I'll carry on for the remaining time. My comments will focus on the needs of young women in northern communities, drawing on findings from CRIAW's FemNorthNet project, of which I am the director.
FemNorthNet is a research alliance focused on three northern communities: La Loche, Saskatchewan; Thompson, Manitoba; and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. We are working closely with women in Labrador West, as well.
The network includes municipal officials, community-based organizations, national organizations, and researchers from universities across the country. It is supported primarily by SSHRC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which CRIAW turned to for funding when Status of Women Canada stopped funding research. As well, we have funding from Status of Women Canada for the leadership development we are doing with these community partners and with women in these northern communities.
Our research here in FemNorthNet is revealing a desperate need for investment in a range of social infrastructure to support young women and improve their economic prospects, especially those in northern communities. The federal government has a key role to play here, both in providing leadership in investing and in encouraging other levels of government to invest in the range of social infrastructure that will support the economic prospects of young women in northern communities.
We're particularly wanting to focus on the need for federal investments in affordable housing, post-secondary education, child care, and health and social services to provide the supports young women in northern communities need to improve their economic prospects.
I imagine that it's no surprise to you that there is a crisis in terms of a lack of affordable housing, especially in northern communities, and especially in booming northern communities, where we're engaged. House prices are skyrocketing, and homelessness is also increasing alarmingly. This particularly hits young women, right? It's a particular concern for young women, leaving some of the people we work with calling for improved services for youth as a top priority. For example, in Thompson, the crisis centre has found that women who use their crisis shelter routinely have to return to their abusers, as there is no housing available to them.
How are young women to escape violent relationships or move out of their family homes and become economically independent and start families without affordable housing? Our recommendation is that the federal government really needs to get back to playing a role and to directly providing affordable and accessible housing so that young women can stay in their communities and improve their economic prospects there.
Post-secondary education is also extremely important. We all know how important it is for improving the prospects of young women. In the north, there are particular problems. Often you cannot get post-secondary education in your community, or if it is offered there, there's a very limited range of programs. Young women in northern communities normally have to leave their communities and travel great distances to southern locations, where they are really cut off from family and friends and both emotional and financial support. In some cases, such as the community of La Loche, Saskatchewan, which we are working with, which is primarily Dene-speaking, it's also about aboriginal students moving to a community where the language is totally different and where there are very few supports.
A really positive model we've uncovered, or that has come to our attention through our work, is the University College of the North, in Thompson, Manitoba. There, there's an expansion of the program. It is not only providing education for people in the north, it's providing good employment rates. It's also helping to diversify the economy, especially as Vale is closing its smelter, and 400 jobs will be lost in that community.
We recommend that the federal government support the establishment and expansion of post-secondary education in northern communities.
Child care is also extremely important for young women to be able to work for pay or get training or go to school. In a recent study in northern Manitoba, seven out of ten women said that the lack of child care was their number one obstacle to getting a post-secondary education. It's clear. Providing child care is really important if we want young women to be able to get post-secondary education and move on to better jobs.
Health and social services is a final area I want to touch on. There are certainly others that demand attention in northern communities, but this is another area where there is a strong need: a need for health, social services, and particularly mental health, addiction services, and supports to the disabled.