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PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women – Equality Report Card Released

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Yesterday, the PEI Advisory Council on the Status of Women released its first Equality Report Card on the provincial government’s progress towards selected women’s equality goals. The PEI Status of Women assessed government on more than twenty initiatives in seven categories and awarded PEI’s provincial government a C+ overall.

The category grades assessed by the PEI Status of Women look like this:

• C+ for Making Equality a Priority. Positive government steps push equality forward (such as a strong role for the Minister Responsible for the Status of Women), and old attitudes hold equality back (such as continued lack of mention of women in budgets and key public statements).

• C+ for Women in Decision-Making. Some government initiatives signal positive change (better gender balance on agencies, boards, and commissions), but little change at the highest levels or in the biggest systems (still very few women in cabinet, and still little improvement to the electoral system).

• C for Family Violence Prevention. Government has taken small steps across the board this year on violence prevention. More is needed to support community groups active in preventing violence, to get the Premier’s Action Committee on Family Violence Prevention back up and going soon, and to implement woman abuse protocols.

• B for Access to Justice. Government has begun to take concrete action on long-standing issues of access to family law legal aid.

• D for Women’s Economic Status. Government’s supports for economically vulnerable women are mostly stagnant, even while stressful food and fuel costs grow.

• C for Supports for Caregiving. Government is headed for the right destination to support early childhood care and education, but has taken some wrong routes, bypassing consultation with early childhood educators. There’s been little action to improve access to maternity and parental benefits for new parents.

• C for Women’s Health. Government invests lots in fixing the worst that happens to bodies through support for acute care, but we need more that links body, mind, and spirit — looking at social determinants of health and whole-body health, and especially supporting people’s mental health.

• B+ as a Bonus. Government collaborated on the pilot Report Card extremely well and is taking steps towards more inclusive decision-making.

Here is a link to the article that ran in the Guardian on the Report Card.

Canadian Labour Congress gives child care failing grades

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Mpj043931400001_2The Canadian Labour Congress has released report cards on the progress of child care in Canada.  Click HERE to access the report cards.  In the eyes of the CLC, things were not looking good.  Here is a summary of their results:

  • British Columbia: D-
  • Alberta: D
  • Saskatchewan: C
  • Manitoba: B+
  • Ontario: D
  • Quebec: Exempted due to strong performance
  • New Brunswick: C-
  • Nova Scotia: C
  • P.E.I.: C-
  • Newfoundland and Labrador: C+
  • Northwest Territories: C
  • Yukon: C
  • Nunavut: C

Here is an excerpt from a recent article published by CTV News.

British Columbia trailed all the other provinces, with a grade of D-minus.

The province’s report card said some improvement has been noted — but B.C. works too slowly, has trouble taking responsibility and is struggling with the concept of universal access and is falling behind in the areas of public funding, planning and reporting.

B.C.’s report card says the province struggles with basic child care concepts.

"Subsidies do not make child care affordable for all unless parent fees are capped at reasonable levels. Between 2001 and 2006, average full-time fees for children aged 3 to 5 increased by $672 per year," the report card states.

Sharon Gregson, a child care advocate in Vancouver, wasn’t shocked by B.C.’s poor score.

""I wasn’t surprised and I’m sure the parents paying over $1,000 a month or the parents on long waiting lists were not surprised either," Gregson told Canada AM.

The report card outlines a number of problems in B.C., including the fact it has child care spaces for only 14 per cent of the province’s children, despite the fact 75 per cent of the province’s mothers are in the workforce.

"Our fees are high and getting higher, our wages for our qualified staff are low and not rising the way they should be and we simply don’t have the spaces nor do we have a plan to build the spaces that we need in this province," Gregson said