Four National Women's Groups: CCLOW · CFWEC · CRIAW · NOIVMWC

B. Principles

We believe that any changes or improvement to the social security system in Canada must be guided by the following principles.

1. Accessibility

Programs and systems must be designed to be fully and equally accessible to everyone in Canada. This means that flexibility, portability, transferability, responsiveness to local and regional needs, provision of necessary supports to enable participation (e.g. childcare, training allowances, transportation allowances) and universality are all key requirements.

2. Equity and Equality

Systemic barriers exclude women from training, jobs, and social programs. Visible minority women, immigrant women, rural and farm women and women with disabilities generally face even more barriers than other women. A few examples of the many systemic barriers are: inadequate childcare, the wage gap between men and women, racist or culturally inappropriate curricula, violence or the threat of violence for women working in certain environments, etc..

Any proposal for change must be tested to ensure it does not create more disadvantages and barriers than already exist. In particular, no economic or social security measures should result in increased poverty for any group of women.

The proposals in the Green Paper do not pass this test. In fact, as outlined in this brief, we believe they would tend to penalize women more than men, and would be particularly hard on immigrant women, rural women, and women with disabilities.

In addition, the changes in the social security system must include specific measures that correct existing systemic and structural barriers to equality faced by all groups of women.

3. Sustainability

Social, economic and environmental diversity are essential for our long-term well-being. As a nation, we must incorporate environmental principles into decision-making through impact assessment, support community-based economic development and small enterprises, and establish a social contract which ensures that all Canadians can meet their basic needs.

Short-term economic gains are not useful if they create long-term economic, environmental or social costs. For example, the Green Paper promotes labour mobility, assuming it will bring at least short term economic benefits. However, a result of this will be the tendency to allow small communities in Canada to disappear in response to globalization pressures. We believe, however, that the longer term (and immediate) social and economic costs of concentrating Canadians in major centres will be enormous and potentially crippling.