Question Period Note: Care Economy

What is the Government doing to alleviate the burden of caregiving, which currently falls predominantly on women?

• The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that gender norms around care responsibilities continue to burden women in Canada.

• The pandemic has shone light on these gender gaps and has limited women’s labour force participation.

• The Government of Canada is committed to helping alleviate the burden of caregiving, providing key investments through Budget 2021, including:
o $30B over five years, and $8.3B ongoing for Early Learning and Child Care to provide families with access to affordable high-quality child care;
o Initiatives to help seniors to age well at home, including increasing the Old Age Security pension for those 75 and older; and
o Consultations toward a new disability benefit; and improving access to and eligibility for the Disability Tax Credit.

• Budget 2022 proposes an additional $625M over 4 years, beginning in 2023-24, for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund.

Investment

• Budget 2021 measures to improve the economic participation of women and underrepresented groups include:
o $30B over 5 years and $8.3B ongoing for a high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and child care system;
o $2.1B to extend the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit and the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, providing income support to Canadians who found themselves unable to work because they either had to care for a family member, were sick or needed to self-isolate due to COVID-19;
o $100M over three years, starting in 2021-22, to support projects for innovative mental health interventions for populations disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, including health care workers, front-line workers, youth, seniors, Indigenous people, and racialized and Black Canadians.

• Budget 2022 also included:
o $625M over 4 years, beginning in 2023-24, for an Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund;
o The creation of an expert panel to study the idea of an Aging at Home Benefit.

BACKGROUND:

• The care economy includes both paid and unpaid work done within formal and informal sectors and related to the provision of care and services for children, youth, adults, the elderly, and people with disabilities and chronic illness.

• In Canada, women spent two and a half hours more per day on unpaid household and care work than men. Women are also less likely to participate in the labour market. Care work can negatively impact the mental and physical well-being of care providers.

• The undervaluation of unpaid care work contributes to the undervaluation of paid care work, including lower wages and poor working conditions in care sectors, in which women are over-represented. For example, women make up 96% of childcare workers.

• Women, particularly young women, those who are Indigenous, visible minorities and immigrants, have been disproportionately impacted by economic shutdowns throughout the pandemic, since women are overrepresented in the services, retail, care, and hospitality sectors.

• The Government is championing initiatives such as the Pay Equity Act; flexible work arrangements as part of the Canada Labour Code; measures to encourage parents to take advantage of maternity and parental leave by increasing existing benefits; and programs to support more women in non-traditional high-paying fields.

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