I simply want to add something on the issue of the federal and provincial governments.
When we live in a province, in Quebec, for example, and you come from an aboriginal community, you often wind up stuck in this opposition between the federal and provincial governments. It's every day; it's constant.
With regard to consultations, who's in the best position? We, the aboriginal peoples, know our history, our situation and what our needs are. It's important to take the time to consult. Often there's very little consultation of the aboriginal populations about their situation. I believe they know it very well.
At the time, we had a health system, a political system and a way of doing things. Today they think we are unable to take care of our people. And yet, as regards existing aboriginal resources, as I told you a little earlier, there are only 12 safe houses, but there are 58 communities, if you count the Inuit communities.
The comparison is always made with the non-aboriginal population. There are approximately 90 safe houses for the Quebec people, whereas there are only 12 aboriginal safe houses. When you know that there is three times as much violence in our communities, that's not right.
In the case of these aboriginal resources, the caseworkers are aboriginal, and they speak the language. They say that, to be a caseworker, you have to speak the language, but it takes more than that. It's the approach you use.
In the non-aboriginal safe houses, they talk a lot about feminist approaches, and women are encouraged to find a certain self-sufficiency when they are victims of violence. They are encouraged to take care of themselves. They often talk about being self-sufficient and taking care of themselves. However, we don't talk like that to aboriginal women. These women don't want to leave their husbands. They want to unite the family. In their minds, when you're married, you're married for life.
That's why the resources, including the safe houses that assist women, aren't the choice. You also have to help the man and the family. That's why we have to provide truly appropriate assistance. We must no longer see this break between the federal and the provincial levels.
With regard to funding, the safe houses are a good example. Since 2000, Quebec Native Women Inc., or QNW, has exercised a lot of pressure for increased funding for safe houses. I'd like to provide an update of that information.
We've been exercising pressure since 2000. Yes, funding has increased, but, at the same time, at the time when we were making demands, the gap between the provincial funding received by the aboriginal safe houses and that received by Quebec safe houses was $100,000. The more the gap increased, the more we demanded that it be corrected. At one point, the gap was $300,000.
The federal government announced an increase in funding for safe houses and basic funding was increased in 2008. So we've come back to the original gap of $100,000. That's currently the gap that exists between safe houses governed by the provincial government and those regulated by the federal level. That's a flagrant example.
And yet, those houses assist people in crisis, who are trying to commit suicide, substance abusers and the families of disappeared women. It isn't just a matter of awareness and assistance for women victims of violence.