Thank you very much.
I intend to make some brief opening remarks on the issue of the economic well-being of girls and women, particularly pertaining to my work as representative for children and youth.
In that role, I advocate and support children and youth up to the age of 19 in the province of British Columbia. In particular, I work with vulnerable populations of young people, such as children and youth in government care due to child welfare concerns. I work with young people with special and developmental needs, and also complex mental health needs.
I also work closely with aboriginal girls and women. I highlight that because these are populations of young girls and young women who have particular vulnerabilities, such as living outside the parental home and being highly susceptible to economic disadvantage, from having been raised in poverty or transitioning into adulthood in poverty.
I want to talk about some of the factors that I see in their lives that present some long-term challenges to their social and economic mobility and to their safety. I will touch on a few, and then of course be available to answer any questions, should you have any.
I have a few general statistics about that population. British Columbia had a child and youth population of about 900,000 in 2011, or about 20% of the province's total population. Of this child and youth population, about 13,000 to 15,000 of those young people live out of the parental home. Some of them are in state care. Some of them are living independently before the age of maturity. More than half of the children in care are aboriginal children in British Columbia, which is disproportionate compared to their percentage of the overall population.
As for the children who are aging out of the case system, young women in particular, about 4,000 children in the past three years were discharged from care. Every month in British Columbia, about 57 young people are discharged from care because they turn 19. Many of them are aboriginal youth, in particular young women. We have a very strong interest in their doing well when the state is the parent and being as successful as they would be if they were raised in a parental home.
As to some of the vulnerabilities of the population of young women we're talking about, poor and low educational attainment is a significant and ongoing concern. We see from our detailed studies of the educational outcomes of vulnerable children, such as aboriginal children, children in care, and young people living out of parental home, that they are not developing the same level of achievement in the public school system. They are not achieving grade four, grade seven, or high school with their peers. For example, aboriginal students generally perform 15% to 18% lower on the standardized foundational skills assessment in British Columbia. Grade four is the first level. In grade seven, their performance goes down. The performance in the high school mandatory examinations declines.
Although British Columbia has better aboriginal outcomes than many other provinces, we're still looking at only about 42% of the aboriginal girls in care who are graduating. That's a significant lag compared to, say, 83% of the girls who are not in state care.
Another broad factor that makes these young women and girls more vulnerable in terms of their economic and social mobility is the ongoing issue of poverty. British Columbia has the highest incidence of child poverty based on any measure, whether it be the market basket measure or other measures adopted by Statistics Canada.
There are about 100,000 children living in low-income homes in British Columbia. In particular, I focus again on the aboriginal population. By the most recent available data in B.C., 58% of lone-parent families headed by an aboriginal woman had an annual income of less than $20,000, and only 7% had an annual income of $50,000 or above. We see the grinding impacts of parental poverty on children and their lack of social inclusion, lack of support and progress with respect to school achievement, and also issues around their health and well-being.
Another area I will comment on is issues pertaining to violence, which affect the social and economic mobility of girls and women.
With regard to girls and women's exposure to domestic violence, I know that in a previous incarnation this committee did an extremely valuable report on aboriginal family violence that pointed out some concerns. Certainly in my role as a representative for children and youth, children who witness family violence are harmed by it as if they experienced it themselves, which places them at risk. It certainly doesn't mean that there is a one-to-one relationship between that and poverty and a poor outcome, but active measures to support their resilience and well-being to prevent violence, and the duty to support victims of violence, are very significant issues in our social service system. We see significant frailties there for aboriginal girls and women in particular.
Whether they're off reserve or on reserve, the system of support is not as strong. The criminal justice system is not necessarily as responsive. The social services and supports to girls and women are not adequate, and as a result they can experience significant disadvantage. In fact all girls and women exposed to domestic violence experience certain disadvantages, but I would point out aboriginal girls and women particularly.
In terms of other forms of violence and exploitation, certainly in my work as representative I'm very aware of the impact of sexualized violence and sexual exploitation of girls and women. In my role, I receive reports of children known to the Ministry of Children and Family Development in British Columbia where there is an allegation of a sexual assault. As a matter of course I receive these reports and investigate them, and periodically I do investigative or aggregate reports on them.
If I could give you a snapshot of the last fiscal year, I've received reports of 62 sexual assaults regarding youth. About 15% of all the reports that I receive are sexual assaults on girls. Of these, 90% were assaults on females—some were assaults on males, but 90% were on females—and 66% of them were aboriginal girls. Aboriginal girls and women are three or more times likely to be the victim of violence from a partner, and sexualized violence in particular.
This continues to be an area requiring deeper examination in terms the core relation between the harm inflicted and later well-being. Understanding the social and economic issues behind someone's vulnerability to violence and having coordinated responses and supports to boost their resilience are very significant.
The final point I will draw to your attention as we look at things like health, well-being, economics, and the social mobility of girls and women are some concerns that I see in my office around access to mental health support. Where there are girls and women who have experienced trauma through adverse childhood experiences, whether that's abuse, deep poverty and social exclusion or the presence of an underlying mental disorder apart from trauma-related disorders, the ability to access and receive adequate early mental health supports and general health supports is a significant factor.
It's not uncommon for me in my advocacy role to work with girls and women who do not have family physicians, do not have referrals to mental health supports and services, and who are therefore not participating fully in their community or developing fully as children should.
If we want to improve the economic prospects for Canadian girls and women, while the prospects are generally very good across the society, I think we need to pay particular attention to some deeply vulnerable groups of girls and women. We need to use the evidence we know is available to develop and innovate with more effective approaches in our social policy and community development approaches so that we can adequately engage and support girls and women so that they will have better outcomes.
I haven't spoken a lot about this, but I'd certainly be happy to do so in response to any questions.
Here I would note that we have the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.The processes pursuant to that convention have made some significant findings about Canada's progress in supporting vulnerable populations of women and girls, such as aboriginal girls and women.
We also have the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Mechanisms under that convention have also made some pointed references about Canada's ability to plan and respond to some of the deep inequalities for women and girls.