Excerpts from the report:
Employment and Economic Empowerment
While noting that the Government of Canada provides support for families through the Universal Child Care Plan, which includes the Universal Child Care Benefit and support for childcare spaces, the Committee remains concerned at lack of affordable quality childcare spaces.
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The Committee is particularly concerned at the impact of the lack of affordable childcare and affordable housing on low-income women with families.
The Committee urges the State party to step up its efforts to provide a sufficient number of affordable childcare spaces and affordable and adequate housing options, including in aboriginal communities, with priority being given to low-income women, who are particularly disadvantaged in those areas. The Committee also recommends that the State party carry out a cost-benefit analysis to assess the impact of current living standards, housing and childcare situations on the economic empowerment of women and present the findings in its next report to the Committee.
Accountability of the federal Government
While the Committee is cognizant of the complex federal and constitutional structures in the State party, it underlines, as it did in its previous concluding observations of 2003, that the federal Government is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Convention and providing leadership to the provincial and territorial governments in that context. The Committee reiterates the concern, expressed in its previous concluding observations, that the federal Government may lack the will and an efficient mechanism to ensure that the provincial and territorial governments establish legal and other measures to fully implement the Convention in a coherent and consistent manner.
The Committee, taking into account the legal responsibility and leadership role of the federal Government in the implementation of the Convention, reiterates its previous recommendation of 2003 that the State party use its leadership and funding power to set standards and establish an effective mechanism aimed at ensuring accountability and the transparent, coherent and consistent implementation of the Convention throughout its territory in which all levels of government can participate.