As of April 2021, there were almost 95,000


more Ontario women aged 15 and older who were “not in the labour force” than in February 2020 (and 215,000 fewer women across the country). Women aged 35-39 are exiting the labour force “in droves,” accord- ing to research from RBC Economics. After improving in February and March, the num- ber of women outside of the labour market increased again in April.


10%


INVESTMENTS IN CARE ARE HIT AND MISS, MOSTLY MISS


When the pandemic hit and governments ordered the economy-wide shutdown to contain the virus, the federal government stepped in to directly assist families, nota- bly with the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). Instead of private house- holds carrying the burden of unemploy- ment, the federal government took this on. However, on the critical issue of care –


and I would include education here – gov- ernments have been reluctant to act, expect- ing households and particularly women to shoulder the huge increase in unpaid labour that we have seen these past few months and expecting school authorities and educational workers to figure it out with scant support in terms of funding or guidance.


-35% -30% -25% -20% -15% -10% -5% 0% 5%


Provincial governments have abdicated


CHANGE IN TOTAL ACTUAL HOURS WORKED AT ALL JOBS RELATIVE TO FEBRUARY 2020 AMONG WORKERS, BY GENDER IN ONTARIO (15+ YRS)


Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20 Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21


responsibility, committing woefully inade- quate sums of money (the lion’s share comes from the federal government) to services such as child care and education to ensure learning success and safety. Provincial fund- ing on child care, for instance, represented just under half (49 percent) of total monies spent on pandemic-related support for child care between March and December 2020. Among the provinces, British Columbia


made the largest investment in its child care services (at $282 million) on top of its share of available federal funding, funding that helped to offset the financial precarity expe- rienced across the sector as a result of declin- ing enrollment and rising costs. The Saskatchewan government, however,


had yet to fully allocate the federal funds it received for child care by the end of 2020, while Alberta and Manitoba have contrib- uted very little of their own resources to bol- ster child care in their jurisdictions despite women’s lagging employment recovery and the considerable loss of capacity in the child care system as a result of the pandemic. Similarly, provinces have not stepped


Source: Feb 2020 - Apr 2021 Labour Force Survey PUMF, calculations by D. Macdonald. Seasonally adjusted.


forward with robust reopening plans for schools. In Ontario, the 72 boards of educa- tion added the equivalent of only 1.5 staff


per school to deal with all the pressures from school closures, online learning, preventive health measures, additional mental health challenges and growing learning gaps. And of the funds put up for these efforts, 46 percent came from board reserves, 18 percent from the federal government and only about one- third from the provincial government itself. The near global refusal to address the


untenable tension between women’s paid and unpaid work through proactive and meaningful investments in care and educa- tion, targeting the most marginalized, serves only to strengthen the employment barriers women are now facing.


WHO IS PAYING THE PRICE OF OUR FAILURE TO ACT?


Men


Our children and young people are paying the price. This is especially true for those who have already fallen behind and don’t have access to needed supports for their healthy development, a situation that is destined to worsen as the scale of student disengagement over the past year becomes clear. Teachers are already sounding the alarm about students who have disappeared from their class rolls. Our teachers are paying the price. They stressed and exhaust-


Women are overwhelmed, ed. Teaching has changed fundamentally,


CHANGE IN LEVEL OF WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT (15+ YEARS) RELATIVE TO FEBRUARY BY INDUSTRY GROUP, ONTARIO


Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20 Dec-20 Jan-21 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21


-35% -30% -25% -20% -15% -10% -5% 0%


Vulnerable Sectors Rest of Economy


Source: Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0022-01 Labour force characteristics by industry, monthly, unadjusted for seasonality. Vulnerable sectors: Accommodation & food services; Informaion, culture and recreation; Other services.


ELEMENTARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION OF ONTARIO 33


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