Thank you to the chair and to all the members of the committee for welcoming CIJA's participation in this important conversation.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, known as CIJA, is the advocacy agent of the Jewish Federations of Canada. We're a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization representing more than 150,000 Jews across the country affiliated through their local federations from coast to coast.
In my brief remarks, I'd like to focus on three things in particular. The first area is support for non-profit social services. CIJA works closely with our partners at the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies across the country to advocate for non-profit social services. These non-profits provide assistance to both Jewish and non-Jewish Canadians, including people with both cognitive and physical disabilities; older adults; those facing mental health, substance abuse and housing challenges; and refugees fleeing persecution.
I think we all recognize that Canada's social service providers are in crisis. The pandemic increased demand on services across the board. While many non-profits were able to access emergency federal funding in the early months of the pandemic, this funding has been exhausted. Demand for services, however, has not slowed. Canada's non-profits are struggling to hire, train and retain the staff needed to function.
Recent Stats Canada results of the Canadian survey of business conditions show that 32% of non-profit sector employers believe retaining skilled staff will be an obstacle over the next period, while 36% are concerned about recruiting skilled staff. This is exacerbated by the reality that average salaries in community non-profits are already 35% lower than the economy-wide average in Canada. Current grant options on both the federal and provincial levels are limited in scope and availability, and are usually focused on programming.
Our recommendation is that the Government of Canada establish a national non-profit strategy that will provide the multi-year support needed to stabilize the non-profit sector. We also recommend that the government reintroduce emergency funding, or, through the CST, direct support for non-profit social services to address the short-term urgent capacity needs.
The second area concerns launching a community security trust to improve the security infrastructure program, or SIP. The security infrastructure program is a key initiative that provides essential funds to institutions to enhance their security infrastructure. SIP provides funding to private and non-profit organizations at risk of hate-motivated crime to mitigate the cost of such security infrastructure improvements as alarm systems and bollards. The efficacy and importance of this program have been well established over the last number of years.
However, while the SIP provides essential infrastructure funding, it's only part of the solution. It's essential to empower, equip and train community members to be aware of, identify, and deter threats, and to have the capacity to partner effectively with law enforcement, which in most cities is stretched beyond capacity and can therefore offer limited on-site support. Morever, at-risk communities need to feel a sense of ownership rather than feelings of victimhood and vulnerability.
Our recommendation is that the Government of Canada fund a pilot project to complement SIP, giving communities the capacity to deter threats and assume some responsibility for protection of their communal institutions and users.
The final area is with regard to government resources to implement the new anti-racism strategy. We at CIJA are deeply concerned by the situation in which funds from the Canadian Heritage anti-racism action program were directed to an organization that gave a platform to someone who publicly made statements of the vilest anti-Semitic content for years.
While we are grateful and pleased that Minister Hussen and the government have promised, and acted on, a review and renewal of Canada's anti-racism strategy, this was not an isolated incident. Our concern is that insufficient resources are being committed to actually address and educate on anti-Semitism and racism within the relevant government departments, especially for those tasked with vetting funding recipients.
Our recommendation is that the Government of Canada provide dedicated funding and work with community stakeholders to ensure that government funding never again goes to an organization that promotes anti-Semitism and racism in general. This funding should include education on anti-Semitism for government decision-makers; a genuine and measurable implementation of the IHRA definition, already adopted by the government; and continued funding for the office of Canada's special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting anti-Semitism.
Finally, Mr. Chair, although we eagerly anticipate the new legislation to deal with online hate and harms that both Heritage and Justice are working on, there is another dimension we feel is urgently needed.
We believe that a social media literacy campaign has to be undertaken. Our view is that hard-core haters represent a minority of Canadians. Those who would use social media to foment, disseminate and foster hate or use online platforms to incite violence are beyond rehabilitation. Most Canadians, however, engage in such activities or amplify such messages out of ignorance—not being sensitive to what these messages represent.
The path to sensitizing people to what hate looks like online, what forms it takes and what to do about it flows through education. We have to undertake a national social media literacy campaign to sensitize Canadians—especially the younger, more vulnerable demographic—about the appropriate use and abuse of social media.
Mindful of time, Mr. Chair, I will leave my comments there.
Thank you again for inviting us to participate. I invite any comments or questions.