept. Studies in Political Economy 69. P 91.
³ Cranford, Vosko and Zukewich (2003) Precarious employment in the Canadian labour market: a statistical portrait. P 10.
⁴ Cranford, Vosko and Zukewich (2003) Precarious employment in the Canadian labour market: a statistical portrait. Just Labour 3. P 16.
⁵ Andrew Jackson (2003) Is work working for women? Research paper # 22. Canadian Labour Congress.
⁶ Marjorie Griffin Cohen and Marcy Cohen (2004) A Return to wage discrimination: pay equity losses through the privatization of health care. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
⁷ Canadian Labour Congress (2003) Let’s make unemployment insurance work for everyone [4]. Growing gender gap. 19/08/2004.
⁸ Andrew Jackson (2003) Fifteen years of ‘free trade’. Research paper #28. Canadian Labour Congress. P 17.
⁹ Andrew Jackson (2003) Fifteen years of ‘free trade’. Research paper #28. Canadian Labour Congress. P 27.