Status of Women committee  Thank you for that question. I know you're going to be hearing directly from the hotline next. I'm sure they'll be able to provide some specific information there. I will tell you they provide services in over 200 languages. It's not just for victims, but it's also for people who may have some questions about seeing somebody they may think is human trafficked, so I know you'll be asking them detailed questions.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. You're right. This is a crime that is under-reported, and we know that. We work closely with Statistics Canada to garner data, so we can inform our strategy with as much data as possible. I will go back and talk about awareness. We've talked about the fact that we need to ensure Canadians understand what human trafficking is, the signs of possible human trafficking and how to report signs of human trafficking.

Status of Women committee  The national strategy to combat human trafficking that we're speaking about today was launched in 2019, but there was a previous strategy that started in 2012. We have been, as the Government of Canada, working collaboratively together since that time to continue to build on this.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. If I may just add, my understanding is that you're going to be hearing from Statistics Canada. We work in close collaboration with them to get information, and they will be able to talk to you about more of the statistics in relation to human trafficking. We do know this is an under-reported crime, but from data from 2022, I can share with you today a few high-level statistics.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. Maybe I could highlight a couple of things. I mentioned in my opening statement that the Government of Canada funded 63 projects. Public Safety specifically funded 20 of those projects. The funding has gone to grassroots organizations across the country to work with both victims and survivors.

Status of Women committee  Very quickly, we are doing lots of work. Collaboration is important and not only with our partners at the federal-provincial-territorial tables. We heard from survivors in our 2018 consultations across Canada that we need to ensure that we are meeting regularly with our stakeholders as well.

Status of Women committee  —to engage in that.

Status of Women committee  Do you mean tier 1 from the “Trafficking in Persons Report” from the United States of America?

Status of Women committee  Each year, the United States does an analysis and evaluation of other countries. We're pleased to report that we continue to remain on tier 1, which means that the work we're doing under the national strategy, the work that we're doing at the federal, provincial and territorial levels, is actively working to deal with the human trafficking area.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the traditional unceded land on which we are gathered today, that of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Michelle Van De Bogart. I am the director general of law enforcement at Public Safety Canada.

Status of Women committee  My apologies. Was that directed to me?

Status of Women committee  I believe what you're asking—and please correct me if I'm wrong so that I can respond accordingly—is about the awareness of health workers to be able to identify potential victims of human trafficking and what we're doing in that respect. Would that be correct?

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. I would say that under the national strategy we do have a national awareness campaign. What we heard from our stakeholders was that people need to understand what human trafficking is in order to be able to deal with it. We do have a national strategy of awareness that's aimed at young people and parents to better understand.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much for the question. I can tell you that this is one activity we are currently working on. A contract has been awarded and we are working on the guidelines themselves. You mentioned it's to train people who are in industry or in business. We are focusing on four key areas.

Status of Women committee  I'd like to take us back to before the action plan or the strategy was created. Prior to that, we did extensive stakeholder engagement, which involved engagement with indigenous individuals, those with lived experiences, a lot of NGOs, academia and FPTs. Also, as we've been launching different parts of our action plan or the strategy, we've been continuing to reach out to engage with those with lived experiences, including indigenous peoples.