Status of Women Committee on Oct. 15th, 2018

[Ron Liepert, Calgary Signal Hill, CPC]

Thank you.

We've heard a lot today about what has been budgeted and what needs to be budgeted to meet the demand that all of you outlined.

So often in these situations, I try to see whether there's a way to lessen the demand or prevent the demand. As a bit of background, I did at one time operate a daycare in downtown Calgary, so I've had lots of experience with situations around abuse and women with children in daycare.

It's quite often the case that alcoholism, gambling and those sorts of things will lead to domestic violence. If we looked deeper into trying to deal with some of those issues and prevent domestic violence in the first place, maybe it would help us in the longer run to meet these kinds of needs that exist out there today.

I have a general question to any of you on the panel: Would you concur that we should possibly focus more effort on the prevention and less on the need after the domestic violence occurs? Do you have any thoughts on that?

[Margaret Buist]

Again, with respect to the programming for indigenous services, most of the project-based proposals we have are focused on prevention. Many of them engage men and boys in the dialogue around power imbalance in society, which goes to the core of the causes of violence against women and children, and in particular, indigenous women and children, but not exclusively.

That programming that we provide is specifically focused on prevention, and many of the services and activities provided within the ambit of the shelters on reserve are also prevention-focused, so we would agree that it's a really important focus.

[Ron Liepert]

Does anyone else want to respond?

[Justine Akman]

We know that the cost of various kinds of gender-based violence to Canadians is estimated to be in the realm of about $7.4 billion per year. Certainly prevention is critical. That's why the gender-based violence strategy has prevention as one of the main pillars.

Speaking for Status of Women again, I will say that our projects have to do with support for survivors, but often people are survivors more than once. The current call for proposals is focused on survivors, but hopefully that will also contribute to a decrease in revictimization. Therefore, yes, I'm agreeing that prevention is critical, but you do have to look at a person's life at various stages.

[Ron Liepert]

Mr. MacArthur, I'm assuming that some of these women who move from shelters would hopefully, at some point in time, be in a position to become a homeowner. Are the new CMHC stress test rules a barrier? They certainly have proven to be a significant barrier for people on the margin in terms of entering the marketplace. At least that's what the real estate industry is telling us consistently. I'd like your views on the impact that is having on this particular situation.

[Charles MacArthur]

We work with folks along the continuum, whether that's in a shelter, whether that's for affordable housing, or whether that's somebody trying to enter home ownership. We underwrite a project. As I said before, we don't want to put somebody in a home that they are eventually going to lose. That would be a life-shattering event from which they might never recover.

With our stress testing, we need to ensure that there is stability in the marketplace and that if there is an unforeseen economic or financial stress, we're in a position to make sure that Canadians are well protected from that. We work with groups to do education in order to help people get into a reasonable financial position so that they're able to take advantage of home ownership or rental. We're there for all the options.

[Ron Liepert]

I'm not sure I heard an answer to my question.

[Charles MacArthur]

So, maybe you would...?

[Ron Liepert]

Would you concur that the new stress test is making it more difficult for people to move into home ownership?

[Charles MacArthur]

I would say that the new stress tests are making sure that CMHC is there in good times and bad times, and that the stress tests that we're doing are prudent tests at this point in time.

[Ron Liepert]

But it was a policy change by CMHC.

[Charles MacArthur]

It was a Department of Finance—

[Ron Liepert]

Right—and the government's policy test, and it has had a significant impact on the marketplace. So I am asking you this: is it having an impact on the ability of people to move out of shelters and into home ownership?

[Charles MacArthur]

Not being a market analyst, I can't give you the statistics. But I do know that there is a balance between ownership and supply of apartments, and we support the full spectrum of availability. What we want to do is make sure as we're working with folks that they are able to afford the housing they are entering.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We'll switch over to Irene, for seven minutes.

[Irene Mathyssen, London—Fanshawe, NDP]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and thank you to everyone for being here.

I would like to start with the Status of Women. I need to say that certainly Canada's work at the UN has contributed very much to the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and the creation or establishment of a UN special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences. That rapporteur was in Canada in April of 2018, and at that point in time she said that there was a lack of specific federal law or model law on violence against women and domestic violence as well as a lack of a national action plan on violence against women and domestic violence. A year earlier, in June of 2017, she said of the government's announcement of a strategy to prevent gender-based violence that it lacked a holistic legal framework with clear explanations of prevention measures, integrated service delivery and the prosecution of perpetrators. She didn't believe that it was coordinated; nor was it guaranteed in all jurisdictions.

So, since that time, since 2017-2018, has Canada complied with the special rapporteur's recommendation to have a national action plan that is fully and comprehensively implemented at the federal, provincial and territorial level in order to make sure that women in all areas of the country have access to comparable levels of service and protection in line with international human rights standards and those accepted by Canada?

[Justine Akman]

Of course, being Status of Women Canada, we were very excited when the UN special rapporteur visited Canada. We spent lots of time ensuring that she got the information she needed to do her report. The government very much welcomed her recommendations and insights into how Canada can continue to do better to address gender-based violence.

In terms of a national action plan specifically, with regard to the gender-based violence plan that I spoke about in my opening remarks, and that Status of Women has spoken to this committee about several times, the focus in the initial stage is to get the federal house in order. Before this strategy was announced, there really was no strategy even at a federal level, and there was no gender lens on any violence programming that the government was doing at the time; it was mostly focused on family violence. So the main focus has been to get the federal house in order.

However, that said, there is a very concerted effort being undertaken right now to work with the provinces and territories in recognition of the fact that this is fundamentally a national issue, and one that all levels of government and civil society have to be engaged in to see success. In fact, there's a federal-provincial-territorial meeting happening in Yukon as we speak—it starts right now—of ministers of the status of women. There are a number of different items on that agenda related to gender-based violence, starting with research as a baseline.

This is following the Australian national action plan. They took a couple of years when they launched their plan, which was a bit ahead of Canada. They were out of the gate a little before us, but they took time to make sure they truly understood the nature of gender-based violence across the country before they started launching into various initiatives.

Following that model, in the past few years, we have put an enormous amount of energy into data and research for gender-based violence. We are working with the provinces and territories to ensure they can benefit from those products we've discussed, especially those we're doing with Statistics Canada.

At the same time, this week they'll be discussing a results strategy. You can't have a national strategy unless you have agreed-upon results that you're all trying to achieve together. That will be another very, very important conversation.

Finally, efforts will be made to do joint programming. Rather than having small, fledgling non-governmental organizations trying desperately to figure out how they can patch together bits of funding, there are efforts being made between the federal and some provincial governments—it's a committee of the willing, to start with anyway—to see how we can join forces and help some of these organizations get stronger together.

[Irene Mathyssen]

With regard to this meeting in Yukon, will that generate a concrete plan in terms of gender-based violence? Will there be a timeline in order to implement that? Have you determined a timeline? Will it be, for example, before the next election, or is there some issue with that timeline?

[Justine Akman]

I can't predetermine the results of the meeting.

[Irene Mathyssen]

Okay.

We would appreciate very much if you could get back to us with any information that is gleaned from that meeting. It seems to be an important step, and we'd like to know exactly how that goes.

Last month, Women's Shelters Canada released a report. It wasn't a particularly flattering report, inasmuch as it identified gaps in terms of domestic violence policies and gaps in legislation and services across the country. Their goal, obviously, is to see Canada have comparable levels of services and protection for women, no matter where women may live. Apparently, that's not the case.

A year and a half ago, this committee reported on violence against women and girls, and recommended to Minister Monsef that she urge coordination of federal, provincial and territorial government responses to help to end that violence.

Apart from this meeting in Yukon, can you tell us what concrete progress has been made to coordinate that government response? I know they're meeting, but I'm thinking in terms of something concrete that you can tell us about.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You've already gone over the time, so if she can just answer that question, she has about 10 seconds.

[Irene Mathyssen]

Okay.

[Justine Akman]

I really think the Department of Justice—I don't know if you're actually seeing them, but they might be a better place to get answers to these questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to move over to Marc Serré for seven minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for being here and for their work in this area.

My first question is for Ms. Buist and pertains to the work done with indigenous communities.

Ms. Buist, we often hear that there are tremendous needs on reserves. I would like to know what role you play, together with the municipalities, in developing a strategy for indigenous persons and transition houses in urban settings. I would point out that many indigenous persons live in cities, including the 60,000 indigenous persons who live in the Toronto area.

More specifically, what is your role in developing a national strategy for urban settings?