Jennifer Howard, the newly appointed minister of labour and immigration and minister responsible for persons with disabilities, was in Thompson on Nov. 16 and took time to listen to what women had to say about their struggle and challenges as well as their successes.
Howard has a long history of working for women in the province. In the early 1990s she worked in Brandon on the Action Committee for the Status of Women, which also had an office in Thompson. She later worked in Winnipeg at the Women's Health Centre of Excellence and was also the executive director of the Women's Health Clinic in the city. On Nov. 3 Premier Greg Selinger appointed her to cabinet.
Howard gathered with women from Thompson at the YWCA's cafeteria. She asked the people gathered, from city councillors to representatives of the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, Thompson Crisis Centre, Men Are Part of the Solution and more, to tell her which issues they feel most strongly about. These issues included accessibility, self-esteem programs for young women, addressing social issues and more. Some of the other issues that were brought forward to be discussed were child care, the lack of affordable housing, the issue of Northern Restorative Justice in Thompson folding, community safety and the issue of women entering typically male-dominated career fields.
Many women also talked to Howard about the struggles of the University College of the North's (UCN) midwifery program, which was established in 2006 teaching students in Norway House and The Pas. The program has been challenged recently, with only a third of the original nine students left struggling to find enough babies to deliver so they can meet their graduation requirements.
"I've been doing this work with women for 15 years, and it's amazing that we all talk about similar issues," Howard told the crowd.
Addressing the issue of child care, she says the province has invested a lot of money into it and has shifted the thinking from child care being a social program to being an economic necessity, with a focus on not only day care programs but early childhood education programs as well. She says its also important for the province to look at better ways to handle waiting lists that parents must sign up for to get their children into daycare.
Some of the other issues women in Thompson brought to the forefront of the discussion included preventing teen pregnancy, a lack of literacy in adults and making it easier for women to enter into post secondary education.
