OTTAWA – Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s fiscal update highlights the cost of the pandemic to women as caregivers, mothers and workers.
His “gender-based analysis” of pandemic measures is a litany of statistics that paint a picture of what some economists called a “handover of it.”
Take the Ottawa Sick and Care Allowance.
They were cash payments for Canadians who had to take time off work because they had to care for a family member, were ill, or needed to isolate themselves due to COVID-19.
Those who applied for the caregiver benefit were mostly women, 63 percent compared to 37 percent men.
Applicants for sickness benefit were divided more evenly: 52% of men versus 48% of women.
Ottawa says the majority of caregivers who applied for financial assistance (69 percent) were in their prime working years, between the ages of 25 and 44.
The sickness benefit was more evenly distributed among age groups.
Extending those two benefits through May 7 of next year will cost $ 2.1 billion during 2021-22 and the first months of 2022-23, Freeland said.
The Freeland update reinforced the observation that the impact of COVID-19 disproportionately affects mothers caring for children who miss school.
“Between March 2020 and November 2021, women accounted for almost two-thirds of those who were absent from work due to caring for a child,” she said.
The gender lens highlighted other facts:
- The proposed Canada lockdown benefit, intended to offer $ 300 a week for workers subject to COVID-19 shutdowns or public health restrictions, is expected to especially help workers in sectors such as accommodation, foodservice, vending retail and recreation. Women represent more than half of the workforce in the first three of these sectors.
- Women benefit the most from measures to combat COVID-19, such as vaccine passes, rapid test kits and therapies, because they are overrepresented in some of the most vulnerable age groups affected by COVID-19. They are 53% of people aged 60 and over and 66% of those aged 90 to 95. So will visible minority women, who are more likely to work in essential front-line industries, especially in the health care and social care sectors.
- Improving ventilation can help women who are among the most vulnerable to negative air quality, including the elderly, children, pregnant women, and people with chronic illnesses. Ventilation repair “will also indirectly benefit the building and heating, ventilation and air conditioning industries, which tend to have a predominantly male workforce.”
- Ottawa has proposed specific support for tourism and hospitality companies. Women hold half of the jobs in the tourism sector, while young people hold a third of the jobs. Indigenous peoples are also slightly more likely to work in the tourism industry.
- An expanded teacher supply tax credit will primarily help women, though not greatly those in a low-income tax bracket. In 2018, 82 percent of the educators who claimed the tax credit were women and had above-average incomes.
As for the so-called “recovery from it,” Freeland has pinned his hopes on the government’s $ 30 billion central child care plan, first announced in last year’s budget.
Freeland, who once compared trade talks to the labor pains of giving birth, has a nine-month timeline in mind to meet all 13 agreements with provinces and territories.
In his speech to the Commons, Freeland urged “a final push” to finish creating a pan-Canadian system that will “give our children the best start in life, help young families make ends meet, and make us all more prosperous by helping our economy grow. “
Freeland is framing the child care plan not just as a social and economic boost to allow more women to rejoin the workforce, but as a rate reduction policy that will help families cope with the impact of inflation on family budgets.
“Structural investments in early learning and child care will generate significant savings for Canadian families starting next month,” the update said.
That’s because Alberta and Saskatchewan have said they will institute reductions in child care fees thereafter.
Freeland pointed to the expected savings for average families in Ontario, which is the only province that is not resisting.
The first 50 percent parental rate reduction that would apply, if an agreement is signed, would generate an annual savings of $ 5,960 per child in a regulated child care space, while the final savings once met with $ 10 a day. delivered would be $ 9,320 per child per year.
The latter two territories, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, are in deep negotiations to reach deals that are expected to include broader infrastructure aid from Ottawa.
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Reference-www.thestar.com