Thank you, Mr. Desilets.
Evidence of meeting #24 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #24 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was women.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to say thank you to all the witnesses for their thoughtful presentations.
My first question is for Ms. MacDougall.
First, I want to thank you tremendously for the work you have done in our community for so many years. Funding was short for your organization even prior to COVID. With a 300% increase in demand for your services, I can't imagine the situation and the pressure that's being put on your entire organization.
You touched a little on the funding aspect. When the government announced its funding for shelters and for transition houses, your organization and others like yours did not qualify for funding.
In light of this, in terms of recommendations, did I hear you correctly that you would like to see a $20-million investment from the federal government to support your work at this time?
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Battered Women's Support Services
Yes, we could easily double that $10 million that has been earmarked for....
And thank you for your comments, Honourable Jenny Kwan. I will share them with our team.
The challenges that we have right now are not going to stop. We've already had a pandemic. We're moving into the next phase of lessening social distancing. There is some sense that things are going to get even more pronounced as we move into this next phase, as women are making decisions. We're not done by any stretch. The $10 million that has been earmarked, and even the $50 million that was already provided, has only gotten us to this point, and it's only going to get us to this.
We need a long-term strategy because the lethality has increased. We haven't seen this many killings of women in such a short period of time in Canada. That should jar all of us to recognize that in addition to the many women who are killed, there are so many more living in fear of lethal violence. This is a time for Canada to make a bold step to redress and address what is clearly one of the most pressing social issues emerging in this health crisis.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Would you say that with the funding, often what governments do is to provide program funding as opposed to core funding, which is essentially what organizations like yours need? I wonder if you could address the issue of core funding.
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Battered Women's Support Services
We need core funding. Our services our essential, especially now during this pandemic, which has not ceased. We do not have core funding in the same way that health services do, and that is required. If we really understood how significant the social problem is, with its extraordinary impacts on the social determinants of health, we would have core funding. It is mandatory for us to move in that direction and for it to be a part of the next budget. That would be a bold step for Canada to take today.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Battered Women's Support Services
My apologies to the interpreters and to those listening.
The time to act is now. Core funding is one major thing that Canada can do right now to make a measurable difference for women victims of violence today.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Building on the need to recognize the social inequality that exists in the community, you mentioned the issue of poverty, the lack of housing and so on. What would you recommend to deal with the social inequality that exists today?
5:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Battered Women's Support Services
Women are stratified in Canada, so the experience of gender violence is overlaid by other aspects. The amount of violence, deaths and disappearances among indigenous women is higher due to the very reality of their status within Canada. They have been deemed to have a lower status in Canada through the Indian Act and through all the policies and the relationships. Others are stratified along those same lines: women of colour, immigrant women of colour, migrant women and women with precarious immigration status. The social aspects are gendered. They are not created equal and don't roll out equally for women in Canada. Our policies have to recognize that Canada does have a race and class hierarchy. It is very important that we acknowledge that obvious reality, and that the services, our programs and our policies draw on it too.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
My next question is for Ms. MacDougall and Ms. York.
One of the critical issues of course is access to safe, secure, affordable housing. We already know, from the 2019 homelessness count, that in Vancouver alone over 2,000 people are homeless. The government's national housing strategy talks about reducing homelessness by 50% within 10 years. That's a long ways to go when we're talking about addressing immediate needs for people who are homeless today, especially women and families who are trying to escape violence.
To that end, would you say it is essential for the government to seize this moment to ensure that there is a significant stimulus package in the budget to address the homelessness crisis? As for immediate action, should the government secure all empty hotels right now to house people?
5:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Battered Women's Support Services
Fiona, do you want to respond?
5:25 p.m.
Project Coordinator and Administrator, Carnegie Community Action Project
Sure.
I would say that I absolutely agree a hundred per cent that there needs to be immediate, very aggressive and very assertive action around housing. Since the seventies, there's been a real dire shortage of housing and social housing being built and a shortage of funding to the CMHC from the federal government. That's resulted in this really dire lack of housing, affordable housing and especially shelter-grade housing, which is what's really needed. There needs to be a real focus on returning to those levels and building housing for people who are homeless right now and also for people who are under-housed. That needs to be done in a very definite and assertive way immediately.
There's been all this research over and over through the years about how housing reduces other costs in terms of the justice system, the health care system and for so many other costs that are impacted, and how it actually would be more effective to build the housing. Despite all of that over the years, and all of the evidence about how people are impacted by homelessness, it's probably been harder to see the impact than it is currently. During this pandemic, everything is heightened and everything has sped up, and you see it much more clearly.
Just in these few months, it has become so much more obvious and so much more apparent that housing is health care and that it's really needed. Not only are we seeing that people are impacted around the pandemic and the health issues with COVID-19, but all of those connected harms that relate to the shutdown and the way we're responding to the pandemic are also impacting people. Those are the things that I touched on, like the fact there's nowhere for people to go outside and people are being displaced and there's a lack of sanitation. All of those other impacts are related to housing as well, and we see this being really heightened by the current pandemic.
Certainly, there needs to be a real change in how we think about housing and homelessness. With the hotels, what has been offered so far was really targeted and was more of an evacuation than really addressing health issues. When hotels were offered to people in Oppenheimer Park, it was certainly a targeting. That wasn't given to those most in need. We saw younger able-bodied men in Oppenheimer Park being offered hotels—
5:25 p.m.
Project Coordinator and Administrator, Carnegie Community Action Project
I'm sorry?
5:25 p.m.
Project Coordinator and Administrator, Carnegie Community Action Project
What was the question?
Wrap up. Yes.
The hotels were offered to only about 5% of those in need. Including those who are homeless and those who are under-housed in SROs and other inadequate housing, the hotels offered addressed about 5% of the need.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Ms. Kwan.
We go now to Mr. Jeneroux to start round two.
Mr. Jeneroux, please go ahead. You have five minutes.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, witnesses, for being here today.
I was hoping that Mr. Sauvé would be able to help shed some light on this and answer some of our questions when it comes to that shipment that was sent off to China, the 16 tonnes, through the support of the Red Cross. We know from internal memos that it was rushed, essentially, because of the repatriation flight. From your perspective, we would love to hear your replaying of the events for us to help us maybe connect some dots on our end.
5:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Red Cross
I'm sorry. Could you be more precise in the question?
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB
I'm hoping you can walk me through what happened in the lead-up to and then after the 16 tonnes of PPE was sent to China early in February.
May 27th, 2020 / 5:25 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Red Cross
I think from the early stages there was a request for some additional support. This, I think, is what we normally do in terms of the Canadian government assets to facilitate that send-off of equipment to China. You're mentioning 16 tonnes. We're also on the receiving end of gifts as well from China. To date, we've received 42 tonnes donated by China in response, and an additional 5 tonnes from Taiwan. We're expecting another arrival from Taiwan soon, on top of a number of gifts from corporations as well that are not in this.
We manage both sides of this. We've done this in the past. Mostly, Canada has always been shipping aid to the outside. This is one of the first—certainly in my experience—where we've been on the receiving end of gifts as well.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
Matt Jeneroux Conservative Edmonton Riverbend, AB
I know that you're kind of caught in the middle of all of this.
Do you know how much of that 42 tonnes you said was shipped to us from China was usable? Does it equate to the entire amount, or did we send some of that back again?
5:30 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Red Cross
In terms of the gifts—and we're in that process—we're working very closely with the Public Health Agency of Canada. All of that has been compliant with our norms. I'm not aware of anything what was given to us that was not useful. We knew beforehand what was being shipped. It is of quality and it's validated by the Public Health Agency process.
The way it works is that we are on the receiving end, but we're working closely, again with the Public Health Agency and PSPC, to send all of that equipment on to the provincial reception centres. It's done on a priority basis.
However, to answer your question, nothing has been shipped back. Everything is of quality.
