The ACTEW Blog

"MMP" stands for Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). This is the proposed electoral system. You will hear the slogan "1 ballot, 2 votes" because in this system, the voter selects a party and a candidate.

A Mixed Member Proportional system combines members elected in local districts and members elected for the whole province to serve as MPPs in the legislature. If this system is accepted, Ontarians will have two votes in future elections: one for a "Local Member" and one for a political party. The selected Local Member does not need to be from the party the voter chooses.

Under MMP, the provincial legislature would have 129 seats: Local Members' would fill 90 seats while "List Members" would fill 39 seats.

The share of seats in the legislature that each party wins is roughly equal to its share of the party vote. For example, if a party wins 25% of the vote, it wins about 25% of the seats in the legislature. The political party with the largest number of seats in the legislature, including Local Members and List Members, is asked to form a government.

In each electoral district, one vote would be used to elect a Local Member using a First-Past-the-Post system. The candidate with the most votes in an electoral district wins.

The other vote would be for a political party. Votes for parties will be used to determine the number of List Members each party gets. This is the proportional representation part.

If a political party is entitled to more seats than it won at the local
level, candidates from that party's list of members join the government; these are the List Members. The list of members is created before the election and is distributed to the public. Members are selected for a position in the government based on their order on this list. Only a political party that has received more than 3% of the votes can have List Members.

In the end, a political party's overall share of seats will roughly equal its share of the total votes for parties in the province.

Labels: Meetings_and_Events

To understand the Referendum, it's necessary to look to at Ontario’s current electoral system. This system is often called "First-Past-the-Post" (FPTP).

In a FPTP system, a single winner is elected in each voting constituency. The winner is the candidate with the most votes, although not necessarily the majority of the votes. The party that has the most elected candidates forms the government.

This is the most common voting system and is used through out Canada at provincial and federal levels, as well as in the United States and the UK.

In Ontario, under the current FPTP system, the provincial legislature has 107 voting constituencies, with a corresponding 107 elected officials, or Members of Provincial Parliament (MPP), representing these constituencies. This number has changed recently; seven years ago, the provincial government decreased the number of constituencies from 130 to 107.

Labels: Meetings_and_Events

Ontarians will be going to the polls on October 10 not just to (re)elect politicians but, more importantly, to vote on electoral reform in the referendum.

Changing the electoral system affects who might get elected into office, which in turn affects the policies that our government makes. Whether you vote yes or no, you need to make an informed choice.

Elections Ontario, a non-partisan Agency of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, has set up a web site, Referendum Ontario (visit www.yourbigdecision.ca), to help voters "learn about your choices in Ontario’s first-ever referendum on electoral reform."

Elections Ontario also explains how and where to vote on their main web site, www.elections.on.ca, including electoral districts, voting by proxy, and how to confirm that you are on the voters list. They have information available in 33 languages.

Labels: Meetings_and_Events, Resources_and_Research

On September 20, 2007, the National Association for Women in the Law (NAWL) closed its doors after more than 30 years working to promote the equality rights of all women in Canada.

CBC Radio's The Current profiled NAWL on September 20, and discussed some of the issues associated with NAWL losing funding. Listen to the broadcast.

NAWL is launching a "Stayin' Alive" Campaign to raise funds to re-open its doors in 2008.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends

Women are driving small business growth in Canada with their dramatic increases in self-employment. As of 2003, Canadian women entrepreneurs were contributing more than $18.109 billion to the Canadian economy each year, said a report released by the Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs that year.

The federal and provincial governments recognize this powerful new demographic group with the Network for Women Entrepreneurs, a program administered by the Canada-Ontario Business Service Centre (COBSC). This step represents a fulfillment of one of the recommendations by the Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs.

The Task Force also recommended other ways of supporting women entrepreneurs so they are less vulnerable to changes in the economy and personal circumstances, and can be even more successful in contributing to Canada and Ontario's economy:

• increase accessibility to training and networks, including online and telephone training for remotely located women,
  
  
• extend the Self-Employment Assistance program to individuals not eligible for Employment Insurance (EI), as has been done in Quebec, and
  
  
• set up a Centre for Women’s Business Research in partnership with private and not-for-profit sectors to examine the effect of government policy on women-owned business.

The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities has inherited the Self-Employment Benefits program from the federal government through the LMDA. At the same time, MTCU also inherited the eligibility requirements of this program, meaning that individuals must be receiving EI or received EI in the last five years to access self-employment training.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, MTCU_Updates

Many self-employed women are more financially vulnerable than their male peers. This is because women are far more likely to be in the "own account" category of self-employment, meaning they are not employers. As such...

• They earn significantly less than self-employed men.
  
  
• The majority do not have private insurance plans.
  
  
• They cannot access Employment Insurance (including maternity leave), and are much less likely to be able to access training programs.
  
  
• They face earnings interruptions when there is a family or personal illness, or following childbirth/adoption.
  
  
• They often use personal finances to invest in their businesses.
  
  
• Many do not incorporate their businesses, so if difficulties arise, they may be forced to claim personal bankruptcy.

This financial insecurity is often attributed to "choices" women make: to work part-time work in order to care for children and elderly parents, and to work in lower-paying service and traditionally female dominated industries, such as child care, janitorial and cleaning work.

However, since the restructuring of the 90's, many companies now "contract out", which puts the cost of benefits, equipment, training and insurance into the hands of the worker. If that worker cannot claim a high rate to compensate for the immediate (e.g. equipment), potential (e.g. ill health) and long-term (e.g. retirement) costs she is absorbing, the employment contract is not to her benefit.

Jan Wong documented an example of vulnerable "contract" employees in her newspaper series on maids in 2006. Many maids are not on salary but are own account self-employed workers contracted by cleaning agencies. They are not paid for travel time and barely make minimum wage after the agency takes its cut. They do not have benefits nor can they afford insurance or time off if they become ill or injured. Read more in the "Maid for a Month" series on the Globe and Mail site.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends

A new campaign has been launched called the Colour of Poverty. The province-wide community-based campaign is launching a series of fact sheets and capacity-building initiatives that aim to promote an understanding of how poverty arises within or impacts upon racialized groups, and suggest ways, tools & strategies for people to work toward equity & inclusion in Ontario. So far, 10 fact sheets can be downloaded from the site, covering interconnected topics such as employment, education, food security and health.

The research of the Colour of Poverty Campaign states that by the year 2017, more than half of Toronto’s population will be people of colour. Nearly one in five immigrants experiences a state of chronic low income, which is more than twice the rate for Canadian-born individuals and ethno-racial minority (ie. non-European) families make up 37% of all families in Toronto, but account for 59% of poor families. ACTEW’s recently released fact sheet and e-bulletin on Immigrant Women and Employment found research that demonstrates immigrant and racialized women are particularly vulnerable. One of the most startling statistics is that immigrant women are more highly educated than Canadian-born women, yet are paid substantially less.

Follow the Colour of Poverty Campaign and download the fact sheets at http://www.colourofpoverty.ca/

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

Self-employment is one of the fastest growing areas of employment for women. One in ten Canadian women are entrepreneurs.

ACTEW’s newly released fact sheet on women and self-employment finds that while self-employment in general has been on the rise since the mid-1970s, the number of self-employed women has nearly tripled over the last 20 years, compared to a 60% increase for Canadian men.

Here are some general trends and quick facts on women’s self-employment:

• Rural women are more likely than urban women to be self-employed.
  
  
• Much of the growth in self-employment among women has been in traditional female dominated sectors such as child care and janitorial and cleaning work.
  
  
• Self-Employed women are often home-based and own account workers.
  
  
• About one-quarter of self-employed women work part-time.
  
  
• Self-employed women earn significantly less than self-employed men.
  
  
• The self-employed cannot access Employment Insurance (including maternity leave), and are much less likely to be able to access training programs.

Self-employment is an important employment option for women. When Canadian women were asked the main reasons they became self-employed, 85% stated that a desire for more challenging work was the most important factor in their decision. Women in rural areas, where employment is limited, are more likely than urban women to be self-employed. This form of work can sometimes offer a more flexible schedule, which is helpful for women who are looking for more life-work balance in their lives.

Labels: ACTEW_Activities, Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research