The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - COVID-19’s Impact on Women

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprint. It is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:07.140 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament from Halliburton-Caworthalakes. Brock, thank

00:00:10.940 you so much for joining us. Again, another great show lined up for you. As always, new

00:00:16.120 content every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time. We do appreciate the fact that you're

00:00:20.920 joining us. And because you are, we need your help to reach people within your network that

00:00:26.200 might be open to hearing the Conservative message. So as you're watching this, please

00:00:29.860 think about hitting the like, subscribe, comment, share button. Help us push back against the

00:00:36.000 ever-moving Liberal agenda. And of course, if you can't watch the entire episode today on

00:00:40.880 Facebook, you can download it, listen to it later on, on platforms like CastBox, iTunes,

00:00:45.960 Google Play, Spotify, you name it, it is out there. And as mentioned, a great show today.

00:00:51.600 We have Jag Sahota. She's the Member of Parliament for Calgary Skyview and the beautiful

00:00:55.840 province of Alberta. She's also the Shadow Minister for Women and Gender Equality. Thank

00:01:03.420 you so much for joining us. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you for having

00:01:06.540 me. We do appreciate the time, especially because things are so chaotic right now with

00:01:12.820 COVID, with everything going on in the country, and the challenges that are going on. I think

00:01:18.860 no matter where you're from, you're dealing with a challenge or two. And what I have had

00:01:22.960 you on to comment on, because I think it is extremely, extremely relevant, is the fact

00:01:29.000 that as the pandemic goes on, we're seeing a disproportionate amount of women who are affected

00:01:35.220 the most because of this pandemic. And so I'm, as the Shadow Minister and the fact that you

00:01:41.420 and committee have been studying this, you wanted to talk about this, maybe you can explain a

00:01:45.620 bit of what you're seeing and what you're hearing as you communicate.

00:01:48.020 Yeah, so we started our study in the middle of pandemic in July of 2020. We wanted to look

00:01:56.580 at how COVID has impacted women, not just women, but women of colour as well. And what we have

00:02:04.220 found is that women are disproportionately impacted by COVID. There's a lot of women of colour, for

00:02:13.040 example, who have lost their jobs, who had to take time off to stay at home to take care of their

00:02:20.180 kids, or their elderly parents, or somebody who was sick. So the impact has been felt quite

00:02:26.300 extensively by by women. And that's what the focus of the study was we in fact, it was extensive study,

00:02:32.700 we did that over the summer months, which were where we normally don't sit during summer months,

00:02:37.920 but it was important to start the study. We heard from a lot of women, women from different 0.99

00:02:46.480 organisations who had expertise to, to help women, but weren't able to really help them with this

00:02:56.160 pandemic, I guess, nobody was really prepared for the pandemic. But there were a lot of programmes

00:03:02.160 where women couldn't apply for those financial support, for example, because they didn't qualify, 1.00

00:03:08.160 they didn't meet the criteria. So the impact didn't stop just there, it's been, it's still it's still

00:03:15.200 going on. And women are feeling that every day. I know during the conversations with constituents, 1.00

00:03:21.440 there were a number of people, especially at the beginning, who were pregnant at the time were about

00:03:26.880 to give birth, and anywhere in between that kind of range. A lot of them were caught between the

00:03:34.560 the programme's rules and regulations, because they weren't able to get the full stream of benefits,

00:03:40.080 or they were cut off in some way. Maybe you could talk to us about some of the challenges that those,

00:03:45.760 the women who were trying to figure out the next steps after they give birth, what they were going 1.00

00:03:50.000 through. So this government and the minister is required to put a gender based analysis 0.99

00:03:58.080 on all the programmes that are rolled out by the government. So that meant that every programme,

00:04:03.920 financial support programme that was rolled out, should have had the gender based analysis applied 0.85

00:04:09.280 on that to determine if women or people of different gender was going to be impacted by

00:04:16.800 this programme differently, or if they were going to be left out, and how to address that

00:04:21.600 before the programmes were rolled out. That wasn't necessarily done. As a result, a lot of women 1.00

00:04:27.520 were left out, they couldn't meet the criteria, they couldn't apply for, for example, pregnant women who

00:04:33.520 were just short of like maybe a few hours just before the pandemic hit and everything was shut down,

00:04:39.520 they couldn't apply for the financial support. We as Conservative Party raised those concerns,

00:04:44.880 what we heard from our constituents, we took it to the government and raised those concerns,

00:04:50.400 and they were eventually fixed. But it was after the fact, after we raised the issues. When in fact,

00:04:58.960 what had what should have happened was that those programmes should have had the gender based analysis 0.91

00:05:06.320 applied to them before they were rolled out. So no women should have been left behind. Then talk about a 1.00

00:05:11.760 lot of women who own small businesses, for example, they don't have necessarily checking accounts, 1.00

00:05:18.480 they use their personal accounts to do business, they were left out, they couldn't apply for the

00:05:24.720 financial support programmes that were rolled out. Once again, the Conservatives stood up over and over

00:05:30.560 again, and raised those concerns. Once again, the programmes were fixed. When the government was listening to

00:05:37.520 us as the opposition party, the programmes were fixed. But the concern is that why did this happen in the

00:05:43.120 first place? That happened because the gender based analysis wasn't applied. Nobody really,

00:05:51.280 they were rolled out in such a rush that nobody really applied this lens. And as a result, a lot of women 1.00

00:05:57.840 were impacted by that. You should also add that, yes, it did eventually get fixed, but they were

00:06:05.600 months, there were months, where women were concerned about what was happening. Were they able to access 1.00

00:06:12.720 certain programmes in order to carry them through not only the pandemic, but the birth of their child and

00:06:18.320 the caring that goes along with it. And the fact that Parliament wasn't sitting, the fact that a lot of these

00:06:26.080 conversations could not take place, I think is a big part of that, whether you're talking about

00:06:31.360 the wage subsidy, the rent programme, you name it, a lot of these problems could have been fixed

00:06:36.720 if Parliament was able to sit and we were able to have these conversations in a constructive manner,

00:06:41.680 because I think we all needed to come together. And I think for the most part, we did to get through

00:06:45.920 it. But it was hard to do that and come together when the avenues for conversation were not available.

00:06:51.520 Exactly. And I see my role as a two part role, I go to my constituents come to me with the concerns,

00:06:57.840 and I take those voices to the Parliament. So I was hearing the concerns in my constituency office,

00:07:04.240 I would get the phone calls, emails, people were frustrated, women were frustrated with a lot of the 1.00

00:07:10.000 programmes that were rolled out, there were no details given, they couldn't apply for it, the criteria

00:07:16.000 was just too onerous in many ways. And then I couldn't take those concerns to the Parliament.

00:07:23.040 But once again, it was the Conservative Party who called on the government to have, you know,

00:07:28.560 Parliament sitting so we can address the concerns of our constituents and Canadians who were not getting

00:07:35.360 the support that they needed. So yeah, we've been doing not only our role as the opposition party,

00:07:43.680 we did focus quite a bit on supporting the Liberal Party to get these programmes rolled out. But at the

00:07:50.880 same time, we were focused on doing our role and, and pointing out the deficiencies in these programmes.

00:07:57.840 Would you agree that I think in many communities, mine included, I'm sure yours, that small businesses

00:08:05.600 are feeling a lot of the brunt of the COVID pandemic? And I think that the stress level is super high,

00:08:12.720 because a lot of people are just wondering if they're going to be able to survive, not only the

00:08:18.480 next week, the next month, but into the future, if they have the ability to do that. What are you

00:08:23.120 hearing from your small business community, especially those that are women owned and women led? What,

00:08:29.280 what extra challenges are you hearing from them?

00:08:31.520 A lot of them are closing down their shops, because it's, it's coming down to a point where they

00:08:39.120 cannot keep running these, these stores, little stores that they have. And there's a lot of small

00:08:48.720 businesses and in my riding. And with the restrictions and the lockdowns and the help that was intended to

00:08:58.960 help. But for for months, it wasn't available. That just took a, you know, strong hit on these,

00:09:07.120 these businesses, basically. So they're feeling it. And it's hard to see small little businesses that

00:09:13.280 you've seen all your life just go out of business. It's heartbreaking. And there's no way out at this

00:09:20.960 point for them. And it's, it's coming down to it's very stressful, something you've put your whole life

00:09:26.560 towards. And sometimes your life savings basically are all gone. It's heartbreaking to see that.

00:09:33.200 The impact of this COVID-19 is, is very wide. Like sometimes I think about it, some of the,

00:09:41.760 some of the areas that I didn't even think would be impacted by COVID, you know, it comes to light

00:09:47.280 and you're like, you take a moment, you're like, wow, I never thought about that. But it's happening.

00:09:52.560 What about the mental health issue? It is very sad. I agree. What about the mental health issue? 0.90

00:09:57.840 And I know we, we talk a lot about, you know, kind of a small business side, but what about

00:10:02.560 on the individual side, the, the mental health that people are, are trying to deal with, but you're

00:10:06.960 right, the stress of, you know, whether or not you're going to pay your bills, the stress of how

00:10:11.520 the economy is going to open, the stress of your future, all of it comes together. And, and we're,

00:10:17.680 what kind of measures could the federal government take to kind of

00:10:20.320 help those that are struggling with, with, with kind of mental health issues of all kinds.

00:10:26.800 There's the sad part is, it's just not, you know, people who are going through financial hardship

00:10:33.280 that are feeling the, the mental stress, it's the young people as well. And these people are holding

00:10:39.360 the torch to the future. And I have a lot of young girls who work in my, in my constituency office,

00:10:46.960 and they tell me how almost day to day basis, how hard it's becoming to, to deal with the mental

00:10:54.240 stress. So I, I think what the government needs to do is have effective programs and they need to

00:11:00.960 roll out these programs immediately, not two, six, or, you know, 10 months later. The need is now,

00:11:07.520 it's already been 10 months. So we should have had mental health access, not just an internet website

00:11:14.720 where you can do a self-assessment to see if you're mentally stressed or not, something more effective

00:11:20.320 where you can call in, perhaps talk to somebody who can help you, who can support you. It sometimes

00:11:26.240 it's a, it's a matter of moments where you're so stressed, you even are pushed to a point where

00:11:32.160 you're willing to take your life. When every moment counts, it's, it's having somebody on the other

00:11:37.440 side, take your call and maybe just calm you down. You know, not just an internet site where you can

00:11:42.880 do an assessment and then go out with the, the, the report saying, yeah, you're stressed. Now what?

00:11:49.920 I think the light of the tunnel for many people is the fact that vaccines are, you know,

00:11:54.640 there's a vaccine that is available, actually many vaccines that are available. The fact that

00:11:58.800 the rollout continues, we can talk about whether or not the federal government has done an adequate

00:12:03.920 job in securing enough supply for the provinces and territories to administer, but that's, that's a

00:12:08.320 topic for another program. I think you touched on to the, the kind of the, the kind of back to normal

00:12:14.960 path, the, the economy, uh, getting the economy open up in a safe, responsible manner, ensuring that

00:12:20.880 small businesses are able to thrive, ensuring that people are able to find work that then turns into a

00:12:25.920 paycheck that they're able to purchase things that they have discretionary spending to spend on,

00:12:29.840 uh, you know, whether it neat stuff of going to, to a movie or, you know, just, uh, the, the

00:12:35.680 necessities on, on basic shelter and whatnot. I think all of it comes into kind of the, the,

00:12:40.560 the sense of kind of getting back to normal. I think that's where everyone wants to be. And I think that's

00:12:44.480 where it's a, it's a very important conversation. I think our party as a whole is, is not only talking

00:12:49.600 about rapid testing, they're talking about the vaccines and getting it out to provinces and

00:12:54.160 territories so they can administer, but also the economic recovery and how important that is not

00:12:59.680 increasing taxes endlessly with a carbon tax that goes up in a pandemic, the alcohol and beer escalator

00:13:05.840 that went out with up without a vote in parliament, all those things contribute to the cost of living

00:13:10.560 going up. Not only that, sorry, Jag, I'm getting to the question here. Not only that, but we're continuing

00:13:15.200 to, to, to tax, borrow, print money, which could have, you know, catastrophic consequences if we

00:13:24.000 don't stop that later on, because you will debauch the economy, the currency, probably a combination

00:13:28.880 of both. So that piece is also very crucial to how people, whether it be men or women, uh, with

00:13:35.520 mental health, with everything and how we get through it as a country.

00:13:38.720 I think the focus, um, I'll tell you something, Jamie, I'm a brand new MP. So, uh, when this

00:13:45.600 pandemic happened, um, this was in March, um, the lockdown started. I remember we were talking about

00:13:53.040 recovery in June or July, looking to the future. That's what the Conservative Party, I was so proud.

00:14:00.880 We were looking to the future and to me as a new MP, um, you know, you learn little things at times,

00:14:07.280 right? So it wasn't, it didn't make sense to me at that time. I'm like, we need to deal with this now,

00:14:12.640 because that's what I was dealing with that in my constituency office. But I've come to a

00:14:18.640 realization, looking to the future and planning that that's very important. And I'm so proud that

00:14:23.520 Conservatives were doing that back in June, right? The middle of the year, we didn't know which way it

00:14:28.880 was heading, but we were focused on that. And, and like you said, it's going back to being normal,

00:14:34.880 whatever normal may look like. Now, we don't know what that looks like, but something more normal,

00:14:40.560 because it's going to be, it's been now 10 months, lockdowns, not, you know, then you come out,

00:14:46.800 then you go back in. It's, it's tough to deal with that, not on, on just a financial level, but on,

00:14:53.040 on a personal level, your relationships are suffering. There's so many people who haven't

00:14:56.960 seen their loved ones for months. I, for example, I, I, I lived with my grandma and grandpa.

00:15:04.880 They are in their late eighties. My grandpa just passed away last year, but my grandma,

00:15:10.080 who's 85 years old, I couldn't see her for the first three months. We stayed in the same house,

00:15:15.520 but I just stayed in my 10 by 10 room. And that was my life. And it gets to you mentally,

00:15:22.160 it gets to you. My only savior was coming to the office. For example, we all like the staff decided,

00:15:28.560 we are going to stay away from our families and not to take something home, but at the same time,

00:15:33.920 stay open and try to help our constituents. But it's going back to the normal and normal requires

00:15:39.920 for us to be aware of the situations, whether that's like, you know, outbreaks in the, in the

00:15:47.040 schools or workplace, having rapid tests, like Michelle Rempel has been saying is so important

00:15:53.360 to take us back to that and having vaccinations, of course, going to help. But then right now,

00:15:58.880 there's a delay. There's not, we have, we're going to have issues with that because a lot of people

00:16:04.720 were expecting the vaccines to be rolled out and they are, they were already kind of lining up and

00:16:10.400 in their minds, at least they're like, okay, I fall in this phase, then I'm going to be this group.

00:16:15.200 So I'll be the first one to get vaccinated. That's not happening. My grandma, in fact,

00:16:19.120 talked about how she needs to get the vaccination. She's 85 years old. And she said, after that,

00:16:24.640 I can go out and just, you know, be myself and enjoy, enjoy my life. But that's, it's very

00:16:32.240 sensitive right now. Everybody's had long, long months of indoors. I'm glad, like, you know,

00:16:40.080 the weather's been nice here in Alberta, for example, we've been going for walks, but it's tough.

00:16:45.200 So the normal better come sooner than later.

00:16:48.480 I would totally agree with that. I'm very sorry for the loss of your grandfather. Maybe we should

00:16:53.200 also touch on the work of the charitable sector as well. They're actually being called upon to do

00:16:58.480 even more work through the pandemic. And in a number of cases where the organizations rely

00:17:03.680 on major sponsors, a number of those sponsors are hurting, whether it be small businesses,

00:17:08.000 large business medium, the donations aren't coming in at the pace they normally would. And so they're

00:17:14.480 being asked again to do more with less, which is very stressful on those organizations. And in many

00:17:21.360 cases, the charitable sector has a large number of women working in that sector, which is a significant 0.94

00:17:30.960 factor that we have to take into consideration.

00:17:33.120 Oh, yeah. I've had in my writing, for example, we've had so many religious organizations that stepped

00:17:41.680 up and were providing food during during COVID to truck drivers to frontline workers. It's

00:17:47.600 it makes you proud to see that like in the middle of all of this, people forget their own personal

00:17:54.240 problems and want to help each other out. That's another thing I think what COVID has taught us is

00:17:58.800 that we're all human. We're all vulnerable. We're all made of the same thing. So it's it's about helping

00:18:04.640 each other and being there for each other. I couldn't agree more. I always give people the

00:18:10.400 chance to the guests to have a closing remark, if you'd like to say that it's tough to top what you

00:18:14.880 just said. But any closing remarks you'd like to leave with the with the audience?

00:18:18.880 Well, I wanted to talk about the gender based violence. So I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap up the 0.86

00:18:23.200 conversation with that gender based violence. Once again, we've been calling on the government to

00:18:29.520 to come up with the plan and execute it in 2019. And they're in their platform, liberal government

00:18:36.240 said they will be executing a gender based violence plan against that, and executing it soon. It didn't

00:18:44.640 happen. It hasn't happened. And we're basically calling on the government to do that because it's

00:18:49.440 very important for for people to feel secure, and feel respected and be able to live with dignity and

00:18:58.160 respect. And there should be no place in our society for for violence, and which is especially

00:19:05.040 based on gender or perceived gender, or religious or racial basis. None of that should exist in our

00:19:14.960 our society. So I wanted to talk a little bit about that how government has failed that I've stood up in

00:19:20.960 in the House a few times and asked the Minister to focus on getting the plan rolled out and start

00:19:28.800 working on this because women need help. Now, not like 2310 years from now, it's it the need is now 1.00

00:19:35.760 and we've seen that with the pandemic, you talked about the organizations not having enough funding,

00:19:40.880 like the charitable organizations, there's a lot of women shelters who didn't have enough funding, and they 0.98

00:19:45.840 had to turn away women and and and children who were facing violence. And that's heartbreaking. And

00:19:54.160 that's where, you know, what the government should have focused once again, this is a feminist government 1.00

00:20:01.440 who wanted to help women. And yet we have 300 women and and children who are turned away from shelters

00:20:09.680 every night, basically across the country. And this is pre pandemic. And with the pandemic heading,

00:20:15.600 women were and children were stuck with their abusers. So we want to focus on getting plans

00:20:21.600 rolled out and getting having program that focuses on eliminating gender based violence. So what I want

00:20:27.520 to say is that we as a society need to educate our, our young boys and girls to

00:20:34.320 to so that they can respect other people's rights, and freely grant them, and, and, and look forward to

00:20:45.280 something that's more of a positive outcome in the long run, a generation where we can look back and say

00:20:51.360 we did something for them, we paved the path for women and girls where they can live in a secure and free society.

00:20:59.200 I couldn't agree with you more. I think that's where it all ties in, whether it be the mental health

00:21:05.200 aspect of it, the charitable sector and how they're dealing with it, and how they're able to respond to

00:21:11.840 the needs that are heightened because of the pandemic. And as you said, in terms of the education

00:21:17.680 component as well, and in ensuring that this this doesn't happen at all. And I don't think there's

00:21:25.040 too many people who would disagree with that. I hope not. Anyway, that sounds like common sense to me.

00:21:30.000 I agree. And I've been hearing that from, from young women, that this is, they're very aware,

00:21:36.320 young generation is very aware of what's happening and what needs to change. And like I said, they're

00:21:41.760 holding the torch. So when we pass on the torch that we're holding on to right now, we should be,

00:21:47.920 we should be giving them the path that is clear of a lot of hurdles that we as a society and humanity

00:21:55.600 faced in our lifetimes. So that's what my focus is. And that's what I hope to do in my lifetime.

00:22:02.720 Jack Zahoda, Member of Parliament for Calgary Skyview, also the Shadow Minister for Women and

00:22:08.160 Gender Equality. You're doing a great job. Thank you so much for coming on the show. We do appreciate

00:22:13.360 your time. We, we went a bit long, but I think that's okay. It was a very important topic.

00:22:17.520 Thank you so much for having me.

00:22:18.320 We will have you on again, because it's an important file that is, is continuing to move

00:22:24.480 forward that we want to get some input on you and, and hear your thoughts on. So we will have

00:22:28.080 you again. So thank you very much again to you, the, the listener, the viewer. We appreciate the

00:22:33.200 time you have given us here on this show. We will be giving you new content every single Tuesday,

00:22:38.480 1.30pm Eastern time. Please like, comment, subscribe, share this program, help us push

00:22:44.640 back against the ever moving liberal agenda. If you can't watch it all today on Facebook,

00:22:49.600 you can download it, listen to it later on platforms like CastBox, Spotify, iTunes, Google Play,

00:22:55.200 you may name it. It is out there. We can do this together. As always remember, it's low taxes,

00:23:00.400 less government, more freedom. That's the blueprints. Thanks for joining us.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - January 20, 2021

COVID-19’s Impact on Women

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