Status of Women Committee on Nov. 25th, 2014

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank you all for being here and for offering us such great advice and words of wisdom. Our committee is working very hard to accomplish our many focuses and objectives.

Prior to being elected to the Hill, I worked as a teacher with students on a reserve. I worked one on one with special needs children. I certainly congratulate you for the many programs you've put in place. I certainly see the need for these programs, as does anybody who works on a reserve or in any school.

Another thing I wanted to point out to you is something that you probably already know. I personally saw the work of the teachers and the RCMP and any of the adults who came into these schools and offered extra help and extra time. We need all of these services for the children.

One thing I would note is that students at an early age certainly look up to these people. They admire the RCMP. They admire any of us who are there for them, because they need this. They certainly do consider your words of advice as being very important. I think the young boys do, especially. We sometimes need to focus on young boys and try to get them on the right track so that they're not following in the same footsteps in terms of what's going on in their homes.

My first question is to the RCMP. As we all know, and we're very happy to see, the RCMP administers national crime prevention services. I'm wondering if you could please clarify for the committee what these services are, the ones you're the happiest with because of their success, the ones that seem to really benefit the children, and where you have seen these ones work as the best for their community.

Any of you can really answer that, but I was going to focus first on the RCMP.

[Supt Tyler Bates]

Thank you for your question.

Certainly there are myriad crime prevention services and supports to the front lines that are noteworthy. With respect to the work that's ongoing, I think I'll focus on what we're trying to achieve with respect to the work in what's been identified as the most vulnerable communities, the communities that have the highest levels of violence against women. Our efforts with respect to that will involve a multidisciplinary approach, clearly from numerous federal contributors.

But when I look at the police realm and specifically ways in which we can work to address violence and better the situation for youth who are affected by violence in those families, one specific program would be intervention and diversion strategies. Across the realm of policing there are a number of best practices relative to being responsive to youth at risk. Oftentimes youth who are caught up in familial violence and who experience that end up having encounters with the police and end up being youth who are in crisis and at risk. In terms of intervention and diversion models—the hub model, for example, and the START model in Manitoba—a number of them are recognized best practices. What they undertake, what they seek to do, is to identify what those risk factors are and try, from a collective community standpoint, to respond to what that youth needs when he's in that crisis.

If it's a specific issue surrounding familial violence, then it's making sure that as a community we respond to the risks at play. If there's a substance abuse issue, then it's diverting that youth to the appropriate resources that can support that youth and get him on the right track. I think historically this is a proper way to deal with things, a holistic way to assist youth who are in crisis. It doesn't serve a youth well to simply lay a criminal charge and not give consideration to the risk factors that are causing him to act out.

That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to back up our efforts on the prevention scale. In the meeting that's taking place in December in Prince Albert with the detachment commanders working in those most vulnerable communities, we will have subject matter experts represented from a variety of youth intervention and diversion programs who will speak about the merits of those programs and will assist them should they seek to implement those programs locally within their own communities. We're looking to expand on some of these recognized best practices that assist youth in crisis and gather that community round table to deal with those youth at risk in a manner that's responsive to their needs at that time.

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

Thank you and I want to reiterate words of congratulations for the work that you are doing, as well as to say that these children need to feel that you are their friend from way back in the early ages so that they're not afraid to go to you with questions. That's what I like about seeing you in the schools, especially in the younger ages where they don't have all this negative attitude against you already. They have a very positive attitude and this can carry on with the idea that you're in the classroom.

My next question is for Marla Israel. Can you think of a best practice for education programs, social programs, or policies that can prevent violence against women in the work that you do as well?

[Marla Israel]

Thank you so much for the question.

I think, just generally speaking, my first observation is that from the standpoint of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, we're very mindful of initiatives that work from a prevention angle to early intervention. What does that mean for first nations, either living on or off reserve? I think the reason we place so much emphasis on that is the cultural components. One of the things that I've been most impressed about is work that takes place, let's say, from a broad-based perspective.

I can use the example of Three Eagle Wellness Society in Alberta, which is an initiative that's provided with funding from our department. It works to be able to offer life skills. It looks at experiences of violence from a trauma-based perspective. It works to involve individuals and families. We try to support, through our terms and conditions, any initiatives that are community-based, culturally appropriate, and that have the active involvement of women. Those are the types of initiatives that we see as best practices.

[The Chair, NDP, Hélène LeBlanc]

Thank you. Your questions and answers are so interesting that I am losing track of time.

I now yield the floor to Ms. Duncan for seven minutes.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all for coming.

Most recently, I was in a correctional facility this summer and it was heartbreaking. The majority of women were aboriginal and they had suffered abuse. I'm going to ask, how many psychologists are on staff in the correctional institutions across Canada?

[Angela Connidis]

I will have to get the exact figure for you and I will provide it to the committee.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Have there been any cuts in the numbers of psychologists in the correctional institutions?

[Angela Connidis]

I can't confirm that. I don't think so. Mental health in corrections is a key priority right now, but I will have to confirm that and provide you with the figures.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

You'll table the numbers with the committee. Thank you.

Have there been any cuts in the number of hours in terms of psychologists in mental health counselling?

[Angela Connidis]

Once again, I will confirm that with you.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

Continuing in that vein, what data do we have on the use of isolation in women's correctional institutions?

[Angela Connidis]

I will get back to you with the numbers on that as well.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

The Minister of Status of Women has a new family violence plan. Was your department consulted during the drafting of that plan?

[Angela Connidis]

Yes, we were.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

Could you table with the committee what you submitted to the minister?

[Angela Connidis]

I will check and get back to you on that for sure.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you so much.

I'm now going to move to Citizenship and Immigration.

You talked about the number of contacts in giving women the opportunity to come forward, which is so important. My concern is that there have been real cuts to CIC totalling $53 million. I'm from the GTA and 10 GTA services were lost and 35 across Ontario had significant cuts.

Do we have contact data before and after the cuts?

[Justine Akman]

We can't answer the specific question. We could likely follow up with that. However, since 2002-03, settlement funding has in fact increased a great deal.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

The contact numbers that we're talking about, violence against women, it's the number of women we are coming in contact—

[Justine Akman]

It's those who we're actually serving through the settlement services, the difference in the number of people we've been serving. I'll try to get the answer.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I'd like to see the data before and after, please.

Do we have data on how this has affected women coming forward?

[Justine Akman]

I don't believe we do have that sort of data in terms of the impacts of any changes to our funding model or amount. But we might be able to get the information on the numbers served through our settlement services.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

How many women have come forward to talk about violence?

[Justine Akman]

I don't believe we have access to that data. I don't believe we track it in that sense. We have access to data on how many permanent residents and refugee women are served through our settlement services.