What is in Budget 2021 for Women?
Strengthening Diversity in Corporate Governance
To foster inclusivity in the financial sector and ensure Canada’s financial institutions are responding to changing social and economic conditions:
- Budget 2021 proposes a public consultation on measures that would adapt and apply the Canada Business Corporations Act diversity requirements to federally regulated financial institutions. This objective is to promote more significant gender, racial, ethnic, and Indigenous diversity among senior ranks of the financial sector and ensure more Canadians have access to these opportunities. Details on the consultation will be announced shortly.
Establishing a Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care System
Budget 2021 makes a generational investment to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system. That is a plan to drive economic growth, a plan to increase women’s participation in the workforce, and a plan to offer each child in Canada the best start in life.
- This plan will aim to reduce fees for parents with children in regulated child care by 50 percent on average, by 2022, to reach $10 per day on average by 2026, everywhere outside of Quebec.
- Budget 2021 will invest almost $30 billion over the next five years and provide permanent ongoing funding, working with provincial and territorial, and Indigenous partners to support quality, not-for-profit child care, and ensuring the needs of early childhood educators are at the heart of the system.
Supporting Women Entrepreneurs
Canadian women entrepreneurs are essential to Canada’s economic success, but women still face unique and systemic barriers to starting and growing a business, and they remain underrepresented in the economy. The pandemic has disproportionately impacted women, and the government is committed to supporting Canadian women entrepreneurs.
- To provide affordable financing, increase data, and strengthen capacity within the entrepreneurship ecosystem, Budget 2021 proposes to provide up to $146.9 million over four years, starting in 2021-22, to enhance the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy. Women entrepreneurs would have greater access to financing, mentorship, and training. Funding would also further support the Women Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Fund and the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub.
- The government will work with financial institutions to develop a voluntary code to help support women and other underrepresented entrepreneurs as clients in the financial sector.
Supporting Accessible Child Care Spaces
For families that have children with disabilities, it is often challenging to find affordable and accessible child care spaces that meet their needs.
- To make immediate progress for children with disabilities, Budget 2021 proposes to provide $29.2 million over two years, starting in 2021-22, to Employment and Social Development Canada through the Enabling Accessibility Fund to support child care centres as they improve their physical accessibility. This funding, which could benefit over 400 child care centres, would support improvements such as ramps and accessible doors, washrooms, and play structures.
Supporting Community Service Organizations
A majority of the workers in the charity and non-profit sector are women. This sector has been significantly affected by the pandemic, causing further impacts on the she-cession. The effects have been especially significant for small and rural charities, whose ability to raise funds has been severely impacted even as the pressures for their services have grown.
- Budget 2021 proposes to provide $400 million in 2021-22 to Employment and Social Development Canada to create a temporary Community Services Recovery Fund to help charities and non-profits adapt and modernize so they can better support the economic recovery in our communities.
Supporting Racialized Newcomer Women
Many newcomer women face multiple barriers to employment, including language, lack of Canadian experience, and in some cases, gender- and race-based discrimination. In Budget 2018, the Government of Canada launched a three-year pilot to support employment-related services for racialized newcomer women, such as networking opportunities, employment counselling and paid work placements.
- Budget 2021 proposes to provide $15 million over two years, starting in 2021-22, to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to extend the Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot initiative, which will continue to improve their employment outcomes and career advancement.
Supporting Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Care Information and Services
All Canadians should have access to a full suite of sexual and reproductive health resources and services, no matter where they live. Women, youth, LGBTQ2 people, racialized Canadians, and Indigenous populations face the highest sexual and reproductive health risks and the most significant barriers to accessing support, information, and services. They often do not receive the same quality of care, mainly if they are from marginalized communities. Furthermore, examples like Clinic 554—New Brunswick’s only private abortion clinic—show us that lack of funding puts access to sexual and reproductive health care at risk. Everyone deserves equal treatment in our health care system.
To improve access to sexual and reproductive health care support, information, and services—including protecting access to abortion care:
- Budget 2021 proposes to provide $45 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, to Health Canada to fund community-based organizations that help make sexual and reproductive health care information and services more accessible for vulnerable populations. These organizations support activities such as producing inclusive training materials for sexual and reproductive health care providers, carrying out public awareness activities, and providing travel and logistical support to individuals who have to go long distances to access abortion care.
Also, there are currently no existing resources that collect comprehensive data on a wide range of sexual and reproductive health indicators in Canada, limiting our ability to target supports. To address this:
- Budget 2021 proposes to provide $7.6 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, for Statistics Canada to develop and implement a national survey on sexual and reproductive health that captures data on race, household income, and sexual orientation–information often not captured in existing surveys. Better information will help ensure governments understand the challenges and improve the support they provide.
Establishing a National Institute for Women’s Health Research
Sex- and gender-related disparities continue to persist in Canada’s health system. Women are more likely to die of preventable illnesses and bear a higher burden of chronic illnesses. To improve health outcomes and eliminate the gaps in the quality of care women receive, we need to strengthen research.
- Budget 2021 proposes to provide $20 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to support a new National Institute for Women’s Health Research. The new institute will advance a coordinated research program that addresses under-researched and high-priority areas of women’s health and ensure new evidence improves women’s care and health outcomes. It will also ensure an intersectional approach to research and care to tackle persistent gaps for all women, including for racialized women, Black and Indigenous women, women with disabilities, and members of LGBTQ2 communities.
Support for Indigenous Entrepreneurs
Currently, only 36 percent of Indigenous-led businesses are owned by women. To address this and make sure women entrepreneurs are empowered in the economic recovery:
ü Budget 2021 proposes to invest $22 million over three years, starting in 2021-22, to support the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association’s (NACCA) Indigenous Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative by providing tools, services, and resources to increase the number of Indigenous women entrepreneurs. This funding would support NACCA in achieving its target of increasing the number of Indigenous women entrepreneurs who access financing through Aboriginal Financial Institutions by 50 percent.
Gender-Based Violence
To enhance the capacity and responsiveness of organizations such as sexual assault centres, women’s shelters, and other organizations that provide critical and often life-saving services and supports for women, girls, LGBTQ2, and gender non-binary people experiencing violence:
- Budget 2021 proposes to invest $200 million over two years, starting in 2021-22, for the Department for Women and Gender Equality to support gender-based violence organizations.
Gender-Based Violence Program
To make our communities more resilient to the threats of gender-based violence, including initiatives that support at-risk populations and survivors— almost half of whom are between the ages of 18 and 24, with nearly three in ten survivors under the age of 18—and that educate men and boys, so that all people recognize the role they play in ending gender-based violence:
- Budget 2021 proposes to invest $105 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, for the Department for Women and Gender Equality to enhance its Gender-Based Violence Program. Funding will go to initiatives that engage men and boys. It will increase funding for initiatives to stop human trafficking, including support for at-risk populations and survivors. It will also provide support for testing and implementing best practices to address gender-based violence, focusing on projects that could be scaled at the national level.
National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence Secretariat
To establish a dedicated secretariat to coordinate the ongoing work towards the development and implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, and to continue engagement with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous peoples, gender-based violence experts, stakeholders and, most importantly, survivors of gender-based violence:
- Budget 2021 proposes to provide $14 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, for the Department for Women and Gender Equality.
Protections for Women and Children during Divorce or Separation
Women are six times more likely to be killed by a former spouse than a spouse with whom they are living. When co-parenting during a divorce or separation, having supervised options can protect women’s safety and protect children from experiencing violence in their homes. To support supervision services for parenting time in cases of separation and divorce:
- Budget 2021 proposes to provide $28.4 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, for Justice Canada. That will protect the safety and well-being of children and families.
To read the Budget 2021 speech or to review the budget documents, please visit https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/services/publications/federal-budget.html