Evidence of meeting #118 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was housing.
A recording is available from Parliament.
As an Individual
I know. I'm getting to it. I'm going to start right there. Please shut me up when you need to.
As an Individual
In terms of any purchase over $750,000 in the GTA, Toronto to Highway 9, east to Highway 412 and west to Hamilton, and in Vancouver and Montreal, have no stress test there below $750,000. Eliminate it. Any purchase of $500,000 and below in all other areas outside of those types of centres should not have a stress test.
These are needs; they are not wants. You need to talk to some developers to see what the real cost of building housing is, from a serviced lot up to a house.
I have done the comparisons. Right now, we're all told that this stress test is going to help people in the future. It's actually hurting more women than you can imagine.
I'll go back to the casual status. Most of the employees in the health care system seem to be women working as personal support workers, nurses and RPNs. Due to the aging population of workers within those fields today and the fact that those workers years ago did not have equipment to help in lifting and some of the other heavy work, their bodies are breaking down.
To protect them, we put some rules in place, such that you can bring new employees into those fields—long-term care and other fields—but they can't be there to replace an aging population of workers whose bodies are breaking down. What's happening is that we have so many on short-term disability that these casual workers who are hired are working 40 hours a week all year long because you have people on eight-week vacations or on short-term disability. Guess what? Those women can't buy a house. They have to be there for two years to show an average income before they can qualify for a mortgage.
My first recommendation, knowing those industries, is that for six months of continuous work at 40 hours a week you can get a mortgage and buy under the $500,000 mark with no stress test.
Simcoe—Grey, CPC
I'm going to interrupt again to go back to what I think Megan Walker and Alma were mentioning before, but also to touch on something that Marilyn mentioned.
One of the issues you raised was around whether or not we have people who can help these women transition appropriately. They're in a shelter, but they want to have a home of their own or they want to be able to transition out, but they don't necessarily have the skill set and they definitely don't have the help.
Marilyn, you were mentioning how real estate agents really do have to be sensitized to these issues.
As an Individual
They do. There's no training for them right now whatsoever.
Simcoe—Grey, CPC
My question is for you, Megan, as well as for Alma and Marilyn. What are those professions that we need to sensitize, and what are the very specific things they should be doing in their professions to do that? It's one thing to go out and train a whole other group of public servants, but I actually think if we empowered and encouraged industry to get involved, they might take some degree of responsibility for this and be able to help some of these women.
Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
Could I just respond to that first?
It's not specific to any profession. We have a huge crisis, and we need to be providing every sector with education and opportunities to help women. Whether it's the hotel industry, the taxi industry, the health care sector, the real estate sector—whatever it is, we need to be making sure that everybody knows how to respond to a trafficked woman who appears before them. That's always about choices.
When women are trafficked and controlled by pimps—their whole lives, sometimes—and they decide to exit, there should never be a wrong door. Every door should be the right door, and women should be provided with choices, whether it's a choice to be served in their community of origin, or in another community, or safe at home.
Of course, like everybody, I am all in favour of women owning their own homes. I can tell you that of the 6,000 women we served last year, there would not be one woman who could afford a house around the $500,000 range. In fact, the majority of the women we serve are struggling to pay $1,300 per month in rent when they have children to support and everything else. I think just a moment of reality and reflection is important—
Simcoe—Grey, CPC
Megan, I'm going to interrupt you, mainly because I think what I'm trying to draw together is that you're saying the same thing.
Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
What I'm saying is that there's not one specific sector that needs training. We need communities across this country and individuals to understand the issues.
Simcoe—Grey, CPC
You won't get a debate from me on that, not at all. I think what individuals, here at least, are trying to say is that we need some very specific recommendations on how we can move forward. I think we all agree that everyone should be sensitized to these issues and everyone should be doing their part, but it's hard to boil the ocean. We need to actually focus on a few things, and so some specific recommendations would be very helpful.
The second thing is that I do believe, from what Donna and Marilyn have presented.... Part of the reason I asked them to consider coming is that we encourage women to go out and rent an apartment, but if all of these policies that are detracting from their being able to own their own home were eliminated, they might actually be able to go down that path.
Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
I'm going to give you a specific recommendation, which is that we need to shift the culture by educating young people—we're doing it in our community in kindergarten—about the value of women and the role men have in supporting women.
I'm not going to shift your mind, with all due respect, on specific issues, when you're an adult man or an adult woman who has lived your own life in a specific way, but I do have the ability to shift the minds of young people. Frankly, I don't want to talk about real estate and $500,000 homes. I want to invest money in education so that every kid across this country is learning the same thing at the same time, starting when they're five years old, and that's about trafficking and intimate partner violence and everything else.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Kellie, your time is up.
Sheila, you have the floor for seven minutes.
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you, Chair.
There's a lot of wisdom here, and your testimony is going to be something we can draw on.
My first question is for the London Abused Women's Centre. At the last meeting we heard from the Beausejour Family Crisis Resource Centre. They said that at the end of the day, they can't do their jobs effectively if they don't have core funding.
Can you talk with me about whether that's also a barrier to service that your very effective group is feeling? More specifically, with regard to the current Status of Women Canada funding that's available, we're hearing that it's still competitive and speculative, and that the women's groups put a lot of time into the application and maybe are competing against each other, and it may not be long-standing. Can you tell us how that's working for you?
Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
We are really fortunate in London, and I think in Ontario, that many agencies that are established.... I say this with all due respect to Jayce, because her organization is not funded with core funding, while ours is, although we don't receive 100% of our funding from any level of government. In fact, probably 35% of our funding comes from the community of London, from individual donors, but we understand that we're very lucky in that respect and that most agencies don't have that ability. It's just a no-brainer to me that if you value the lives of women, you're going to appropriately fund those organizations that are serving these women and potentially saving their lives.
Secondary to that, you asked about Status of Women Canada. I can tell you that as an organization that has been established for 35 years, we're very disappointed with what's happening with Status of Women Canada, particularly given their enhanced funding. Most of the proposal calls go out for things like policy development or working across the country with agencies on how to best provide services. Frankly, I don't want to recreate the wheel. We already know what works best. I think that if you were to ask any of the organizations around this table about policies and best practices, you'd see that we already know what they are. We don't need any further studies. Frankly, what we need is money.
We are increasing public awareness around these significant issues impacting women, and every time we increase awareness, we get more calls. We need to make sure that all women are provided with immediate access to service, because all women have a right to live and to live their lives free from violence and abuse. We're failing those women right now if we can't serve them.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thanks very much. We're hearing that a lot. The more the awareness is raised, the more people reach out for help. What a tragedy it is, then, when women get told that they're on a waiting list and “we'll come back to you later.”
Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
In fact, women can't wait, because their lives change by the hour. They can't wait three months for a callback. They don't know where they'll be in three months.
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
My next question is for Windsor-Essex Transgender and Allied Support. We had some really bold commitments made in the last election. The government promised to “give more support to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, and ensure that more perpetrators are brought to justice”. The story you're telling us is that this has been missed for trans women. Can you give us a bit more of a picture there?
Executive Director, Windsor-Essex Transgender and Allied Support
That's for trans people in general. Sex work is one of the main forms of work in the trans community, so what we're seeing is that trans people are living on an income of under $15,000 a year. A place to sleep tonight is a dream, let alone a house any time in the near future.
Many times, sex violence in our community goes completely unreported, because who's going to be responding to that call but a male-identified officer? Also, where am I going to be meeting with that officer? Probably in my community centre, because that's the only place you feel safe even to identify in your lived gender. I am the survivor of sexual trauma from earlier in my transition when I was doing sex work. I remember meeting with the officer and being told that it looked like my ego was hurt more than I was. This is a consistent kind of messaging to the trans community.
What we have to remember is that trans surgeries still are largely unfunded by our government and are seen as cosmetic surgeries. For a lot of people, one of the only ways to live in your true identity and to not live with dysphoria is to do sex work in order to afford those surgeries. One of the only ways to be employed in our community in a blue-collar city like Windsor-Essex is to do sex work. That's the only way you're going to change your narrative in our community. You can't get a job serving at Tim Hortons and be a trans-identified person unless you have somebody advocate for that position for you.
Are there promises made? Yes. Are larger cities maybe seeing some of the benefit? Yes.
We run the only trans centre in all of Canada. Again, we make this promise and then have to under-deliver because people are coming to our community to seek these services. What can we provide them but working within a system that's already failing our community?
NDP
Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC
Thank you.
This question is for Eva's Initiatives for Homeless Youth. The unanimous recommendation from this committee a year and a half ago was as follows:
That the Government of Canada provide greater access to shelters (including funding, number of spaces, and accessibility) and legal resources for young women and girls who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless and who are survivors of gender-based violence.
Can you give us a picture of whether you have seen improvements on the ground in the year and a half since that recommendation?
General Manager, Eva's Satellite, Eva's Initiatives for Homeless Youth
In our experience, we haven't seen those benefits. In the last six months alone, we've had to access legal services through volunteers who work with our agency. We put in a number of applications for funding, and we weren't successful. Access to federal funding continues to elude us, and it's not just Eva's Initiatives; it's other youth shelters.
We're talking about prevention and education. We heard earlier that prevention needs to start at a much younger age. I am talking about education, and I'm talking about focusing on the young men who are coming up. I have young women and young men, as you can imagine, 16- to 24-year-olds, living at Eva's. They're interacting. We want to provide them with the services and supports to re-educate their frames of references and their experiences; to change the narrative and the experiences going forward, as was said earlier, but we just don't have the capacity. We continue to struggle to access funding.
The other piece I want to emphasize is that we've been lucky that at times, working with the police when the young woman decides to file an assault charge has been unreal for us. Trying to sit with a young women who has gone through this process and doesn't get what she needs, which is very basic, and which is a validation and—
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
I'm going to have to cut you off there. I'm sorry.
Mr. Serré, you have seven minutes.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm going to ask some questions in French.
I'd like to begin by thanking you for your input, which will be very helpful to the committee in writing our report.
We've been talking about temporary or transition housing, whether it be for a day or a week. That's the subject of our study. I'd like to hear your recommendations on two issues.
First, we've heard that there's a crisis and that more transitional housing is needed. That means more capital is needed. How could we work with the private sector to build more temporary or transition housing?
Second, Status of Women Canada announced an additional $100 million in program funding. Which programs should be prioritized when that additional funding is being allocated?
I'd like to hear from the representatives of the three organizations. What would you recommend to address both of those points, capital and programs?