Status of Women Committee on June 1st, 2006

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

And that association looks after Aboriginal women, does it not?

[Florence Ievers]

It is an Aboriginal women's group that is Canada-wide, including Quebec.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Does the money go directly to women groups, or is it for managing an entity?

[Florence Ievers]

The $1 million in total goes directly to the Native Women's Association of Canada, the role of which is to do research to assess the scope and causes of the problem of missing women and violence against Aboriginal women. These are truly race-based studies.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

So that is for research too?

[Florence Ievers]

No. The money is also used to conduct an awareness campaign for government, individuals, and groups that are doing research on violence, as well police services throughout the country, to make them aware of the specific dimensions these women face. It is also used to influence and guide governments so that their policies do a better job of meeting the needs of Aboriginal women.

Aboriginal, Inuit, and Metis women in Canada are also part of the program. The association must also look at how, at the end of the five-year period, these women will be able to continue this work without government funding.

So that is part of the work they will be doing over the next five years. Evaluations are scheduled over the years to ensure that things are going well.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Which means that some of the 44% of the budget that is provided to women's groups can also go to aboriginal women, in addition to the $1 million.

[Florence Ievers]

Absolutely.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

I may be wrong, but has there not been a major increase in the Women's Program budget in the past few years?

[Florence Ievers]

There has been no change in the budget.

In 2000, the government provided Status of Women Canada with funding to undertake certain projects and to take part in the Women's Program. Today, that would represent an annual increase of $2.5 million compared to 1999.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

However, as I understand it, there has not been a major increase in the past two years.

[Florence Ievers]

No, but in 2005, the program was ahead by $2.5 million over the 1999 budget.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

That's true, but quite a bit of time had elapsed between 1999 and 2005. I understand that the Women's Program needs much more funding than one might expect in order to meet the needs of a number of women's groups.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Mourani, I'm sorry, but you'll have to save some of that maybe for the next round.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Could I please have an answer to the question?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Okay.

[Florence Ievers]

You can ask the minister about that. Forty-four per cent of our budget is already earmarked for women's groups and groups that promote gender equality. That is a lot of money.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Ievers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Smith.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I want to thank you very much for your insightful presentation. It's gratifying to see what your organization is doing and how attentive you are to the needs of women, both in gender-based analysis and particularly regarding the aboriginal aspect. So many of our aboriginal people in Canada are facing challenges on the reserve.

I was very interested in what you had to say about the marriage rights. In our committee, we had a very clear discussion, and members on all sides of the House agreed that this is an issue we really have to address. The Senate came up with a report, which I'd be very happy to share with everyone around the table. Also, there's another report by the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. There's been a lot of study.

Could you please give an outline pertaining to women, specifically for us—I know there are some new commitee members—particularly about the challenges that women and children are facing on the reserves right now, in 2006, and about why the work you're doing is so important, so the quality of their lives can be improved?

[Florence Ievers]

It's clear that the quality of life of aboriginal women as a whole across Canada.... You mentioned on reserve, where there's a deplorable situation, and the federal government is responsible there for their welfare and their well-being.

That's why at Status of Women Canada, we were pleased that the consultations we held last year confirmed our views that focusing some of our attention on aboriginal women and particularly on violence was important. You talked a bit about conditions on reserves. Women who live on reserves are much more vulnerable to violence and family violence, and those are issues that the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers have decided to look at.

I see that in the government's budget, $450 million has been earmarked to improve water supply and housing on reserve, as well as education outcomes that will benefit aboriginal women, children, and all of their families. This is a step in the right direction.

We will continue to do our work. As you may know, we held a conference of federal, provincial, and territorial ministers at the end of March to look at how governments can look at their policies and programs to improve them by taking into account the dimensions and realities of aboriginal women, both on and off reserve.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Florence, I was so impressed with the practicalities of what your organization is doing: getting down to the grassroots, looking at the realities of how people live day-to-day, and making those recommendations and coming forth with those ideas.

Could you be more specific? I know one issue we discussed around this table was property rights for aboriginal women, in the event of a marriage breakdown?

[Florence Ievers]

I said that last year we partnered with INAC to develop information. Often what happens with aboriginal and other groups of women is they're not aware of their rights—and they do have rights. Although the situation with aboriginal women and matrimonial property is bigger than just sharing information, we felt that this was a good first step, at least in making sure that aboriginal women know what their rights are.

We will be continuing to work with INAC, as they continue to look at this issue. We were pleased that INAC has indicated recently that they will be looking at this issue. We will continue to partner with them to ensure that the gender differences and the gender dimension of their work in this regard benefits from the knowledge and expertise that we have on the situation of aboriginal women.

[Joy Smith, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Further to that, I think what we're talking about, Florence, is the fact that there's a difference between aboriginal people who live on reserve and the ones who live off reserve. The matrimonial property rights are very abysmal; aboriginal women actually have very little rights on reserve. Could you elaborate on that?

Maybe I should backtrack a little bit, but I had occasion to visit a reserve a short while ago and was talking to some of the women there. In actual fact, a lot of them don't feel they have any rights and fear their marriages breaking down, because they could lose their homes. Could you elaborate on that a bit?

[Florence Ievers]

I think it would be difficult for me to do so this morning, but if you would like, we could provide you with some information at a later date, and have persons who are knowledgeable about these issues and who have done some research come and tell you more about how we have worked on that, what we've noticed, and where there might be areas of solution.