JULIE GORDON Feds plan to make `feminist' budget
OTTAWA Canada on Monday unveiled an all-woman task force to ensure that its upcoming budget, set to include billions in post-pandemic stimulus spending, includes measures to get women working and address gender inequality.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's first budget will not come this month, but later “this spring,” her spokeswoman said Monday.
It will be the first full budget since before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The Task Force on Women in the Economy will also advise the federal government on actions to address gender imbalances exacerbated by COVID -19. It will be cochaired by Freeland and Associate Minister of Finance Mona Fortier.
“Canada's future prosperity and competitiveness depend on the ability of women to participate equally — and fully — in our workforce,” Freeland said in a statement. The panel was officially launched on International Women's Day.
Since being named finance minister in August, Freeland has repeatedly spoken about a “feminist
agenda,” and has said a national childcare plan will be part of a stimulus package worth up to $100 billion over three years.
That daycare strategy is one of the social infrastructure measures the panel will consider, and members say the timing is right for Canada to finally put in place a national program.
“The issue of childcare is much more prominent today than it was before the pandemic,” said Morna Ballantyne, executive director of the Child Care Now advocacy group and a panel member.
“There is this consensus that the status quo is not working.
“It's going to take significant resources — financial resources — and it's not a quick project. It's going to require a commitment to sustained, long-term funding,” she added.
Frances Donald, global chief economist and head of macro strategy at Manulife Investment Management, Hydro-Quebec chief executive Sophie Brochu, former British Columbia finance minister Carole James and Atkinson Foundation fellow Armine Yalnizyan are also among the group's 18 members. The task force will hold its first meetings this month, in the lead-up to the budget, according the new release.
The task force's creation suggests the federal government is taking steps to address the uneven impacts the pandemic has had on the labour market. Women have been hit particularly hard because they disproportionately work in service-sector jobs where physical distancing is difficult. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said stimulus is needed to jump-start Canada's post-pandemic recovery.