The ACTEW Blog

The Northern Ontario Women's Economic Development Conference took place April 29 and 30 in Thunder Bay. Organized by PARO, and sponsored by ACTEW among others, this event brought together entrepreneurs, community workers, academics and local government workers to look at a wide variety of issues related to northern women’s economic security.

Highlights include:

• Women's stories of economic success: Woven throughout the conference were stories of women's success as entrepreneurs, politicians and community activists. In establishing a business women, such as gallery owner Louise Thomas or contractor Pamela Johnson, often consciously focus on positively affecting the social economy of their community as well as bringing in revenues.
  
  
• Technology: Five communities, including reserves with no road access, attended the conference remotely and participated in workshops via web casts. Roz Lockyer, Executive Director of PARO, reported that northern women want to utilize technology more for learning and professional development according to PARO's recent survey of the region. There was strong interest in participating in the technology training opportunities that Lynda Beavis, ACTEW's northern representative of the Content-Sharing Constellation Network, will provide in coming months. (To learn more about these workshops contact lori@actew.org.)
  
  
• Transportation: "Northern Women on the Move" was a workshop that explored how transportation affects women's economic security. Siobhan O'Leary and Maggie McDonald, researchers with Rural Women Making Change Research Alliance, presented the outcomes of surveys of women living in rural communities in Ontario. Workshop participants, including three web casting remote communities, shared strategies for overcoming women’s varied transportation issues.
  
  
• Activities at the local and municipal level: Kathy Poling, Mayor of Sioux Lookout, described breaking down systemic barriers within municipal government in order to be more inclusive of the aboriginal community, women and youth. Jody Rebek-DiCerbo, Managing Director of Destiny Sault Ste. Marie, explained her city's economic diversification strategy. Dr. Gayle Broad of Algoma University explored the economic and social benefits of social enterprises, such as farm circles in Northeastern Ontario and worker ownership of local industries.
  
  
• An economic overview of the region: Dr. Bob Rosehart, Northwestern Ontario Economic Facilitator, described some of the region's challenges and his recommendations for stabilizing and enhancing its economy and communities based on his recent report: "Northwestern Ontario: Preparing for Change".

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Meetings_and_Events, Resources_and_Research

Deanna Yerichuk and Paula Wansbrough attended the April 17 Employment Ontario Service Delivery Advisory Group (SDAG) meeting. The following items were discussed:

Skills to Jobs Action Plan

Kevin French, Assistant Deputy Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities reviewed the Skills to Jobs initiative announced in the provincial budget earlier this month. SDAG community members had questions around the Second Career Strategy. TCU was clear that this program applies only to workers recently laid off (as of June 2007) and they have not yet determined if part-timers would qualify for this program but did say that training money will go directly to the client after rigorous assessments and training plan development, rather than be provided as block training or in voucher form.

Of the $475 million to be invested in Skills to Jobs, almost all -- $345 million -- will come from the Labour Market Agreement (LMA). The LMA is a federal investment of nearly $1.2 billion in Ontario's labour market over the next six years. Since so much LMA money is to be channeled into the Skills to Jobs initiative, community SDAG members will be watching the implementation closely to assess how much it actually reaches the marginalized workers it was designed to serve.

(Read more on the LMA in this blog.).

EO Transformation

"Planned, measured change" was the key phrase used by Kevin during his presentation on the next steps for Employment Ontario. Here is the timeline:

• May 2008 - the planning process, tools and guidelines will be completed
  
• June 2008 - selected approach(es) implemented
  
• July 2008 – approved external accountability framework
  
• September 2008 – staff training on guidelines, tools and contracts
  
• October 2008 – contract negotiations commence with service providers
  
• February 2008 – approved internal accountability framework
  
• March 2009 – staff training on internal accountability
  
• April 2009 - initial phase of the delivery of Employment Services
  
• July 2010 – Employment Ontario vision fully realized

A "capacity assessment" is underway across the province that will further inform the transformation. At a regional level, this will look at the service capacity of local agencies, service gaps, labour market characteristics and socio-demographic factors. ACTEW asked whether gender would be one of the socio-demographic factors considered, and TCU indicated gender would be a part of the data collected. The outcomes of the province-wide assessment will be released to the public.

Integrated Service Delivery Focus Groups

Susan Underhill presented feedback and themes from the focus groups, surveys, interviews and workshops held with the service delivery network in February and March, involving 500 – 600 people.

The research took place with both MTCU staff and service providers, and as a result, there were variations in views on how to best achieve Integrated Service Delivery. TCU staff thought about how to best manage service delivery while service providers thought about the best ways to deliver services. TCU staff favoured Approach A (Lead Provider) over Approach B (Distributed Model), which was the service provider favourite. When Susan expressed disappointment that there were few alternative models suggested by participants, SDAG community members noted that focus groups did not leave time to explore alternatives. To see a copy of this presentation, please contact ACTEW’s office at policy@actew.org.

Employment Service Design

Sue Forrester presented on the now completed transformation project, Employment Service Design. This project was described by Kevin French as "a real model" because of the successful integration of community perspectives through the external service delivery reference group. (Download a presentation on the project by participant, Honey Crossley, Executive Director of Working Skills Centre to ACTEW membership in February 2008.)

The group proposed a number of formulas and definitions for assessing program and agency success, as well as funding model information for employment services:

• service delivery quality standard - allots 50% for effectiveness (participant profile plus service impact, i.e. employment), 30% for customer service (customer satisfaction plus service coordination), and 20% for efficiency. The calculation takes into consideration how barriered the client is, although employment is the most heavily weighed outcome.
  
  
• organizational capacity indicators – will measure customer satisfaction and service delivery; how an agency uses local labour market data to inform programming; the stability and efficiency of its administrative processes, its financial performance, and its governance; and the agency’s ability to coordinate services with others in its community. This formula is currently a work in progress.
  
  
• funding decision model based on an agency’s effectiveness – consists of three components: compliance with the MTCU contract, evidence of organizational capacity and the service delivery standard achieved (see above).
  
  
• proposed funding model – agencies meeting appropriate levels of effectiveness will receive operating grants to deliver services that recognize economies of scale; performance incentives will be available and will not be part of the organization’s base operating grant but must go back into improving services; funding will be sustained based on the organization’s ability to achieve service delivery quality; grants are for services that will serve 100 or more clients, although this will vary depending upon the location of the agency.

Note that both SDAG community members and MTCU determined this external stakeholder reference group to be one of the most effective uses of community expertise in planning. MTCU has committed to using similar processes in other transformation projects, particularly the Employment Service Delivery, Training Service Design/Delivery and Information Technology.

It’s Your Call

On the request of MTCU, Josie Dizio of OCASI presented the new report, It’s Your Call, as an example of the execution of a Call for Proposals process, with clear recommendations that this particular process was not appropriate for ongoing service delivery. MTCU gave a commitment that this is not a process they are considering, and both community members and bureaucrats voiced the importance of working together to determine what kinds of processes should be used, particularly in determining new service delivery.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, MTCU_Updates

Today, Deanna attended the provincial forum at Queen’s Park led by the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction. Nearly 500 stakeholders attended, representing social services, municipal governments, health, labour, and people affected by poverty as the Network launched the 25 in 5 Declaration. The Network asks the provincial government for a plan to reduce Ontario poverty levels by 25% in 5 years and by 50% before 2018. According to the Network, it should address 3 priorities:

1. Sustaining employment


2. Livable income


3. Strong and supportive communities

Minister Deb Matthews, chair of the Poverty Reduction Cabinet Committee, spoke at the event (for more information on Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, visit our blog from Jan 22, 2008). Minister Matthews talked about the “foundational principles” the committee has agreed upon in engaging this process, which include:

• An “opportunity-based” approach—building on strengths rather than pathologies and ensuring the plan is focusing on providing opportunities for success to individuals experiencing poverty


• Develop person-centered strategies—rather than services and supports that are fractured and actually work against each other in reducing poverty


• Every person has a role to play in reducing poverty—this includes business and community leaders, a cross-section of provincial ministries, and requires the federal government to be at the table in discussions. This also includes municipal governments and local communities


• “Get smarter with the money being spent”—invest in evidence-based social policy to evaluate outcomes of programs and approaches, and invest in programs that are achieving outcomes that lift people out of poverty

Note that the committee will be undergoing an “engagement process” over the next few weeks across Ontario—as we hear of consultations and opportunities for communities, agencies and individuals to provide input into this important work we will send information along.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Meetings_and_Events

Two recent items pertaining to women in non-traditional occupations:

• The Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESTT) will have its 12th annual conference in Guelph, May 29-31. In keeping with this year's theme of "building on success", the event will highlight women’s contributions and build upon successful initiatives that have advanced women in science, engineering, trades and technology. You can learn more and register online at the conference website. Be sure to check out the statistics on Canadian women in the non-traditional sectors on the coalition's home site.
  
  
• The Canadian Association of Women in Construction (CAWIC) applauds the government of Ontario’s $1.5 million investment for the Women In Skilled Trades program. The training will reach over 150 women through trades training centres in Burlington, Hamilton, Hawkesbury, Kenora, Fort Frances, Waterloo and Toronto.
  
  Yet training is only one piece of the effort needed to integrate women into the labour short trades. In an article in the Daily Commercial News and Construction Record, Angela Wilson, Chair of CAWIC, noted that,

  "Trade unions and independent contractors must be on board and embrace the notion of women in skilled trades by supporting, encouraging and providing opportunities for women. It would be short-sighted to provide funding to train women and subsequently for them to encounter difficulties in acquiring jobs within the industry."

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Meetings_and_Events

Newcomers are settling in the suburbs of Toronto, according to the latest Research Bulletin from the Centre for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS) at University of Toronto.

Prior to 1970, immigrants mainly settled in the downtown core. Due to restrictive immigration policy, they were also very likely to be of European origin. However, by 2006, almost all new arrival were settling in the suburbs. These immigrants are ethnically and socio-economically diverse, with well-educated and financially secure people from China and India settling in Markham and Mississauga, and lower-income immigrants and refugees of African, Asian, and South American origin settling in the inner suburbs.

This pattern will be familiar to community agencies that serve newcomers. Agencies must open new locations in the northern and outlying areas of the city, or relocate entirely in order to reach their clients. Mario Calla, executive director of COSTI Immigrant Services, interviewed in the Globe and Mail yesterday said,

"[W]e're seeing people that are coming directly from Pearson Airport, where they land, to a home in the 905… the way immigration patterns have changed, our staff speak 63 different languages, and we have relocated our centres in new immigrant settlement areas."

While acknowledging the challenges of serving a diverse and geographically distributed newcomer community, CUCS strongly encourages action to meet the needs of immigrants:

"The vulnerability of new immigrants in the inner suburbs highlights the importance of providing appropriate settlement services, adequate and affordable housing, educational opportunities, and skills training – all matters that potentially lead to successful integration. Failure to deliver these services, especially to newly arrived low-income immigrants, risks fuelling social tensions that are increasing in other jurisdictions, especially certain West European cities."

Read the bulletin:
http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/redirects/rb41.html

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

Women make up almost three-quarters of the students in private career colleges, according to, Survey of Canadian Career College Students, a new study by the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation.

"Compared to post-secondary students at public colleges, students pursuing post-secondary studies at privately operated career colleges tend to be older, with a mean age of 29, and have a greater reliance on government student financial aid. In addition, most of them (72 per cent) are women, and they are more likely to have dependents under 18 and less likely to have financial backing from family."

Students within the private colleges fit into six main categories, which include new immigrants, women re-entering the workforce after a period of caregiving, and young people preparing to enter a college or university program.

Half of these students will or already rely on a Canada Student Loans or other government assistance to fund their education and have higher debt levels than public college students. The study also shows that compared with their peers at public colleges, private college students are less knowledgeable about various educational loan and grant options.

Download the report: Survey of Canadian Career College Students
http://www.millenniumscholarships.ca/images/Publications/080331_SCCCS_EN.pdf

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

Increasing skills is a central focus of the new provincial budget. The Skills to Jobs Action Plan announced Tuesday will see $1.5 billion invested in training over the next three years. With 70% of new jobs in the coming decade requiring post-secondary education, the money is on formal school-based training.

• Most relevant to the community-based training sector is the Second Career Strategy. The program invests $560 million over the next three years in retraining 20,000 individuals laid off in the past 12 months in a second career. This is a fresh direction for training money, with little funding in recent decades for career changes. The new money will include grants of up to $28,000 or $30,000 to help cover the cost of tuition, living and transportation. A screening process that measures aptitude, goals and financial need will determine those eligible for the grants.
  
  The focus of this initiative appears to be on those in the manufacturing industry who have lost jobs. The Toronto Star reported 77,000 lost jobs in the province’s manufacturing sector from 2001 to 2006. Nationally, 18,300 sewing machine operators (92% of which are female), 6,800 metal fabricators, and 6,100 mechanical assemblers and inspectors lost their jobs during this period, with Ontario as the hardest hit province.
  
  The Star reports that the Second Career Strategy is to "be up and running by June 1 through existing employment counselling services". While the focus is on retraining laid off workers and those with long-term goals, the vague terminology of "unemployed workers" may be useful to non-profits serving more marginalized individuals. The grants may also be helpful to single mothers as Finance Minister Dwight Duncan is reported as saying, "If a sole breadwinner wants to go back (to school) there will be additional help that isn't available under existing programs."
  
  
• The budget also aims to expand and improve apprenticeships with $75 million over the next three years to increase apprenticeships, to meet a goal of 32,500 new trainees annually by 2011, plus another $45 million for apprenticeship training equipment. While women have been entering apprenticeships in slowly increasing numbers, they remain in traditional and low-paying occupations like child care and hairdressing. Encouraging women to enter non-traditional occupations would meet labour shortages.
  
  
• Much of the money is for universities and colleges. There is extensive funding of $970 million over three years for educational institutions, mainly universities and colleges, but also "skills training centres and facilities" under the Strategic Skills Training Capital Investments program. New grants will improve access to education with $385 million for books and computers and $27 million to alleviate travel expenses of students in remote areas.

The budget also met the promise of raising the hourly minimum wage to $8.75 as of March 31, will invest up to $10 million over four years to match what low-income earners can save towards education or business start-up costs, and $497 million to public transit in the GTA and Hamilton area. Another key investment is in Ontario's 211: more than $13 million over 4 years to invest in the telephone and web system to help Ontarians access community services and get accurate referrals. The Toronto Star recently reported that the vast majority (over 70%) of callers are women.

However, the budget falls short in some key areas. The Wellesley Institute observes that there is almost no investment in housing. While a 2% increase in social assistance benefits is a hopeful start, it will barely keep pace with inflation. Most importantly to working women or women wanting to work, there is no mention child care, neither as an immediate investment or in a long-term commitment.

Read the budget.

See analysis of the 2008 Ontario budget on the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Meetings_and_Events

On February 20th, ACTEW joined workers, clients and volunteers of community agencies serving immigrants and refugees in Toronto at a forum designed and held by the Advisory Committee of Access to Services for Socially Marginalized Immigrants and Refugees with the support of St. Christopher House. The event objectives were to name the issues for marginalized immigrants and refugees, particularly related to accessibility of services, and to bridge the work done by various service-providers to address these issues.

Eight recommendations resulting from the forum are now available, the foremost of which is to develop a coalition to "address poverty, racial discrimination, oppressive practices, systemic barriers and access to services barriers" for marginalized immigrants and refugees. Other recommendations included involving government to develop helpful policy and coordinate services, mapping service access points for targeted groups, collaborations between established agencies and new organizations, strategic funding approaches and settlement sector information sharing.

This initiative is important to employment and training agencies serving newcomers.

• Newer immigrants of both sexes are facing greater difficulties getting work and securing stable, well-paying positions than previous generations and unemployment rates among ethno-racial groups vary dramatically, from as high as 35% to as low as 2.5%.
  
  
• Immigrant women identify access to suitable employment as a key issue in their lives: many are underemployed and most work in field other than that in which they are trained.
  
  
• The vast majority of home-workers and contract shop employees in Canada's garment industry are immigrant women of colour. This sector is unregulated with very low pay, irregular work, and no option for benefits.
  
  
• Domestic workers are almost exclusively immigrant women. Often living in the homes of their employers, they are particularly vulnerable to economic exploitation and human rights abuses.

(For more information, visit ACTEW's fact sheet on employment issues for immigrant women.)

Agencies wanting to learn more about the Access to Services for Socially Marginalized Immigrants and Refugees recommendations and to participate in future meetings for this initiative are invited to contact Mahassen Mahmoud at mahassenma@stchristhouse.org.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Meetings_and_Events

ACTEW's Trish McNamara reports on the recent conference hosted by the Ontario Women's Directorate. Trish is Program Manager for Supporting Survivors/Supporting Employment, professional development workshops for employment practitioners that serve survivors of intimate partner abuse.

Here's an update on the Ontario Women's Directorate Provincial Conference, "Communities Working Together to End Violence Against Women" that I attended from February 25 to 27th in Kitchener.

First, I would like to say this was an excellent opportunity to network with many women’s organizations and spread the word about ACTEW and the many projects that we have on the go.

The Honourable Deb Matthews, Minister Responsible for Women's Issues opened the conference and had not planned on attending the entire conference but ended up staying. Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada was a keynote speaker as well on Tuesday with many inspiring words and stories. Her true commitment to helping end violence is notable. During our meal breaks there were many other excellent keynote speakers who shared their insights and stories.

I attended many of the poster displays and have some amazing resources to add to ACTEW's resource library, which I will bring with me to our March 14th meeting.

As well, I attended the following workshops:

• Abused Women Who Don’t Seek Help: Their Perceptions, Experiences and Needs
  
• Creating Rural Rainbow Connections – with Pride – in Renfrew County
  
• After “She Leaves”
  
• Meaningful Messaging for Family Violence Prevention: Lessons from working with ethno-linguistic and immigrant communities in Ontario
  Danger Assessment

There were anywhere from 800 to 1100 participants and I was able to connect directly with Farisha Dinshaw from COSTI and she advised me that they just completed a DVD for sponsored immigrant women on the myths of being deported. Their hope is to take away the fear of being deported so that the woman knows she can leave an abusive situation when needed. Farisha told me to check out their website because it should be released sometime in the summer.

I was able to connect with many delegates from health units, victim services, regional police, sexual assault centres and social services departments to name just a few of the sectors represented.

Labels: ACTEW_Activities, Issues_and_Trends, Meetings_and_Events

Non-governmental organizations have an important position in the United Nations, ACTEW learned when attending the Consultation Day hosted by the NGO Committee on the Status of Women on February 24. Their role is to monitor and evaluate the execution of governmental commitments made in statements to the UN.

On Thursday February 28, the Government of Canada presented its statement to at the 52nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Canada's statement about its commitment to women's equality is available on the web site of the Mission of Canada to the UN.

Representatives from Canadian NGOs attending the UNCSW released a response to the statement, comparing Canada's proclamations to last week's federal budget. You can read their commentary on the web sites of Canadian Business or CUPE.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Meetings_and_Events

ACTEW contributed expertise to a Canadian delegation for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women currently underway in New York City. The topic of this year's meeting is the economic success and the security of women.

Eight delegates were hosted by FAFIA and funded by Status of Women Canada to attend. They will return to their agencies across Canada to engage in community development projects inspired by UNCSW events.

As ACTEW's representative, Paula Wansbrough participated in the pre-sessional training seminar for the delegates on Feb. 23, speaking about national employment and training service trends for women as well as describing Ontario's LMDA implementation and its impact on women.

Other presenters at this training were:

• Lynell Anderson on the state of child care policy in Canada
  
• Andrée Côte on public services, parental leave and EI, and pay equity
  
• Michelè Asselin on women's economic security in Quebec
  
• Rhonda Roffey on violence against women in the Ontario context
  
• Louise Riendeau on violence against women in the Quebec context
  
• Muriel Smith on gender budgeting at the local and provincial levels in Manitoba
  
• Jessica Notwell on sustainable livelihoods

The NGO Consultation Day took place on Feb. 24 in which NGOs were reminded of their important duty to monitor government implementation of UN treaty agreements. Women's groups and environmentalists have been the strongest NGO voices in UN work. Key presentation topics and discussions included: Gender budgeting, gender equality architecture within the UN, financing women's empowerment, and education on violence against women.

During the weekend, ACTEW also connected with representatives of Canada's Status of Women, sharing LMDA implementation information as well as highlights on our upcoming release on the ten components of successful programming for women.

For more on the UNCSW, visit the UN website at:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/52sess.htm
To learn about the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, visit:
http://www.ngocsw.org/en/main
Watch FAFIA's website for outcomes of this year's UNCSW:
http://www.fafia-afai.org/

Thank you to FAFIA for arranging the delegation and coordinating the highly informative training day.

Labels: ACTEW_Activities, Issues_and_Trends, LMDA, Meetings_and_Events

Women's organizations have developed innovative initiatives to respond to some of the policy and economic challenges for women in their communities.

• The Rural Women Take Action on Poverty Committee of Huron, Perth, Grey and Bruce Counties has recently partnered with Rural Women Making Change Research Alliance in a research and community development project aimed at unraveling the workings of municipal governments so that women can access them to affect local change.
  
  
• Women Today of Huron offers "We Belong Here" in which participants learn about citizenship and their rights as women, healthy relationships and local services. They strategize how to utilize new skills and knowledge for individual and collective benefit, building women's confidence in their ability to improve their communities in south-western Ontario.
  
  
• In South River, Women's Own Resource Centre's Rural Outreach Program Endeavor (ROPE) provides mobile self-employment workshops with a focus on economic success and balanced living. You can learn more about ROPE on ACTEW's profiles of programs that serve women well.
  
  
• In 2005, Rural Women Making Change partnered with Women's Employment Resource Centre (WERC) of Woodstock to provide a pre-employment program for women living in the 401 corridor communities where manufacturing is replacing agriculture. The program introduced women to the expectations and workplace culture of the male-dominated manufacturing industry and guided them through the rigorous testing that such employers use when hiring.
  
  
• Currently WERC also offers a networking opportunity for immigrant women. Immigrant issues are rarely acknowledged by rural service delivery, making immigrant women in rural communities twice as invisible.
  
  
• Further afield, the Northwest Territories Status of Women developed "A How to Guide for Participating in Socio-economic Impact Assessments" to encourage women to participate in resource development assessments. Women rarely benefit from resource development projects and may even be negatively impacted, according to the guide. The resource provides strategies on how gather information about the proposed project, talk to others within the community about its impact, and voice your opinion at a public assessment.

These projects share the common thread of increasing women's knowledge of systems and providing strategies to unlock these systems in order that women may participate more fully in the economic development of their community and increase their own financial self-sufficiency.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

Provincial and federal policy is developed in urban settings through a gender-neutral lens. The economic development needs of rural communities, and particularly those of rural women, are not well served by such policy. They need policies that respond to rural-specific challenges, such as transportation, the high cost of basic necessities, and limited access to child care and training.

Drawing from work by the Rural Women and Poverty Action Committee, Belinda Leach of Rural Women Making Change says income supports, like Employment Insurance (EI) and Ontario Works (OW), are examples of ill-fitting policy.

OW fines recipients for owning a car of a certain value, yet access to reliable transportation is essential for employment in a rural setting where long distances are the norm and public transit is very limited. In fact, 91% percent of rural women travel to work in a car; 1% take public transit.

Both OW and EI put rural women at a disadvantage because they are more likely to work part-time, seasonally and in self-employment, and thus less likely to meet the required number of hours to access support. (For more on EI eligibility issues for women, see inFocus January 2007, ACTEW’s policy newsletter.)

Rural communities also vary from urban ones in value-based attitudes, which are most obvious at election time but have daily effects in the interpretation of policy at the local level. For example, Leach reports that OW policy is applied differently in different places. Recently, women in receipt of OW in Oxford County were not allowed to take a skills based training program but women in a similar program in Toronto could take the program and, furthermore, earned piece rates.

Leach also offers the example of caregivers in Nova Scotia who are
entitled to more support if they stay at home than if they work. She
suggests that in rural communities, prevailing gender ideologies will
combine with such policies to encourage women to follow traditional roles.

To complicate policy issues further, there is great variation among the rural economies in Ontario. Some are agricultural or resource development based, while others are dependent upon manufacturing, food services or recreation. Some experience tremendous seasonal changes in employment levels. Those rural communities where workers can access diverse and well-paying employment in neighbouring urban areas are comparatively wealthier than more remote communities.

For more on rural poverty and related policy recommendations, see the 2002 report by Rural Women and Poverty Action Committee, "Rural Women Speak Out In the Face of Poverty" on the Women Today of Huron web site at: www.wthuron.ca/pdfs/FinalReport.pdf.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

In order to ensure employment, enhance their economies, and avoid depopulation, rural and remote communities work hard to attract new employers.

Belinda Leach of Rural Women Making Change notes that during this process municipalities often do not consider the female labour market, to the detriment of local women and the local economy. Leach observes that municipalities tend to look to large manufacturers or resource development corporations, which typically employ men in "blue collar" work. As a result, most rural communities are dependent upon one or two large employers, generally from the resource development, manufacturing, food services and agriculture sectors.

This has two significant effects:

1. Because women living rural areas are less likely to enter non-traditional occupations, they are less likely to access such jobs, many of which can be high paying.
   
   
2. Dependence on one or two employers makes rural economies vulnerable to "boom and bust" economic cycles. If the plant or the mine or the mill closes, there is a tremendous ripple effect: not only do many people lose jobs, but smaller local businesses tied to the big employer are also threatened. The community also then has fewer employment options for future generations and the young people move away.

For more on rural employment trends, see the new fact from ACTEW and Rural Women Making Change at http://actew.org/projects/pwpsite/snapshots/rural.html.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends

In partnership with the Rural Women Making Change Research Alliance based at Guelph University, ACTEW has just released a new fact sheet on employment issues for women living in rural communities.


For all the beauty and tranquility of the countryside, there's a price to pay:

• Rural communities have much higher unemployment rates than urban areas. While nationally women have lower unemployment rates than men, rural women in Ontario are the exception.
  
  
• Transportation is a primary concern. Seventy-three percent of rural women work in a municipality other than the one in which they live, compared to 31% of urban women.
  
  
• Rural women earn less than those in urban centres, a pattern that is also true for men. The average income for a Northern Ontario worker is 16.3% lower than the provincial average.
  
  
• While rural women are more likely than their urban peers to be self-employed, only 20% earn an income of $20,000 or more, compared to 31% of self-employed urban women.
  
  
• Employment agencies serving rural communities report a lack of jobs paying above minimum wage and few training opportunities for clients, and are far less likely than their urban counter-parts to provide women-specific services or program supports like child care.
  
  
• Depopulation is a tremendous threat for some communities; in 2001, Elliot Lake in northern Ontario reported a 43% out-migration of young people.

In the coming entries we'll look at some of the specific issues for women trying to work and live in the lower population areas of our province. We'd like to thank Belinda Leach and Soibhan O'Leary at Rural Women Making Change, Maggie McDonald of WERC, Woodstock, and the staff of Women Today of Huron for their research and insight around this issue.

For more facts on rural women's employment, visit our fact sheet at:
http://www.actew.org/projects/pwpsite/snapshots/rural.html

For more on initiatives and research related to issues for rural women, visit Rural Women Making Change at http://www.rwmc.uoguelph.ca.

Labels: ACTEW_Activities, Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

The Ontario government's Throne Speech in November 2007 states that: "A new cabinet committee will begin work developing poverty indicators and targets and a focused strategy for making clear-cut progress on reducing child poverty. The strategy includes a plan that would provide dental benefits to low-income families, and builds on measures already in progress. These include boosting the minimum wage to $10.25 by 2010, increasing child care spaces and providing more affordable housing…[and] fully implement the new Ontario Child Benefit, raising it to $1,100 per child."
The anti-poverty cabinet committee is being led by Minister Deb Mathews, who also happens to be the Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues. Other high profile ministers will sit on the committee, including Minister John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, suggesting that the committee is taking a broad and inclusive approach to strategizing poverty reduction in Ontario, including employment and training as a key component along with the focuses listed in the throne speech.

The question yet to be asked and answered is: will the committee consider how gender and equity affect experiences of poverty and pathways towards sustainable livelihoods? ACTEW’s research on women and work finds that women are much more likely to live in poverty, have reduced access to EI and have different labour patterns due in large part to shouldering the responsibility for dependent care.

Note that while several provinces are pursuing poverty reduction strategies, there is no such approach to date at the national level. Campaign 2000 is encouraging the federal government to commit to a national poverty reduction strategy. Their 2007 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty, revealed that 18 years after the 1989 all-party resolution of the House of Commons, the child poverty rate is exactly the same, despite a growing economy, a soaring dollar and low unemployment. (It's important to point out that women are statistically much more likely to be sole-support parents, and statistically more likely to live in poverty, along with their children) In a letter anticipating the First Ministers’ meeting, there was a focus on Employment Insurance coverage (which women, though statistically more likely to live in poverty, are also less likely to qualify or receive EI benefits):

"Employment Insurance coverage, on the table for the First Ministers, should be part of the national Poverty Reduction Strategy. 'This is a self-funded program with huge surpluses that covers less than 40% of unemployed Canadians,' said Anne Decter, national campaign coordinator. 'The money is there, paid in by people who can’t collect when they need it. It’s hard to see the fairness of letting Canadians fall into poverty when they lose their jobs while money deducted from their paycheques sits in a surplus account.'"

We will post updates from the Ontario Committee's work as well as community responses as they are released.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, MTCU_Updates, Resources_and_Research

Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW) recently released a fact sheet on women’s experiences of social programs for people with low incomes, based on their research interviewing women in Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg.

This fact sheet examines funding procedures that have negatively affected Canada’s social programs and the lives of millions of children, women and men, providing an overview of policy shifts over the last decade, voices from women clients directly, and recommendations. Some key points:

• Reliance on welfare has drastically increased from preceding years as a result of federal cut back in benefits, funding and the elimination of federal programs. At the same time, fewer Canadians are accessing the funds, not because of reduced need but because of tightened eligibility criteria.


• The federal government requires no basic standards for social programs across provinces, and the main common attribute is in complexity of systems, with many rules that are misunderstood or misapplied by caseworkers.


• The majority of people who rely on social assistance benefits in Canada are mostly likely to be women, children and people with disabilities. They are looked down upon for their reliance on social assistance and yet they do not receive adequate support from the government that will focus on getting them into the paid labour force and off social assistance, such as affordable child care, safe and affordable housing, and access to training and education. Systems in fact frequently punish recipients for trying to improve their economic security, such as the tragic story of Kimberley Rogers who was charged with fraud for receiving welfare benefits and taking out a student loan to upgrade skills.

The CRIAW fact sheet recommends that federal and provincial/territorial governments understand the difference between written policies and real life experiences, such as the ones expressed in the article. They argue that this would establish methods in developing progressive policies that would eliminate poverty and injustices that will ultimately benefit the growth of the economy and Canadians.

View and/or download the fact sheet from the CRIAW web site.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

A ground-breaking new report analyzes the disincentives to achieving greater self-reliance within Ontario's welfare, housing and social support system. Metcalf Innovation Fellow John Stapleton launched a new report in December on behalf of the Metcalf Foundation called: Why is it so Tough to Get Ahead? How Our Tangled Social Programs Pathologize the Transition to Self-Reliance. The report finds that the primary obstacle to supporting the transition to self-reliance exists in the fact that social assistance programs operate within isolation from one another and are based on a business model. This system encourages non-reporting, discourages work, and perpetuates abject poverty. A powerful example of entangled programs and policies is the differing definitions that are associated with who qualifies as a child, an adult, and a resident within various programs.

The study finds that working-age social assistance recipients live with disincentives to achieving self-reliance based on the fact that the more they earn, the more they lose in benefits. Stapleton identifies deterrents from achieving self-reliance which include the impact of reduced benefits and increased taxes and premiums on every dollar earned while trying to transition off of social assistance. He notes that the “Marginal Effective Tax Rate” is highest among poor people who receive more than one social service. While transitioning from social services to self-reliance, recipients stand to loose up to 100% of their social assistance, including dental and medical benefits, subsidized housing, clothing benefits, and child care subsidies.

The report outlines a series of recommendations for policy solutions that can be taken right away to eliminate some of the barriers thrown up by multiple subsidies and program policies. The ultimate goal for this report is to call attention to the need for a new governance model – one that enables governments and their agencies to forge policies and procedures in a coordinated way so that the transition to self-reliance is a healthy, supported process for people.

Why is it so Tough to Get Ahead? can be downloaded from the Metcalfe web site at http://www.metcalffoundation.com/

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

Today, the Toronto Star published an article revisiting three women that had been featured in articles throughout the year. Rita Daly, the article's author, found that while a moment of fame can change some people's lives forever, "in the case of three single mothers raising children in poverty that Toronto Star readers met over the course of the past year or so, life, well, life goes on." Little has changed for the women.

Read the article that features Amany, who lost her daycare subsidy because she worked an extra few hours at her job; Maheswary, who worked two part-time night jobs, which barely covered the rent for her and her two sons; and Cheryl, who was told that she owed the Ontario government more than $2,000 for the orphan benefits her two children received after their father died.

Read the full article.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

Current labour market policies don't recognize women as a significant labour market force with specific patterns. A study released by the government of Canada in 2005 analyzes how Canadian fiscal policy reinforces the many social, economic and legal barriers women face when they try to gain equal access to full-time work with equal pay, and examines structural proposals that would remove or reduce these barriers to women's labour force participation. From the study:

“Five basic structural features of the tax and social assistance system are examined for their tendency to place pressure on women to “choose” unpaid or poorly paid irregular work to optimize the well-being of their families. These include provisions that treat the adult couple as the basic unit of fiscal policy, like the dependent spouse credit, joint income limits on the child tax benefit, and the Goods and Services Tax credit. They also include the tax exemption of unpaid work, the lack of adequate child care resources and the non-deductibility of the many costs that make women's paid work often less profitable than unpaid work, the steep clawback rates in social assistance programs and the relatively high rates of income taxes imposed on the lowest incomes.”

A recent study released from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) finds that, again due to specific labour patterns, most women are getting shut out of Employment Insurance (EI) coverage in Canada. Exclusion from EI also means exclusion from most of the training programs and supports offered through EI funding (Read ACTEW’s blog entry on this research). While individual training programs and supports run by agencies recognize women-specific labour patterns, needs and opportunities, provincial and federal labour market development policy has so far not systemically implemented strategies that would fully maximize women’s participation in the labour force. In fact, data collection segregated by gender is patchy at best, so provinces are hard-pressed to fully understand the ways in which half the labour force is being utilized and where improvements can be made.

Only one province in Canada has made significant progress in understanding and supporting women’s unique contexts to more fully participate in the workforce: Quebec. Quebec has introduced legislation that extends maternity and parental leave to self-employed workers—significantly affecting women who are outpacing men three-fold in becoming entrepreneurs. Quebec is also the only province to implement universal accessible child care, which the Quebec government identifies as a key reason that women’s participation rates have increased dramatically in the last ten years (read Le bulletin du Cetech released by the government of Quebec in Winter 2007).

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, LMDA, Resources_and_Research

ACTEW has just released a fact sheet focusing on Canadian Women’s labour patterns, based on an environmental scan ACTEW recently conducted for the Canadian Women’s Foundation.

Women's work patterns are not the same as men's. While men's employment patterns have changed little, women's are changing dramatically. Thirty years ago, the participation rate difference between the sexes was 31%; it is now 8%. Twice as many mothers of preschool children were working in 2006, compared with 1976. Young women are more likely to be university educated than their male peers and older women are working full-time in record numbers. Currently, women make up almost half of the labour force and account for close to three-quarters (70%) of the employment increases in Canada in 2007.

Most governments know that women are participating in increasing numbers, and experiencing low levels of unemployment. They point to this fact as evidence that women no longer require specific policy focus. However, how women access the labour market also differs significantly from men, and women are not experiencing increased income levels commensurate with increased participation.

Women are more likely to have breaks in their work histories, perform unpaid caregiving at the expense of paid employment, work part-time and be in low-paying occupations. Consequently, women have far less access to the benefits of EI, less access to training, and are paid on average 28 cents less per hour then men in work of equal value. Women still tend to be under-represented in “non-traditional occupations”, although some regions in Canada are seeing significant improvements in women’s participation, largely due to programs that support women entering into skilled trades.

Read and/or download ACTEW’s newest fact sheet Canadian Women’s Labour Patterns on ACTEW’s Putting Women in the Picture web site.

Labels: ACTEW_Activities, Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

Most women are getting shut out of Employment Insurance (EI) coverage in Canada, says a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The gap between men's and women’s EI coverage is significant: 40 percent of unemployed men received EI benefits in 2004 while only 32 percent of unemployed women did. The study shows the likelihood of most women ever receiving unemployment benefits is slim, largely because EI doesn’t recognize that women have different patterns of paid work than men due to their family responsibilities. The study found a number of changes to EI in 1996 led to increasing the gap between men’s and women’s EI coverage, but the current work hours/weeks required to qualify have been the biggest barrier to women securing benefits.

These findings correspond with ACTEW’s research on Women and EI, released in a fact sheet in January 2007. This research found that women with young children are the least likely to qualify for EI. While women have increased accessing EI through maternal and/or parental benefits, many women do not qualify for maternity/parental leave, either due to being self-employed or being out of the workforce for extended periods.

The CCPA study recommends the federal government make 360 hours the new magic number for qualifying for EI. Workers could qualify for benefits if they work 360 hours within 12 months or if they averaged 360 hours a year in three of the five years before they apply for EI. The new 360 hour rule would apply to workers seeking all categories of benefits: regular, work-sharing, maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care and training.

The study, “Women and the Employment Insurance Program”, can be downloaded from the CCPA web site.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) finds that the top 1 percent of families in 2005 paid a lower total tax rate than the bottom 10 percent of families.

The study, Eroding Tax Fairness: Tax Incidence in Canada, 1990 to 2005, which is the first comprehensive review of tax changes at all levels of government in Canada within the past 15 years, finds the system is delivering larger tax savings for high income families. This reinforces the growing gap in market incomes between high income families and the rest of Canadians.

Provincial tax cuts are the key culprit for the increasingly regressive nature of Canada’s tax system but the problem has been exacerbated at the federal level with billions of dollars worth of post-2000 tax cuts.

These findings are particularly important for women, who are statistically more likely to earn less than men, and more likely to head one-parent households, the one of the lowest household income groups in Canada. See ACTEW’s fact sheet on Women and Contingent Work, released in April.

It also bears mentioning that recent reports estimate 39% of women tax filers in Canada compared to 25% of men had no tax liability, i.e. they do not pay tax because they do not earn enough money (see FAFIA’s 2007 Federal Budget Overview). This means that while 39% of women will not be penalized by the trends CCPA identifies, neither do they benefit from the tax breaks and incentives being introduced by the federal government.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

On September 27, 2007, the Wellesley Institute released the study We Can't Afford to Do Business This Way: A Study of the Administrative Burden Resulting from Funder Accountability and Compliance Practices.

The objective of the study was to gather baseline information on the administrative demands made by funders on the nonprofit organizations they fund. Focusing on three multi-service agencies, the research details some significant trends facing the nonprofit sector’s funding streams.

Some of the findings include:

• The actual impact of the funding process is directly at odds with the very reasons governments and other funders engage nonprofit organizations to deliver community services.


• Funders, large and small, rarely give community organizations any latitude to adapt or adjust programs and finances to meet local conditions and changing circumstances.


• The reliability of funding sources for agencies remains tenuous.


• The cumulative administrative burden on agencies is all consuming.


• Multi-year grants, as currently designed, do not solve the administrative burden.


• Both large and small grants impose heavy administrative burdens.


• Grant management, of necessity, takes priority over other management responsibilities.


• Funders need to do things differently.

ACTEW’s May 2007 report, Patching It Together, describes very similar funding issues in the employment sector. Through a province-wide survey we found that women-specific programming in particular, and community-based training in general, work well because agencies in Ontario are dedicated to delivering comprehensive services to diverse and multi-barriered clientele, despite working within the confines of fractured governmental policy and inconsistent funding. Agencies are indeed patching together multiple funding sources to meet the needs of their clients comprehensively.

You can download the Wellesley report at: http://wellesleyinstitute.com/files/cant_do_business_this_way_report_web.pdf

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, 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

Today, the Toronto Star profiled a unique women's-only program in residential heating and air conditioning systems installation and repair at George Brown College. The program is designed to train at-risk women for an in-demand trade--in this case, to graduate with a gas technician III license, which would allow women to enter the workforce directly or continue apprenticeship towards a licensed trade.

The George Brown program offers women tuition, books and subsidized transit passes for six months of courses in Toronto, and there's financial assistance for work clothes, boots, and emergency funds for rent arrears, child care and food. In the article, co-ordinator Anna Willats says that "the idea is to eliminate barriers to education, so the women can focus on completing their training and getting into the workforce."

ACTEW profiled our member agency Working Women Community Centre, which piloted a baker/patissier pre-apprenticeship program for women, also offered in conjunction with George Brown College. This 36-week, full-time program was funded by MTCU and designed to tap into a skill set common among women who have stayed at home to raise children and maintain households. Demand for this program was extremely high. Although it was an untested new initiative, 63 women applied. Of these, 20 individuals were selected. Fourteen women completed their paid placements and thirteen are now employed in full-time permanent positions in Toronto-area hotels. Read the full profile.

Clearly, innovative programs like these provide effective training to women by addressing the unique barriers women face who are under-employed or unemployed and by training them for careers that are experiencing skills shortages.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

Rural women are invited to participate in a survey on the challenges of getting to work. Women wishing to share their experiences with transportation to workplaces, training, or employment services are encourageed to contact Siobhan O'Leary for more information at: olearys@uoguelph.ca or 519-836-1802.

This project from Rural Women Making Change looks at how the lack of transportation affects the workforce participation of women living in small communities in northern Ontario. The project outcomes will be used in policy discussions at the local, provincial and federal levels. The goal is to improve women’s accessibility to employment and training in northern communities.

According to O’Leary, "Research on northern issues is generally lacking and issues that affect women are no exception. There is currently no published research on women, employment and transportation...."

Information collected for this project is confidential and respondents can withdraw from the survey at any time. The survey is open until mid-October and results will be available in late fall.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, Resources_and_Research

The focus of yesterday’s Employment Ontario Service Delivery Advisory Group meeting was a presentation on one the Transitional Project "Service Delivery Model and Standards."

Project lead Susan Underhill presented on the very preliminary research MTCU has undertaken to move towards the long-term goal of designing Employment Ontario's Service Delivery Framework. The goal of this project is to move towards "Integrated Service Delivery" with an explicit focus on serving clients more efficiently and effectively. MTCU is focusing on strategies to improve client access, build "seamless" pathways and increase capacity across in-person, voice and web channels to provide integrated service for clients.

In other words, MTCU is envisioning integrated service delivery, in which clients have an easier and more successful time navigating and accessing services and programs within Employment Ontario. The project will also look at how to integrate in-person services with the other service channels of telephone and web.

The long-term objective over the next few years is to develop a service delivery framework and standards to lay the foundation for longer-term enhancements. The shorter-term objective is the "Enhanced Information and Referral Service" to identify tools, resources and functions that will build capacity across in-person, web and voice channels to serve clients more seamlessly.

MTCU recognizes that the Service Delivery Framework project is of great concern to the sector, and they have committed to involving community stakeholders (both service providers and, ideally, clients) through the process to truly build a strong system based on the strengths that already exist.

Labels: Issues_and_Trends, MTCU_Updates

Last week Statistics Canada reported that:

For the second straight month, full-time work increased while part-time employment fell. Adult women accounted for most of June's increase in full-time and all of the decline in part-time employment.

Earlier this year, when Stats Canada released its 2006 Labour Force Survey which highlighted the tremendous employment gains among women, we had questions on this blog about what sort of employment gains these were. Currently women are far more likely than men to be employed in part-time and precarious employment situations, at low wages and without benefits, job security, or even basic employment rights.

This latest information from Stats Canada shows that at the national level, at least, women are getting more full-time work, although the compensation levels and stability of this work is still unclear.

At the provincial level, there's a different story for working women. While the number of working women has been increasing, the Government of Ontario's Monthly Labour Market Report for May indicates that, contrary to the national picture, more women in Ontario are working part-time than in the last five years. In May of last year, 766,000 women held part-time positions, whereas this May, 827,000 women worked part-time. Numbers of women working full-time work in Ontario have been steadily rising over the last five years as well.