Evidence of meeting #50 for Status of Women in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was community.
January 20th, 2011 / 9:30 a.m.
Liberal
Anita Neville Liberal Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
We're here as part of the federal committee on the status of women, and my question to each of you, recognizing jurisdiction—and jurisdictional issues often get in the way—what would be your primary message or recommendation to us? Identify one thing that we, as federal politicians, can bring forward in this report or do for you.
Manager, Abuse Prevention Policy and Programs, Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association
More money for programming and projects on the ground, and getting federal moneys to the provinces and territories to make sure that resources are in each and every community the way they should be.
Executive Director, YWCA Yellowknife; Representative, Northwest Territories Coalition Against Family Violence
In addition to housing, I would say money for community development...how important it is, how critical it is. The distances even to travel to communities are so great, and women want support and assistance with that.
Liberal
Manager, Clinical Supervisor, Community Mental Health and Addictions, Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority
I would say increased support for programming for both men's and women's shelters around the education, so the psycho-education piece for both men and women.
Executive Director, Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories
I think it's important for the committee to consider that services need to be equitable and accessible to all the women, so even if you are in a remote location, you should still be safe and have services available to you.
Liberal
Anita Neville Liberal Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Sandra, at the end just now, you raised a larger issue, the issue of elder abuse and the disagreement, I guess, between generations. How prevalent is that, and how is elder abuse manifested?
Manager, Abuse Prevention Policy and Programs, Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association
Actually, we're just currently undertaking some work to find out the rate of prevalence of elder abuse. An educated guess would be that it's exceptionally high in the communities. It's manifested in elders not having enough food to eat. Their basic needs are not being met. I just came, actually, from Inuvik, and there was an elder, a 69-year-old woman, who was taken to the emergency shelter there because her son was physically abusing her because she wasn't able to give him more money. And this is something we hear consistently across the country. Again, it's not something that's often spoken about in the communities, but it's rampant. It's going to be the next epidemic.
Liberal
Manager, Abuse Prevention Policy and Programs, Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association
No.
Manager, Abuse Prevention Policy and Programs, Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association
It can be the woman or the man, whoever it is that has the income coming in. Typically, it's the older person whose name is on the lease and who has the most stable income coming in, so we're seeing it with both male and female elders. The numbers are rising, and more and more are going to shelters.
Liberal
Conservative
Dona Cadman Conservative Surrey North, BC
Lorraine, I know what this term means, but maybe some of my elder colleagues don't. Could you tell us what “couch surfing” is?
Executive Director, Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories
Oh, sorry. Because of the cold weather or just the nature of Yellowknifers, women and children who have no place to live are often taken in by relatives or friends, and they just stay there. They don't have beds. They don't really have a spot in the family, but they're allowed to stay there because they have nowhere else to go. Oftentimes, because of the overcrowding or however many social issues, they're moving from house to house with really no place to go, sometimes getting food where they can through the shelter systems, but really not having a home for themselves or their children.
Conservative
Dona Cadman Conservative Surrey North, BC
Thank you.
How large a problem is child apprehension? Is it a big problem up here? It seems to be a big problem every place we've talked. Is it big up here too?
Any of you, please go ahead.
Manager, Community and Family Services, Child Protection Program, Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority
Since I work in that area, I'll speak from my experience.
It's definitely higher than we'd like it to be. Taking any child into care is totally against my belief. However, there are situations in which a parent is unable to provide for them at a given time, and we have to provide alternate arrangements for them. It is very difficult to find foster homes, to find families that will take in children, so it's always a struggle for us. And as much as people think we take children without reason, we have to really prove a case to the courts. So it's not that we do that flippantly.
There are a lot of children still living with families even though people might question us about why we're leaving those children there, but my experience--and I've been in this field for a very long time--is that you try to maintain that connection with family. One of the things I've found living in the north as opposed to what I found when I lived in Ontario is that the children always know their family members. They're here, and they eventually go back to them when they reach the age of 16. So if we can do anything to maintain that relationship, that's definitely what we do. But, yes, there are situations in which addictions are involved and violence is involved, and we do have to remove children for their protection.
Manager, Abuse Prevention Policy and Programs, Pauktuutit Inuit Women's Association
Just speaking further on what Sheila was saying, one thing that we're noticing is that a lot of women are now not choosing the option of going to shelters because of fear of their children being apprehended.
I want to bring to this committee's attention a situation I just became aware of. There is one shelter here in the Northwest Territories that provides double duty. They are an emergency foster placement/women's emergency shelter. Can you imagine the trauma on a child who's been apprehended from his or her own home—usually, violence is somehow related to that—to live in the same facility where a woman may be coming in beaten, bruised, and bleeding? This particular shelter, and God bless those shelter directors, is a 50-year-old building. We shouldn't be in a situation where the resources are so limited that we have to put them together.
