Status of Women Committee on May 3rd, 2010

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

There are two. We're dealing with the Minister of Justice at the moment.

Mr. Dreeshen.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

I was actually going to speak to the second motion as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Maybe Mr. Calandra wishes to speak to the motion on the table.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

I wonder if Madam Demers would accept a friendly amendment, just to remove the word “June”. That way we could schedule it when we have time and we're not specifically--

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

That is fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We have agreement by the mover.

There being no further discussion, I'm going to call the question.

It's a friendly amendment. Madame Demers has accepted it.

The motion would read:

That the committee ask the Minister of Justice to appear before the committee to explain what he intends to do with the $10 million that was transferred to his department to deal with the high number of aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered.

(Motion agreed to)

It's unanimously agreed to. The motion has passed.

The next motion from Madame Demers is:

That the Committee ask the Minister of Health to appear before the Committee between now and June to explain what she intends to do with the money that was transferred to her department for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

I would like Ms. Demers to quickly introduce her motion with whatever she'd like to say.

Ms. Demers.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Madam Chair, it is somewhat specific. Since the Aboriginal Healing Foundation does not receive the money it used to get over the last 10 years, some of the shelters for Aboriginal women, victims of violence, funded by the foundation can no longer operate.

So I wanted the Minister of Health to provide clarifications. I wanted her to tell us what she is planning to do with the money that was supposed to go to the foundation, but that was given back to the Department of Health. Perhaps there is a very good reason and I would like to know what that is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Mr. Dreeshen.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you very much.

I think I am on the right motion.

Madam Chair, this has been covered at the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. We've had a lot of discussion just this last week. We did have Health Canada officials in, so perhaps the committee might consider receiving some of that information, as far as it pertains to your concerns, and then we wouldn't be overlapping.

I think a lot of what had been discussed and what you're suggesting has been dealt with in these last few sessions that we've had. I would make the suggestion that perhaps you either wait or just look at the materials.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Dreeshen.

Madame Deschamps.

Now we're speaking to the health issue.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Yes, I would like to add something to that.

Last week, I attended a meeting of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development and officials from the department were there. The answers to the questions were quite confused, especially when we asked them how those funds would be allocated given the work the foundation was doing and that now will have to be handled in another way.

There is great concern since the foundation is no longer funded. It would be interesting if the minister came to let us know about her intentions about those funds.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Ms. Neville.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you.

I too was at the meeting, Madam Chair, and was not satisfied with the answers from Health Canada. At least six projects were funded by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and I suspect there were more that had some involvement with violence against women and aboriginal women. The officials from Health Canada indicated how the moneys were going into Health Canada. They certainly did not address the full complement of programming that was done under the Aboriginal Healing Foundation funding, and there's clearly a significant gap.

My concern with this motion and the previous motion is not only timing. I was part of the health committee discussions on another issue, and ministers were invited and simply refused to come. So I would say let's invite the minister. I want to know. One of the grants was actually in her own community where the funding was. What Health Canada is doing is in no way making up for the disparity and the lack of funding under the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

So I would support--

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You are speaking for the motion but you are concerned about timing.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Timing, and whether in fact they'll come.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I appreciate the comment that you didn't feel fully apprised of what was going on, but I do believe the right place to have that discussion, in that you have started a foundation, is to continue to build on that foundation within the aboriginal affairs community, as opposed to our committee going in. For that reason, I will vote against this particular motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

To Mr. Dreeshen, when is the aboriginal affairs committee expected to report back? Can we delay it until we see their report? Then we could consider that report as part of our work. As opposed to getting them in here and repeating everything, why don't we go on the basis of what is tabled at that committee?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Demers, would you respond to the question?

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Madam Chair, it is because they have already appeared and we did not get the answers we wanted from them.

The foundation no longer exists, Cathy. It closed down due to lack of money. That is what Ms. Quinn told us last time. Since the foundation is shut down, we cannot rely on it for answers anymore. It no longer exists.

But, as to the deadline, like we did with the other motion, I would be ready to remove the wording “between now and June”, so that the motion simply asks the Minister to appear before the committee. If my colleague wants to make a friendly amendment, it would be my pleasure to accept it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You are amending your own motion, so it doesn't have to be friendly. You could dislike yourself as much as you want, Ms. Demers.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

As you wish, Madam Chair. I can be friendly to myself and remove the wording.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

So the committee will have the Minister of Health to appear before the committee to explain what she intends--and between now and June has been removed, so the timeline has gone.

Mr. Dreeshen, you had your hand up. Did you wish to add anything further to that?

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Well, this is your committee and what you might wish to study. Coming in here new, I'm not going to suggest I know where you wish to go with it. But I do know that with the overall discussions we've had we've certainly talked about the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, the types of things being done in the community, and the fact that it was a sunsetted clause for the healing foundations. So I think it's significant that we have taken it on in aboriginal affairs to study that. Where you wish to go beyond that is up to you.