Status of Women Committee on April 26th, 2007

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

You stated that spousal assault was a serious problem and that there were many abuse victims in the community. Shelters for battered women have been set up on First Nation reserves. Do Métis women also have access to these kinds of shelters and, if so, does the system work the same way for them as it does for First Nation women? Do you live in the community at large?

[Melanie Omeniho]

It's different. Métis women often live in the large urban centres or towns. They have to use resources, especially in the area of family violence.

First off, I want to tell you that I think the definition of family violence in our community often needs to be broadened. Aboriginal women, including Métis women, suffer violence from all sorts of places. It isn't always initiated at a family unit level, to start with. When they have to go to shelters, they often go to the mainstream shelters. I've been an advocate for 20-some years for aboriginal women and Métis women in my community, and I want to tell you that when they go to the shelters at a mainstream level, it actually has two effects.

First, the mainstream women often assess their abuse based on the abuse these aboriginal women have suffered, which is often far more traumatic and aggressive. So many of the mainstream women will minimize the level of abuse they've suffered as a result of witnessing what Métis women have suffered. In that instance, I don't think it's always healthy.

But the other effect is that our women are often judged. Racism exists whether people want to admit it or not. Within those institutions, many of the workers will sit in judgment of our Métis women who go into those shelters. They are always watching them and judging them more harshly. If they need child care supports, they're not often given them, because they're afraid these women will abandon their children there, or they're afraid that alcoholism is prevalent in our community. If anybody goes out and comes back to the shelter that evening, they'll literally try to smell them and so on.

For some of our women, that's detrimental. If they're diabetic and have issues related to diabetes and are not eating properly—and often when you're in a crisis you don't—they can have odours that would be mistaken as a drinking issue. They haven't been drinking but in fact actually need support and medical attention to deal with their diabetes. Those women will be judged more harshly than a mainstream woman will be because it's based on the racism and biases people have towards aboriginal women.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Thank you.

My question is directed to either Ms. Komaksiutiksak or Ms. Dickson.

You have published a guide entitled Journey to Success -- Aboriginal Women's Business Planning Guide. Do you offer any other services to women who are interested in starting up a business? Do you have the capacity to offer such services? If not, have you taken advantage of the expanded and amended Women's Program at Status of Women Canada to apply for funding so that you can offer women the services they need to live independently?

[Jennifer Dickson]

Thank you.

We have a very small program, Journey to Success, which we help. It's a three-day program. We've developed all the materials, and it's all in Inuktitut. We do it in whatever communities we can afford to do it in. We help women become entrepreneurs. It's working, and it's very exciting. I could tell you stories, and they're wonderful.

The funding for it comes from INAC. None of it comes from Status of Women. Status of Women has been very supportive of us, though, I want to say. Through Heritage Canada we get $220,000 a year for core funding, which doesn't sound like much money, but it keeps a roof over our heads and allows us to buy the occasional computer. Status of Women also contributes a little bit to some of our abuse work. But the economic development work comes through INAC.

We have about 22 different projects. Almost all of our work takes place in the north. I'll bet you we have 15 different funders, two private sector foundations and several departments of the Canadian government.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

On the health front, like First Nations, are you also grappling with the problem of fetal alcohol syndrome?

You also mentioned micro-credit. How much money would you need initially to help women?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Madame Demers, your time is finished.

[Jennifer Dickson]

I love that question. An initial amount that we would need? I don't know, but $10 million would be just fine.

The situation in Canada's high north is at crisis level. I'm not surprised at all that your colleague raised the Sudan. Anybody who studies Canadian demographics knows that what's happening with the Inuit community is at crisis level.

The Inuit women are truly the agents of change in the north. It would be wonderful if we were serious about microcredit and about establishing something within the current banking system. It wouldn't necessarily be Pauktuutit that needs to make this happen; we aren't the economists. But we would certainly love to facilitate it; we would certainly love to help.

There's isn't a small town I know of in the north that doesn't have 20 or 25 women who, with just a little bit of help—I'm talking about microcredit and even about training—could help support their community. We all know what happens. When women get their feet under them, they don't just support themselves and buy a new car. They support the children, they support the schools, and they support the health system.

So I'm a big fan of it. I wasn't being facetious about the $10 million, but I don't know what it would take. It wouldn't take a lot. People are doing it in third world countries.

There are fewer than 60,000 Inuit in Canada. There are ridings in downtown Toronto that have more people than that in them. It's a solvable problem, and it would be just so wonderful if the government took it on and said let's make this happen.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you. I have to move to the other person to ask a question, I'm sorry.

[Jennifer Dickson]

I just wanted to say concerning the FASD question that we're very involved in it. It's one of our key files.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Okay.

Ms. Smith, for seven minutes.

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

Thank you so much. It's wonderful to see you here today. Some of your comments are very insightful and very helpful to us as a committee on the status of women. Your enthusiasm and your creativity come forward as you're speaking, and you can see your dedication to what you're doing. Thank you for taking the time to come today.

I would like to ask Ulrike Komaksiutiksak a question. You haven't had a chance to speak. I wondered whether you could take a few minutes to tell this committee what is in your heart and what you wanted to say to the committee today.

[Ulrike Komaksiutiksak, Director of Programs, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada]

I wanted to follow up on some of the discussion that has been happening.

I think we have to look at a multi-faceted approach. It's not just starting up businesses; we have to take a look at everything, from early childhood development to speaking for Inuit communities on the high rate of teenage pregnancy and sometimes the parenting that's involved in supporting a young teenage mom, which may fall to the grandmother or to the elder. There are real reasons why some of these factors are happening. So it's a multi-faceted approach.

Our Inuit Women in Business initiative at Pauktuutit takes a look at business development programs that are already out there. Inuit women aren't accessing them at the community level, and we address those gaps. Day one of the workshop is taking a look at whether you want to be an entrepreneur or not and what that entails. Some people will finish the workshop and go on to start their business. Other people will not want to do it, as it takes five years to get a successful business going, but they may want to go back to school.

We have to take a look at the housing crisis and infrastructure, or if women want to be involved in the economy but the day care shuts down because the building doesn't meet safety standards. These are the kinds of things we have to look at. Or if the day care wants to serve country food, and many of our people depend on country food, but it might not be allowed in the day care because it has to be flown to Toronto to get safety inspected, depending on which Inuit community it is. I would say to the committee that we need to address it with a multi-faceted approach.

When we speak in terms of the Status of Women, right now Pauktuutit is working on culturally relevant models to address abuse in the way that communities see it to reduce the incidents of violence in our communities and the tolerance of it.

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

I have another question. I only have seven minutes, but I'm glad I asked you. I can tell you were just waiting to tell us, and this is very good.

We're very proud of the fact that Status of Women right now is trying to get women in all sectors of society to have full participation. There's been a lot of money put into programming. You can get an application through the government to initiate funding for programs.

What strikes me is that a lot of your programs are grassroots and very helpful to women on the ground. For instance, when you said there's a lot of young pregnancies and young women needing to find out how to parent, about nutrition, and things like that, have you applied for the funding in this area? This would be ideal for you.

[Jennifer Dickson]

We're in very close conversation with our colleagues at the Status of Women, and we do discuss potentials and they do tell us. I don't know if this committee knows this, but I mentioned earlier that we get our core funding from Heritage Canada, which is the other part, but that's all changing. They're losing that, and it's going to INAC now. I'm told that we will have less access to Status of Women.

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

Who told you that?

[Jennifer Dickson]

The Status of Women people.

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

Who are those Status of Women people? I'm on the committee and I've never been told that. How would you have less access?

[Jennifer Dickson]

The public servants who we work with are saying, “We had a fund last year to look at this, that, and the other, but we don't have that fund this year, so don't bother.”

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

Did they tell you about the new funding?

[Jennifer Dickson]

No. I don't know about any new funding with the Status of Women.

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

I'm telling you today that there is funding for women who start on-the-ground programs. What we're trying to do is make sure that there are pockets of money that you can apply for. It's more than pockets of money; it's millions of dollars, actually. The program funding that was there is still there, and then we added $5 million on top of that.

We want to see if people do apply for it. Certainly, we would encourage you to do that. I'm hearing from all across Canada from different associations that are saying, “Thank you. We've never been funded before.” They just have this little program working with parents to teach them how to properly feed their children. A lot of volunteer stuff has been done for years. Someone said something about having that little bit of money was a great asset because people use that money very effectively. I would encourage you, because I'm here.

[Jennifer Dickson]

I will, before this day is out.

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

Please, you should take a look at it at Status of Women. There's no guarantee you will get all the things you want, but apply for it.

[Jennifer Dickson]

It's on the website?

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

The application form is on the website.

The other thing I wanted to ask about was your very interesting presentation, Melanie, on Métis women identifying the barriers, recognizing your strengths, and finding solutions. You said that one of the goals was to bring down barriers. Then you started to cite some of the barriers. I would agree with you, racism is there, alive and well.

What are some of the things you're doing right now to make people aware this is happening and that it is unacceptable? How do you teach the victims of racism to realize who they are and that they don't have the problem but the other person does? Are there any programs or anything else for this?