Status of Women Committee on Nov. 20th, 2014

[Kimberly Elmslie]

—and ensure that you get some samples from the children's program.

Just on that point, from a public health perspective the evidence shows that the earlier you start to intervene in at-risk families and children, the better. That's why these children's programs are working so far upstream, to get at positive parenting for families who are in the most vulnerable situations. These target single parent families of low socio-economic standing in high conditions of risk. That's why we feel from a public health perspective that the way we can add value is to move upstream and look at prevention, look at boys and girls in preschool and at school age, so that we're able to correct it before it happens.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Linda, I have a quick question for you. It has to do with the cyber violence, which of course we're all aware of. We've been working on this for the last year and a half to two years. I know that Status of Women had a call for proposals and we funded some of the projects. You may not know this off the top of your head either, but do you recall a really good project that was funded that might be included as a best practice for cyber violence?

[Linda Savoie]

I liked a number of them, and I'm a bit reluctant to toss one out there, because these projects are still under way. They're fairly new, in fact, because even if they were selected about a year ago—

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

They're not finished and evaluated.

[Linda Savoie]

—it takes some ramping-up time. At this point, we've connected project proponents from the different groups that are working on this to get them to exchange among themselves. We're still at a point where the projects could shift a fair bit, because they're acquiring knowledge, and so I'm a little bit....

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

Sure. Do I have any time left?

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

No.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

That's it. That was fast.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Ashton, the floor is yours. You have seven minutes.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Thank you very much to all of our witnesses for coming today and starting us off on this very important study.

I have a number of questions and obviously not much time, so I ask you to keep your answers succinct.

First, we're looking here at comprehensive ways of preventing and ending violence against women. Increasingly, more and more voices in the violence against women community have been calling for a national action plan to end violence against women.

Madam Savoie, is Status of Women responding to that call? Is there any work being done in your department when it comes to looking at the possibility of creating a national action plan? What do national action plans in other parts of the world of like-minded countries look like? Is there any work happening on this front currently in your department?

[Linda Savoie]

Part of our mandate is certainly to continuously monitor what's happening in that field. We are aware of the various action plans that exist internationally and in various provinces, and we are responsive to our government's direction on this. At this point, as you know, our individual efforts are focused more on implementing in our spheres and in a coordinated manner various initiatives that address the different forms of violence. But as you know there is no government policy for a national action plan at this time.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Okay. Thank you very much.

Again to Status of Women, obviously we have heard that one of the major risk factors for experiencing violence is being aboriginal. With the cuts to funding of Sisters in Spirit, an organization that did work that falls entirely within the mandate of what we're looking at and studying today—awareness, prevention, etc.—I'm wondering if there is any clear beacon in the form of an organization that is being supported that deals only with indigenous women and that is focused on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women in our country today.

[Linda Savoie]

As you all know, the Native Women's Association of Canada is very much an expert in the field of violence against aboriginal women. At Status of Women Canada we've had a consistent funding relationship with them. Since 2005 we have funded this organization every single year. Not only did we fund the Sisters in Spirit initiative but we funded the follow-through, the projects called Evidence to Action. Even this year we're continuing our investments, because we believe in the expertise and the importance of NWAC's voice in successfully addressing this issue. We've been a consistent funding partner.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

I appreciate that, but in the absence of Sisters in Spirit, it falls to NWAC in general, with reduced funding, to deal with this. I think it's important to point that out, but thank you for your feedback.

I'll turn now to Statistics Canada. Thank you very much for sharing some pretty shocking numbers, including the figure that shows that sexual violence remains stagnant in Canada while other forms of violence decrease. As a result, I think that also points to the need for our committee to pay particular attention to sexual violence as a form of violence against women. I felt it was a comprehensive presentation but pretty slim in terms of talking about risk factors, and that's ultimately what we're trying to get at here in this committee.

I'm looking at page 12, where it talks about risk factors for non-spousal violence, and I see no mention of socio-economic conditions. It seems a bit strange to me that we refer to living in a community with social disorder and examples of vandalism and noise as being risk factors. Are we getting at, perhaps, poverty or low-income housing as being a situation in which you might see more violence? We know women of all socio-economic backgrounds experience violence, but in this case I think we're speaking to a socio-economic status that we're not explicitly explaining. I'm wondering if you could share some information on that.

[Kathy AuCoin, Chief, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics , Statistics Canada]

We gave you a list of publications, and in it there is some information on low income and its impact. When we're looking at small sub-populations and want to do a factor analysis, we sometimes can't do as much as we would like to do. There are some indicators that low income is a risk factor, but we had 10 minutes. We put in as much as we could, but “Measuring violence against women: statistical trends” will capture all of it. When we say aboriginal, is it aboriginal or low income and other demographic variables? Again, when we start getting to small subsets, we're limited by the numbers and the data. So your point is valid.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Thank you very much.

Turning to the Public Health Agency, there was considerable focus on maternal health in today's presentation. I appreciate the strong connection between mothers and their children being well and family relationships being on better ground.

I wonder whether you could explain why, for example, the strengthening families program in Manitoba that is offered on 16 first nations has been told to wrap up by the end of this fiscal year, despite countless examples of success of the program, despite the fact that it's a program led and delivered by first nations, that works with 16 first nations, all of which have tremendous risk factors when it comes to maternal health and also incidents of violence.

Given the emphasis from the Public Health Agency, why is it that communities in Manitoba, for example, are hanging by a thread under threat that such a successful program will be cut?

[Kimberly Elmslie]

I'm assuming you're referring to a Health Canada program that deals with first nations on reserve.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Yes.

[Kimberly Elmslie]

That is a question the committee would need to refer to my colleagues in Health Canada's first nation and Inuit health branch.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Perfect, and I appreciate that. Thank you for the correction.

I'm wondering, though, where your focus on maternal health is, even though Health Canada clearly is involved.

[Kimberly Elmslie]

Our focus is on all Canadians. In the context of aboriginal peoples, we work off reserve to complement the work that our Health Canada colleagues do on reserve.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill, MB]

Perfect. I appreciate it.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you very much.

Mrs. O'Neill Gordon, the floor is yours. You have seven minutes.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

I want to thank all of you for being here with us today. You have given us lots of great information to add to our study, a study that we are certainly focused on, looking for the best ideas.

My first question is for Kim. You mentioned to my colleague the different programs. It is so true that it is important to create a positive environment and that this must be established at a very early age. I have been a teacher of very young kids and I can see the importance of starting at that age as well.

Can you outline some of the action programs for the children that you undertake and that give a more positive environment? What are some of the problems that you encounter, and what are some of the positive results? I'm sure you see lots of positive results from the work you're doing.

[Kimberly Elmslie]

Absolutely, we do. Through our three children's programs, specifically the community action program for children, the Canada prenatal nutrition program, and the aboriginal head start in urban and northern communities program, we're focusing on supporting local community-based needs to help high-risk children and families develop their positive esteem and positive emotional and resilience skills.

Resilience is becoming more and more important in the literature as a fundamental skill for children to have to enable them to overcome negative situations in their environment. We focus on positive parenting. We focus on building resilience. We focus on healthy nutrition and physical activity. We focus on all of the things that a well-rounded individual needs in order to have the most positive mental and physical health outcomes.

Those programs differ across the country because they're tailored to the particular communities they're serving. In the head start program, for example, we are offering programs that are designed to allow children going into the school system to be at their optimal mental and physical health so they can learn readily and be very productive and culturally adapted parts of their communities going forward. Our aboriginal programs are very focused on cultural identity and bringing that to kids and into the school system.

The evaluations for these programs have shown very positive results in terms of, in early ages, moms continuing breastfeeding, which again is very important to early child development in the attachment between mothers and children. Also, we don't forget boys and men in the context of these programs, because they, as you all will know very well, are really important to the overall supportive environments that avoid having violence and abuse happening in families.

I hope you will invite some representatives from those programs to come to this table. I'd be glad to give you some names of people who could take you right into the world they're dealing with in terms of at-risk families and the way these kids flourish when they come out of these programs because of the support they have received and because of the reinforcement of the values they bring to their communities. It's a beautiful thing to see.