Thank you very much for the question. I greatly appreciate it.
I know that for the younger people, particularly in your riding and in areas across the country, this is very top of mind. One of the things that I heard, having travelled across the country after becoming minister.... I visited many high schools, and whether it was at the Sacred Heart School of Halifax, or high schools in Kelowna or in downtown Toronto, young Canadians told me that cyberbullying, cyberviolence, is something that is extremely important to them and they want it combatted. Their parents do as well.
The Government of Canada, as I've said before, is committed to ending violence against women and girls. One of the things we discussed—Madam Clément and I had this opportunity just in the first week of my becoming a minister—is what focus we should have as our first call for proposals, with me as the new minister. Our determination, after meeting with a number of students across the country, as well as meeting with parents, was cyberviolence.
This was extremely top of mind, but also exceptionally important. I think we all know of the tragedy of the loss of young people like Rehtaeh Parsons and others from the Maritimes.
Our recent call for proposals is yet another example of taking action to address violence against women and girls. The call solicits funding applications for projects that prevent or eliminate cyberviolence. A second component is to prevent or respond to sexual violence against women and girls through access to community programs. Individuals across the country can apply for up to $175,000 for a local project, or if you're running a national project, $300,000 for those that are national in scope.
We have seen in the past that these calls for proposals have been very impactful in local communities. The national programs have developed great online tools and national tools for organizations across the country to utilize. I'm delighted to be moving forward with this.
I would encourage even people at this panel, if you have local community groups that are interested in this file, to please encourage them to apply for their local community project between now and December 1.
Thank you very much for the question.