Status of Women Committee on Nov. 5th, 2018

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

This is in terms of the addictions part. You mentioned that there was an increase in addiction to meth and so on for the women going to the centre. What can we do by way of recommendations to help you out and to help serve that increase? First, is it an increase, as you mentioned, and what can we do to better support women who have addictions?

[Cynthia Drebot]

The piece that seems to be the problem for us is that a lot of organizations aren't prepared to deal with addictions as well. There aren't the supports in place for counselling or for detox. When people are using meth, and in a lot of situations other drugs, a medical detox needs to takes place. We're trying to do the trauma piece after, and the supportive piece after, but in a lot of situations, the detox and the medical system pieces aren't in place to be able to support people to get to the piece of dealing with the trauma.

In addiction situations, medical detox needs to be done first. All the stuff that's been medicated for, all that time, is the stuff that can be dealt with after. That's the discrepancy and the challenge that we find.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

You talked about Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada. I was frightened by your comment that the department's permission was needed for a separation. That is a good recommendation for change.

If it was possible, I would like the Indian Act to be eliminated. Do you have specific recommendations for us anyway regarding Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada?

[Samantha Lacourse]

To be honest, I feel I wouldn't do it justice in speaking specifically to the situation with INAC. There are a lot of complex and very evident barriers in terms of the disconnect for individuals who are coming from the Yukon and trying to access services through INAC. It's like navigating a labyrinth of policy, problems, challenges and systems, and I can't....

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

It's huge, yes.

[Samantha Lacourse]

Yes.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pam Damoff]

That's your time. Thank you very much.

We'll now turn to Kellie for seven minutes.

[K. Kellie Leitch, Simcoe—Grey, CPC]

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to come and present to our committee. We greatly appreciate it.

I come from a northern community as well. I grew up in Fort McMurray, Alberta, and have worked throughout Yellowknife and other places in the north.

I truly appreciate what you were talking about, Samantha. I was wondering if you could help us as a committee in the report we're formulating by giving us a few more ideas around the CRA and INAC changes you were recommending. I think it's exceptionally important that people recognize that those changes could mean substantive differences for these women. I want to make sure that they're available for our report.

[Samantha Lacourse]

Yes, of course.

What I can speak to is that 90-day waiting period and what it means for a woman trying to access social assistance. We have one shelter in Whitehorse. They do their best. They have a 30-day emergency shelter, basically, where you can get a bed and you can stay for 30 days. In that time frame, to be able to provide the necessary paperwork to have access to social assistance, be it INAC or Yukon government social assistance, in past cases they have needed to provide their previous year's taxes. If they're still attached to their partner and cannot declare that they're single, they basically don't have access to social assistance.

[K. Kellie Leitch]

The gap is between the 30 days that you have and the 90 days—

[Samantha Lacourse]

It's that gap. There are 60 days there when they—

[K. Kellie Leitch]

That 60 days is really what the issue is.

[Samantha Lacourse]

Yes, and I have—

[K. Kellie Leitch]

I have another question for you. Your organization talks about having a housing navigator.

[Samantha Lacourse]

Yes.

[K. Kellie Leitch]

Could you explain a bit how that works and how it benefits the women you're helping?

[Samantha Lacourse]

Sure. That's a great question. I can really highlight some major issues with that.

There's a 2% vacancy rate in housing in Whitehorse at the moment. It's a crisis. People with money cannot get housing. It creates a real challenge for folks who are on social assistance.

In terms of what we do with housing at the Victoria Faulkner Women's Centre.... There is also FASSY, which is an organization that works with people with fetal alcohol syndrome, as well as the Blood Ties Four Directions Centre, a harm reduction organization, and the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition. These organizations come together to form a leeway program, which is essentially a program where we are the landlords. We're the middle people between—

[K. Kellie Leitch]

To help provide that affordable housing....

[Samantha Lacourse]

Yes. In part, the housing navigator is responsible for that leeway program. It gives time to folks who get their cheques a bit later from INAC and can't keep the housing because it's not the first of the month when they get that cheque. Or if they need support in dealing with landlords, there's a middle person there whom they can speak with, and there's case management attached to that. A housing navigator does that, as well as in general just supporting women to find housing in an already very tight market and advocating for them when it's time.

[K. Kellie Leitch]

Donna, I have a question for you. My understanding is that your organization deals a lot with individuals who have disabilities. I'm an orthopaedic surgeon, and I deal with people who have disabilities pretty regularly in my practice, albeit the majority of them are children, particularly those with cerebral palsy.

Can you outline for our committee some of the things that we should be looking to in order to make sure that those specific needs that are quantifiably different are things that the government should be attending to? For individuals who find themselves in crisis and who also have a disability, which adds a more substantive disadvantage in addition to the already challenging situation, what are some of the things that we should be making sure the government deals with in an effective manner?

[Donna Smith]

We do have women coming in with disabilities and injuries from their abuse. In our shelter alone, we have a wheelchair-accessible bedroom on our main floor. Last year we had renovations to our kitchen to make it totally accessible so wheelchairs or walkers or even basic supports could get in and around. Most of us are in aging shelters or older buildings, so even to access a cupboard you're bending down in a corner cupboard trying to get the things you need.

Improvements and access to funding around making changes to the actual structure, which we do have access to—

[K. Kellie Leitch]

I don't know if all of you want to comment on that accessibility issue.

Obviously, we have an aging population. I'm confident in saying that. I know that in my area just as many elderly women find themselves accessing these services, unfortunately.

Many provinces have accessibility laws and regulations, but are you being supported and able to make those changes?

[Donna Smith]

We are supportive in—

[K. Kellie Leitch]

I mean, are you being supported to make those changes, financially and otherwise?

[Donna Smith]

We are, to a certain degree.

We receive a certain amount of funding to make our kitchen accessible. We still have a large house with our laundry facilities in the basement and the women are not able to access that, so staff have to help them with it.

Funding is limited, and when we bring things up we are supported by Housing Nova Scotia to a degree. There is a whole level of process and there are quotes to get. Sometimes the work involved in making the change is daunting, although we want that change.