Here’s what’s inside Canada’s first-ever feminist economic recovery plan

Canada won’t recover from the pandemic without a feminist response.

It’s as simple as that, according to YWCA Canada and the Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE). For the past month or so, the two organizations have been focused on a massive undertaking: creating a feminist plan for our country’s economic recovery from COVID-19. 

Released today, the plan outlines eight key areas governments should prioritize to ensure all Canadians — including the women and gender-nonbinary people, who’ve felt the most intense impacts — recover fully from the pandemic and economic crisis. The plan makes a total of 26 recommendations for all levels of government to correct the pandemic’s gendered impacts. Co-authored by YWCA Canada’s national director of public policy and strategic communications Anjum Sultana and Carmina Ravanera, research associate at GATE, the plan was reviewed and guided by a team of 17 social sector leaders, including those of local YWCA chapters, Oxfam Canada, the UK Commission on a Gender Equal Economy, and more. 

The authors say the plan is the first feminist economic recovery plan Canada has ever seen. This is in part because this particular crisis requires a uniquely feminist response compared to others, like the 2008 financial downturn, says Sarah Kaplan, director of GATE. During a typical economic recession, she says, men experience the most significant job losses. Industries that grind to a halt include those like construction and automotive manufacturing, both male-dominated. Women and non-binary people “were actually the great stabilizing force,” she says, because women-dominated professions like care work and teaching continued to be necessary. 

By contrast, this recession is accompanied by the closing of schools and daycares, and other industries that have been forced to pause are women-dominated, too, like hospitality and airline travel. Plus, says Kaplan, “not only are women being laid off more, but they’re having to leave their jobs more because of care work responsibilities. It just doesn’t look like any other recession.”

The plan’s authors acknowledge that it isn’t a complete picture of what’s necessary for recovery: “We have not focused on some important recovery concerns such as the environment and international policy, among other topics. We acknowledge the vital work that is being done on these topics by other organizations, specifically Indigenous-led organizations” on environmental topics, they write.

However, if governments don’t take the recommendations in this particular plan seriously, “we will not get a robust recovery if we do not pay attention to the most vulnerable communities in our society,” says Kaplan, because without taking action on the inequities of the pandemic’s impacts, only the most privileged will have the opportunity to recover.

More specifically, if the plan isn’t implemented, “we really do risk losing an entire generation of women out of the workforce.” 

The good news is that Kaplan is hopeful the recommendations in the plan will be taken up by the federal government. “We have a government in power right now that has paid a lot of attention to gender, that has mandated gender budgeting, that has created a department of gender equality,” she says.

Kaplan says she hopes the plan inspires action in civil society, too. What anyone can “learn from this report,” she says, “is what the gendered impacts are and what kinds of things would help to fix the problems. For example, this report is focused on what governments of all levels can do, but I think a corporate leader or someone who’s in a social responsibility role can take those ideas and translate them into things companies could do, too.” 

The plan includes eight central pillars for a feminist economic recovery, and each pillar comes with its own set of recommendations for a robust recovery. 

Under intersectionality, the plan calls for collecting race-based data on the impacts of the pandemic, calling this “one of the most significant actions the government can take now.” The authors continue, after this data is collected, the plan recommends that the federal government develops “a COVID-19 post-pandemic gender results framework dashboard and report annually on how the Government of Canada is advancing gender equity.”

The plan calls on all levels of government to address the root causes of racism. “More than platitudes, concrete action must be taken to address the historical and ongoing instances of inequities and discrimination,” the authors write. They call for immediate implementation of the Calls to Action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Calls for Justice in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry Report. They also call for attention to anti-Black systemic racism, and point to recommendations by the Parliamentary Black Caucus, the 2020 Black Health Alliance, and the City of Toronto. 

The third recommendation is that governments “recognize care work as decent work.” The authors call on the federal government to match the OECD’s recommended 1 percent of GDP spent on early education and childcare; create a National Child Care Secretariat; up public funding for existing childcare solutions; prioritize the needs of migrant care workers; and centre childcare considerations in any and all decisions about reopening and economic recovery. 

Invest in good jobs post-pandemic, the plan urges, by ending precarious working conditions. The authors recommend a legislated 14 days paid sick leave and family leave for all workers; funding for retraining across sectors; lowering the eligibility requirements for employment insurance; and legislated job protection for those with disabilities who can’t work due to the risk of contracting the virus. 

The plan also calls attention to and urges action on the shadow pandemic of violence  — domestic, otherwise gender-based, and racially-motivated, rates of all of which have increased during the pandemic. The authors recommend a national action plan on gender-based violence that includes the intersection of race-based violence in response. 

Bolster small businesses, the plan says, which have been devastated by pandemic shutdowns. The authors call on governments to offer support to “business owners from underrepresented groups — not only women but also racialized people, persons with disabilities, Indigenous people, and immigrants — in the form of emergency funding, as well as skills training and mentorship.” They also recommend targeted public procurement strategies, meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities on any economic development projects, and bolstering awareness of cooperative business models. 

There’s also a need to strengthen infrastructure for recovery. “First and foremost,” the authors write, “there must be investment in mitigating social determinants of health.” Governments need to “urgently realize the National Housing Strategy to build 125,000 units of affordable housing, completely deploy the 33 percent carve-out for gender-focused investments and ensure chronic homelessness drops by 50 percent by 2027.” They should also act urgently on building clean water for Indigenous communities under boil water advisories. And governments should take action on the digital divide and commit to 100 percent broadband access across the country, the authors say.

Centre diverse voices in decision-making processes, the authors recommend. This would mean establishing a gender advisory council on pandemic responses at all levels of government, insuring intersectional representation on any pandemic recovery task forces, and increasing multi-year funding for civil society organizations advancing intersectional feminist causes. 

This last recommendation, increasing funding for civil society organizations, is particularly important for protecting the vitality of the social impact sector, the authors write. If governments don’t increase their funding, communities “risk the disappearance of a civil society sector that contributes to a thriving democracy and ensures the rights and needs of equity seeking communities are not ignored during and after this crisis.”

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