Thank you.
Before I begin, I would also like to thank you for the opportunity to present to your committee. It's not often that Yukon women have a chance to participate directly in national public consultations.
The situation of women's lives north of 60 is a world apart from that in the south--economically, socially, and culturally. Isolation, a harsh climate, lack of resources, lack of accessible and affordable transportation systems, underdeveloped infrastructure, a high cost of living, a high rate of social problems, limited opportunities for employment and training, and the legacy of residential schools and colonization contribute to poverty and homelessness for Yukon women. These conditions contrive to keep many Yukon women living in the cycle of poverty, with little hope of escape.
Twenty-three per cent of our population is aboriginal, compared to 3.3% for Canada. The legacy of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of aboriginal women as well as cultural alienation and lack of respect are greater in the north. Consequently, rates of spousal abuse, homicide, and sexual assault are higher for aboriginal women. Aboriginal women live with inequities under the Indian Act and face discrimination daily. These are all social determinants of poverty.
Yukon women are 2.9 times more likely to experience sexual abuse and are more likely to be killed by a spouse. The gap between the families with the lowest and highest incomes, an indication of income inequity, widened during the past decade, with single mothers the most affected. Child poverty is women's poverty, which is increasing in our hostile environment. More women and children are accessing soup kitchens, the food bank, and emergency housing.
The Yukon Status of Women Council released our study of women and homelessness in the Yukon in 2007, which I am submitting to the clerk. The report reveals the determinants and impacts of women's homelessness. Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Homelessness in the north is largely hidden, especially among women. In the Yukon, survival sex is a common way for women to keep a roof over their heads, as is couch-surfing in homes with inappropriate men. At minus 40 degrees, women can't be choosy. We've learned women will get drunk in order to be admitted to detox and can find respite in a women's transition home only after they have been assaulted. We have no emergency shelter dedicated to women and children, and little for youth.
What we've found is that every woman is vulnerable to homelessness and the attendant poverty, given the wrong set of circumstances. Per capita, shelter use is highest in the north. Our housing prices have risen drastically in the past few years. The median rent in Whitehorse in December 2007 increased 3.7% from the previous year, and it increased again by 3.4% in September 2009. The vacancy rate for Whitehorse is 2.6%.
Women and children stay in abusive relationships because there is nowhere else to go. The Department of Indian Affairs social assistance rates have not risen in 10 years and lag behind current territorial rates. Present rates for shelter, food, and the bare necessities leave women caught between paying the rent and feeding themselves and their children.
As in the rest of Canada, lone-parent families headed by women are disproportionately represented among the poor. The situation for aboriginal women is even worse, with 73% of lone-parent mothers living below the low-income cutoff in 2000.
Employment inequities, discrimination, and part-time and seasonal work are the ingredients of poverty and homelessness. We must stop punishing and penalizing women in poverty and help women break the cycle. Poverty forces women to make decisions no one should have to make. Women lose their children to the child welfare system if they do not have adequate housing or cannot afford to feed and clothe them adequately. Disabilities can condemn women and their children to a generational life of poverty.
Poverty is the enemy of sustainable growth. Poverty means more than a low or inadequate income. It means poor health, illiteracy, lack of housing, debt, addiction, deep feelings of despair, and the inability to take advantage of economic growth and opportunity.
Canada needs to address poverty through a gendered human rights lens and assist Canadians to achieve a sustainable livelihood. This would enable all citizens to cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain and enhance their capacities and assets, provide sustainable life opportunities to the next generation, and contribute to the life of their communities.
The following recommendations for the federal government would go far to reducing poverty in Canada and the Yukon. The first recommendation is for a national anti-poverty act based on human rights, sound gender analysis, and sustainable livelihoods, with targeted goals and deadlines. This would assist Canada in fulfilling our obligations to the international treaties that Canada has signed outlining the right to adequate housing and food.
Institute a national housing policy that includes a woman's needs throughout her life cycle, as well increasing funding and support to housing and homelessness initiatives. Require the territory to end the clawback of the national child benefit supplement. Raise and index the social assistance rates of the Department of Indian Affairs. Change employment insurance rules, which put seasonal and part-time workers, mostly women, at a disadvantage. Change the reliance on per-capita-based funding formulas for housing, homelessness, and social program funding to one based on need, which reflects the higher costs of living and building in the north. Involve those living in poverty in creating solutions. And finally, increase support to community organizations working to alleviate poverty, dispel myths about the poor, and change the systems that contrive to keep women trapped in the cycle of poverty, homelessness, and despair.
Thank you.