MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

International Women's Day

Hon. Rosemary Vodrey (Minister responsible for the Status of Women): I have a statement for the House.

Every year on March 8, hundreds of thousands of women and men around the world gather in celebration of International Women's Day to celebrate women's achievements and to look to future endeavours. This year March 8 falls on Saturday, so I would like to take this opportunity to recognize this special day.

International Women's Day had its beginnings in the strike by women garment workers in New York City protesting unsafe, overcrowded working conditions. Their cry was for bread and roses, bread symbolizing economic security for women and their families and roses symbolizing a better quality of life.

Our government is committed to enhancing the quality of women's lives, focusing on women's economic security, their education and training, and safety for women at home, at work and in the community. Our government has taken a comprehensive approach to dealing with violence against women. Our approach addresses prevention, crisis intervention and services to victims and families.

Initiatives we have taken include funding of 25 agencies offering support services to women and their children, the best crisis shelter system in Canada, second-stage housing which recognizes women's needs for varying degrees of support after the initial crisis, a dedicated Family Violence Court, a land titles protected name registry, a family violence policy and procedures manual developed in consultation with the province's police services, a women's advocacy program to assist women who are going to court in cases of family violence, and an aggressive prosecutions policy on domestic violence.

In the fall of 1996, the Women's Directorate in partnership with CIBC and our police services launched a province-wide safety campaign entitled Keeping Safe at Work. This initiative is targeted to employees working alone, as well as individuals travelling alone to and from work. It is a common-sense approach for employers and employees to assess their workplace, to maximize safety and minimize crime.

Women's economic self-sufficiency is also a priority for this government. To address this, the Manitoba Women's Directorate launched and now administers the Training for Tomorrow Scholarship Award Program which encourages women to expand their career options by training for well-paid, high-demand positions in today's high-tech labour market. Women enrolled in two-year programs in math-, science- and technology-related areas at the province's three community colleges are eligible for the awards. To date, 141 students at Assiniboine, Keewatin and Red River Community colleges have received the $1,000 scholarship.

The Employment Development and Literacy Branch of Manitoba Education and Training has invested $12 million in training and finding subsequent job placements for social assistance clients across the province. Training dollars are also targeted to single-parent mothers and others on social assistance. We believe that Manitobans want to work, and in order to work they must have training and skills useful in today's marketplace. This government has demonstrated and will continue to demonstrate its commitment to furthering the goal of equality for women in Manitoba. Through the year, I will continue to work with my Status of Women colleagues across this country to address major areas of concern of women including violence against women, economic security, education and training and youth. Manitoba women have always been in the forefront of change in our country. I hope that we will continue to work together to make Manitoba the best place to live, work and raise a family, a place where all will have a share in the bread and roses.

I would like to invite all members of the Legislature and their staff to participate in a celebration of International Women's Day. It will take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel downtown today, March 6, between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Please join us there to mark this important event. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

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Madam Speaker: The honourable member for Osborne.

Ms. Diane McGifford (Osborne) Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I would also like to thank the Minister responsible for the Status of Women for her statement.

Today, this side of the House wishes to join with sisters everywhere and acknowledge International Women's Day which will be officially celebrated, of course, on Saturday, March 8, but which various Winnipeg women's groups in various ways have celebrated all week.

International Women's Day or IWD, as most of you know, dates to the early 1900s when women textile workers in New York went on strike to protest their low wages and absymal working conditions. The strike of marginalized, mostly immigrant, women workers took tremendous courage. Their courage and willingness to fight back was the genesis of International Women's Day. Since 1910, women around the world have recognized March 8 as International Women's Day, a day to celebrate their sisterhood and their determination to win full and equal participation, economically, culturally, and socially, equality indeed in every facet of life.

IWD is the time to celebrate the lives, rights, courage and achievements of all women for our fighting spirits have taken us a long way and IWD is also a day to remember and renew our commitment to all our sisters, especially those sisters who live with neither bread nor roses, many of whom live in this province. By remembering this, we acknowledge there is some distance to go, and we commit, on this side of the House, to travelling those roads.

Naturally, International Women's Day is closely aligned with labour and with the labour movement, a conjunction symbolically present in the most significant International Women's Day song, "Bread and Roses." Women want bread, the basics like food, housing, and jobs, but women want roses too: quality of life, education, culture, health care, a social safety net, the opportunities to realize their full potentials.

Unfortunately all throne speech and other puff pieces, including the minister's today--to the contrary both bread and roses have become receding possibilities for many Manitoba women, because in truth this government has to date turned its back on the full and equal participation of our women. Provincial government policies and cuts, augmented by federal ones, are impoverishing women and denying them services, economic security and respectful employment. At a time when many women are experiencing economic desperation and are desperately in need of services, these very services are being eroded. The principle of universality has been abandoned. Consider, for example, the changes to Pharmacare and to eye care. How many women do not have their eyes examined and indeed choose to support their children with this money?

Women, particularly single-parent women, are hard hit as they are the primary caregivers to children and responsible for their children's well-being. Social assistance to single-parent families with children over six, and 85 percent of single-parent families are now headed by women, is under siege. It is on its way to becoming workfare, and now we hear report after report of single parents with children under six being bullied and harassed by their workers. Child care spaces have been frozen, post-secondary education for single women with children is almost impossible. The threats of privatization and the threats of layoffs and actual layoffs have created an insecure work environment for Manitoba's mostly female health-care providers, not to mention the staff here in the Leg., mostly women, all hard workers with families to keep and lives to lead. There is a surcharge for Legal Aid, a backlog in the Family Violence Court, last year a 2 percent cut to Family Disputes, and the average hourly wage gap between men and women is growing, not shrinking.

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The minister's answer, seconded by the Premier, is to offer "Shaking the Tree, A Celebration of Women." All women are welcome at the Crowne Plaza, just as long as they have the day off and can pay the $35 registration fee, which of course leaves most women out in the cold. In my opinion, this is an appropriation and usurpation that hits at the very core of International Women's Day, a day initiated by the working-poor women to celebrate their struggles and to communicate the universal need for bread and roses. Even the title is co-opted. "Shaking the tree" is a populist expression referring to grassroots political movements and their determination to turn government upside down. Maybe this minister and this Premier could tune into the music of Spirit of the West or Peter Gabriel who celebrate the real meaning of shaking the tree and know more about this than the Tory contingent opposite ever will.

Finally, I regret my lack of enthusiasm and angry words, but poverty is a sobering reality. Tomorrow the minister may want to attend the luncheon at the union and hear Lynne Toupin tell us about poverty. Members of the New Democratic Party and caucus will certainly be there. Thank you.

Introduction of Guests

Madam Speaker: Prior to Oral Questions, I would like to draw the attention of all honourable members to the public gallery where we have this afternoon seventeen kindergarten to Grade 9 students from the Vermillion Colony School under the direction of Mr. Arlen Scharfenberg. This school is located in the constituency of the honourable Minister of Government Services (Mr. Pitura).

We also have this afternoon fifty Grade 9 students from Westdale Junior High School under the direction of Mr. Michael Greenaway. This school is located in the constituency of the honourable member for Charleswood (Mr. Ernst).

On behalf of all honourable members, I welcome you this afternoon.