Thank you for your question.
Right now, the federal government is investing in the nurse-family partnership, which is a home visitation program for women who are pregnant and all the way up to when their children are two years old. It's an evidence-based program that has been studied for decades. You're funding some of it in B.C. and Ontario. Home visitation is one of the most critical places for prevention. That program reduces child maltreatment, it reduces family violence, and it gets families jobs.
If I were to recommend something, it would be starting with a comprehensive, universal approach. What happens is that right now you fund each province, and they put it into various programs that they feel make the most sense. These are not all evidence-based. What I wanted to bring to the committee today is that there are myriad evidence-based programs.
Earlier, you had your staff present information about the portal, with about 80 best-practice programs and policies. We know a lot. You had somebody talk about early childhood development and the brain science around toxic stress at very young ages in children experiencing adversity and what happens later on when they move into relationships. We know a lot.
I think the federal government's role is to ensure that there are national standards, that there are appropriate investments that are actually hitting the ground where the money is supposed to go, and that there is high accountability to the federal government concerning outcomes and the delivery of those outcomes.
My colleagues in Nova Scotia and Ontario have talked about there not being long-term sustainable funding right now. That's the other issue. You put out ads through Status of Women Canada, requests for proposals. People apply; they get two years to prove.... It can take up to 10 to 15 years to develop an evidence-based practice, and you need heavy research and evaluation for it. I have colleagues whom I work with out of the University of Western Ontario's CAMH Centre for Prevention Science who have invested in the fourth R, as one example; the fourth R standing for “Relationship”. So reading, writing, arithmetic, and relationship are the four core elements.
What is your role in education? We know that education is a provincial jurisdiction, but you provide transfers. There should be social emotional learning. Teachers need to have skills around understanding trauma and should be able to transmit skills to kids. If they're not getting it in the family, the next best prevention site is the school. I don't think we're leveraging the schools or school systems enough.