Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee today.
My name is Aline Nizigama. I am the national president and CEO of YWCA Canada.
I'll continue in English and would be pleased to answer questions in either language.
YWCA Canada is the country's oldest and largest gender-equity-advancing organization. Through 29 local member YWCAs from across the country, we are reaching over a million people. We operate the largest network of shelters and housing for women and children fleeing violence; the largest network of employment counselling, upskilling and re-skilling for women; and the second-largest non-profit child care system, after the YMCA, in Canada.
What I'm bringing today is an impact and efficiency argument. I'll start with the number that this committee should care about most.
According to a recent report from the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada, sexual violence alone costs Canada close to $15 billion every year in health, justice and lost productivity costs that sit on federal and provincial balance sheets. That is just one form of gender-based violence in a country where one in five people reported sexual assault since age 15. Nine out of 10 times, that person is a woman, with indigenous, Black and racialized women, those with disabilities and those living in poverty or in remote areas being the most affected. Justice Canada's own estimates aren't too far from these numbers, so the status quo is not free.
Budget 2026 can change that math. The fastest and most affordable way to grow Canada's labour force, productivity and tax base is to invest in keeping women safe and to remove the structural barriers holding them back. Housing, safety, child care and access to good jobs are not social spending in a soft sense. They are economic infrastructure with a measurable rate of return.
Our recommendations are connected, because the barriers are also connected. I have summarized them in four points.
One, fund housing and women's safety together. In YWCA services alone, more than 9,000 women and children are waiting for safe housing today. To help fix this, we ask that Build Canada Homes allocate at least 40% of affordable units to women and gender-diverse people and their families.
In addition, the next phase of the national action plan to end gender-based violence must be fully funded and an independent commissioner established to oversee its implementation. The epidemic of gender-based violence is just too pervasive and cannot be addressed without significant supports, both in prevention and in intervention.
The federal government must also commit $360 million over three years through Women and Gender Equality Canada to stabilize shelters and transitional houses, because without that frontline capacity, neither the housing investments nor the national action plan can deliver strong outcomes.
Two, sustain and extend the Canada-wide early learning and child care system. Child care, as Kevin said, is essential economic and social infrastructure. It enables women to participate in the labour force, supports family stability and strengthens the broader economy. The system has delivered real progress, but those gains are at risk without renewed operational and capital funding. Economic estimates of the program place its GDP contribution between roughly 1% and 4% annually.
Three, make investments in trades and skills into outcomes for women. The federal government, we know, has committed $6 billion to recruit up to 100,000 new skilled trades workers. Women are only 7.3% of the trades today. That's up from 5.9% in 1987. That's a gain of just over one percentage point in nearly four decades. A general investment will not change that, because the data shows that it has barely moved in 40 years. We are asking that 2.5% of that $6 billion—that is $150 million over five years—be targeted specifically to support women into trades through organizations known to deliver results, like the YWCA.
Four, fund the national coordination capacity that pulls all that together. Federal departments fund stable, criteria-based, operational support for national sports associations and other sectors, and that's good. Organizations doing the policy, research, legal systems, change work and frontline coordination to advance and preserve gender equity deserve the same stability. Our ask is that $10 million annually over five years, beginning next year, be allocated to national women's rights and gender equity organizations to support their sustainability.
I will end with this. For women most in need and their families, safe housing makes escape possible. Child care makes work possible. Skills training makes long-term security possible. Strong community organizations make systemic change attainable. Budget 2026 can make that possible.
Thank you.