Honourable senators, although it is late, I am pleased to rise today as sponsor to speak at third reading of Bill C-243, An Act respecting the development of a national maternity assistance program strategy.

I thank Mark Gerretsen, the member for Kingston and the Islands, the bill’s sponsor in the other place, for this important initiative. I also want to thank my honourable colleagues who took the time to study this bill and vote on it.

Lastly, I want to thank Senator Petitclerc, Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, as well as the committee’s members, for their careful study of this bill.

The committee met three times between November 7 and December 6, 2018, to carry out this excellent work. It heard testimony and expertise from 12 witnesses, including two appearing as individuals and 10 appearing as government officials or representatives of women’s rights groups and professional associations. I think that my colleagues have covered almost all there is to say about Bill C-243, but there are three points that I would draw your attention to.

The bill calls on the federal government to develop a comprehensive strategy to support pregnant women and engage in broad consultations in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments.

That is the essence of this bill. As I said here at second reading stage, Bill C-243 directs the Minister of Employment and Social Development to conduct cross-Canada consultations, bearing in mind provincial and territorial jurisdiction, on the prospect of developing a national maternity assistance program to support women who are unable to work due to pregnancy and whose employer is unable to accommodate them.

Consultations will cover a number of issues, such as the demand for this kind of national program, different types of workplaces, the adequacy of existing programs, social benefits and legal implications. Once this national program is set up, it will apply to women employed in federally regulated workplaces. It will become a model of best practices, the standard that provinces and territories can look to when developing their own programs.

In committee, participants emphasized the importance of including transparency and accountability measures to ensure that the findings of the consultations will be available within three years of the bill coming into force.

Since December 2017, the federal government has relaxed certain special unemployment provisions, such as maternity benefits, and made them more inclusive. Amendments were made to the Employment Insurance Act to provide earlier access to maternity benefits. This ensures that pregnant workers can receive these benefits as early as 12 weeks before their expected delivery date instead of eight weeks.

Furthermore, in budget 2018, the Government of Canada proposed a new five-week EI parental sharing benefit. This benefit became available on March 17, 2019.

However, Canada, with the exception of Quebec, still does not have a long-term national strategy to keep pregnant women safely employed. Current legislation discourages interested women from working in occupations traditionally held by men. In 1981, the Quebec provincial government sought to address the inequality that pregnant women may experience. Under the safe maternity experience program, women have the option of preventive withdrawal under certain conditions. Women also collect income replacement benefits while on preventive withdrawal.

The preamble to Bill C-243 acknowledges the Quebec program and the fact that the bill was inspired by the positive impact of that program.

Point number 2:

This bill is about taking steps towards gender equality. Motherhood should not be a leading trigger for poverty.

As we all know, women’s participation in the Canadian labour force and their economic security have changed dramatically in recent decades. Women play a significant role in diversifying our economy and keeping our businesses competitive and our country prosperous.

Despite everything that federal, provincial and territorial governments have done to promote equal rights, gender inequalities persist to this day. That is especially true for pregnant women. They encounter major obstacles arising from legislative systems and structures that are not designed with the realities of pregnancy and childbirth in mind. That puts these women in a vulnerable position. Women who want children have to bear an additional financial burden if their employer cannot eliminate job-related hazards, modify their duties or reassign them to other duties. That goes double for pregnant women whose job is so hazardous that they have to stop working early in their pregnancy. Such women become financially and psychologically vulnerable because of their sex. They have to deal with a gap in their income from the time their EI sickness benefits run out until their maternity benefits kick in.

This is how they end up on a path towards poverty. That is what happened to one of our witnesses, Melodie Ballard, who was the inspiration for this bill in the other place. During her gap with no income, she was forced to give up her home and move into a travel trailer, after moving 11 times in one year.

Point number 3.

Lastly, a woman should not have to choose between working in the field of her dreams and the health of her unborn child.

Senator Miville-Dechêne gave an eloquent reminder at the end of her speech. She said:

No woman should have to choose between her job and the health of her unborn child.

Other points that can have an impact on a female worker’s decision were raised in committee. They include the following:

(a) awareness among the various stakeholders of the difficulties women experience during pregnancy and childbirth;

(b) awareness among governments, employers, female workers and unions of the specific needs of women whose duties have to be adapted or modified because of the risk that they pose;

(c) awareness of the harassment a women can face in the workplace as a result of her pregnancy; and

(d) the need to adopt a human-rights-based approach that ensures respect for the dignity of pregnant workers and that eliminates discrimination in the workplace against these women.

Honourable senators, I applaud these brave, intrepid women who choose to start a family while working in high-risk jobs. Some of them do so on their own, without sharing parental responsibilities with a partner. Today we are thinking of them and all the obstacles they must overcome. Bill C-243 doesn’t purport to address all of the inequalities these women face, but it does present an opportunity for us to listen to them and do something to make things a little easier for them.

Honourable senators, for our daughters and granddaughters, for other women like Melodie and for all Canadian women, I urge you to support Bill C-243 and pass it as soon as possible. Thank you.