Women and Labour Market Adjustment


CCLOW continues to be an active participant in the National Women's Reference Group on labor Market Issues (NWRG), a coalition of national women's groups who select and support the women's representative to the Canadian labor Force Development Board (CLFDB). CCLOW members and volunteers maintain active participation in the NWRG, as well as the provincial women's reference groups in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. In Ontario, CCLOW members are also involved with the local women's reference groups, those that support women's directors to local boards. In October 1998, Pat Webb, recently a Past-President of CCLOW, became a member of NWRG'S Executive Committee. Joanne Lindsay, CCLOW'S Executive Director, has been the women's representative to the CLFDB since June 1997.

At the recent CCLOW Board meeting and Annual General Meeting, held in Toronto in November 1998, CCLOW provincial and territorial directors brought information about training for women, enabling CCLOW to develop a cross-country map of the status of women's access to training, a map that was presented to those members attending the Annual General Meeting. CCLOW is particularly interested in understanding the impact for women of the labour Market Development Agreements (LMDA'S), through which the federal government has transferred, to provinces and territories, management responsibility for the delivery of training and other employment services funded through Employment Insurance premiums. In particular, CCLOW wants to know how these transfers will affect women's access to training opportunities across Canada. Also at the AGM, Ursule Critoph, a Senior Associate with the CLFDB, gave an update on her research about the impact of access to training as Employment Insurance has replaced Unemployment Insurance.

CCLOW has also been involved in another research project funded by Status of Women Canada, in collaboration with the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association. Two researchers from the University of Waterloo approached CCLOW in September 1998, requesting assistance in identifying potential case studies for research on enhancing women's economic participation through housing development. As part of the research, CCLOW hosted, in December 1998, a focus group in Toronto that brought together women involved in skills training, community economic development and housing development.

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From the front, clockwise around the circle: Jenny Horsman; Pam Evans; Ursule Critoph; Cheryl Senecal; Joanne Lindsay; Linda Shohet; Betty Butterworth; Suzanne Bailly; Catherine Cookson; Roberta Bishop. CCLOW'S November 1998 ACM. Photo: Gaye Jackson.



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