Status of Women Committee on Nov. 7th, 2018

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Would any of the four witnesses representing domestic violence shelters want to add a few words on the risk to workers' safety, when there are so few people working in such difficult conditions? I know that in my own community, when I see some of the shelters, it looks like they're unsafe for the workers, as well as for the women in some cases. Maybe we could have just a couple of words on that from anybody.

[Diane Beaulieu]

Very often in my shelter—well, everyday in my shelter—at night my staff are single-shifted. As I said, I have 30 beds in one and 22 in the other. I worry every night about the woman who is there alone being okay. The danger to my staff is not from outside; it's from inside. As we've heard today, many of our clients come in with mental health issues. We're sometimes not sure how bad these issues are until the woman has been with us for a few days or weeks. I would say that the danger is from within, not from without.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Diane, if you were able to secure federal core operational funding to add more staff, would that make it safer for workers?

[Diane Beaulieu]

It would make it safer. It wouldn't make it safe; it would make it safer.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now moving on to Marc Serré, for seven minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My thanks to all the witnesses for the work they are doing in this area and the time they have spent preparing their presentations. Their appearance will help us greatly as we come up with our recommendations at the end of this study.

Ms. Lafantaisie Renaud, my first question goes to you, I am very familiar with the centre that you have been running for all these years. Once again, your work is important and we thank you for it.

I want to go back to your recommendations. They deal specifically with the problem of shelters in rural areas, since your centre is located between the cities of Sudbury and North Bay. You have described an operational model using networks and I feel that the model could be used all across Canada. Do you have any specific recommendations on the number of beds? Should the model include additional temporary beds or transition beds, and should that addition be made in rural or urban areas? What would be your priorities?

[Linda Lafantaisie Renaud]

That could be one suggestion. One of the suggestions I made was to maybe add temporary beds to the shelters that are already in existence. I'll take, for example, Genevra House, in Sudbury. It's already a 32-bed shelter. I do not know if it has the capacity to increase its number of beds. That is why I'm also suggesting maybe opening a new shelter that could be either central for North Bay and Sudbury or, better, for the Sudbury area, because as we know, the population is larger and they have fewer shelters. They do not have a francophone shelter.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Ms. Lafantaisie Renaud, you also mentioned problems with drug addiction. We have heard a lot of witnesses working in the field of health talking about issues of mental health and addiction. You have certainly observed an increased number of women suffering from severe addiction problems in recent years. As a result, you would like to be able to hire more qualified staff or have access to specialized detox centres for severe cases of addiction.

What are your recommendations on that subject?

[Linda Lafantaisie Renaud]

My ultimate recommendation would be to open a harm reduction shelter specifically for women dealing with addictions who have suffered abuse and are leaving violent situations.

The existing shelters need training dollars for very intense education for their staff who are dealing with these serious addictions to know how to help these women. We know that they're there only on a temporary basis. If we try to refer them to detox or a treatment centre, there's a long wait for them as well. There's at least a two- or three-month wait for them to get into treatment. We need an immediate solution. I believe that if we help our shelters be able to help these women who are suffering from addictions, we can probably find a solution.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

My next question is for Madam Beaulieu regarding the work you're doing on educating men and boys. Congratulations, and thank you so much for that.

I know fundraising $1 million be very hard to do. As part of those dollars, you said you hired three men to go into schools. You also mentioned the president of Unifor, Mr. Dias, doing the fundraising.

We've heard from other witnesses that focusing on men and boys in their 20s or earlier was very important, but they said that educating men over 40 was hopeless. It was a pretty strong statement.

Do you have programs that focus on the workplace and the important work unions are doing to educate men in their forties and fifties?

[Diane Beaulieu]

We do. We actually train neighbours, friends and family. We are trained professionals who can do that training. We do it in workplaces.

I don't believe men over 40 are hopeless. I truly believe that if somebody wants to change their behaviour, they will change their behaviour. It's an issue of power and control. It's about giving up the power and maintaining your own control.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Well said.

I wanted to ask also about the role of municipalities. Obviously this is within the jurisdiction of municipalities, and the federal and provincial governments provide some of the funding.

Do you have any experience with municipalities? What could municipalities across the country do better to support shelters and transitional and affordable housing?

[Diane Beaulieu]

I have some experience with the regional municipality of Halton, in particular.

We have a wonderful working relationship with the housing department. I will speak specifically to Andrew Balahura, who heads up the department. His staff think outside the box. We have never had such a great working relationship as we do right now with these people. They help us find housing for women.

Women stay in the shelter longer, but it's all about relationships. Somebody said that earlier. It's about building trust with the people you work with. We're all working for the same people. We're all trying to help that same woman. If all of us together—the police, the region, the shelter and the government—think about that woman and wrap her in service, we will find solutions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

As a little aside, I keep checking my phone here. Bells are now at 6:15, with votes at 6:45. We're just going to keep this rolling.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Chair, may I just interrupt for a second?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Of course.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

I have to leave as we had originally scheduled, ending at 5:30.

Thanks to the witnesses, and no disrespect to you. I'll read the transcript. I'm sure you won't be doing having surprise motions or anything I'm going to miss.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'll just close my eyes.

Thank you very much.

I know some people had House duty and there are things going on. We'll continue at reduced quorum. Reduced quorum means there needs to be at least two government members and one opposition member. That's how we'll continue.

We're going to start the next round, and we have Kellie Leitch for five minutes.

[K. Kellie Leitch, Simcoe—Grey, CPC]

Thank you very much to all the witnesses for taking the time to present to us.

I have some questions for you, Mr. Thomas, with respect to the Aboriginal Housing Society. You spoke about your capacity for creating these opportunities for below-market offerings to enable women to access homes for themselves.

Do you have some recommendations, not just for us but also for the other organizations, on how to develop relationships with the private sector that can be beneficial to creating these kinds of opportunities?

[Boyd Thomas]

We're just nice with them.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[K. Kellie Leitch]

You seem like a lovely gentleman.

[Boyd Thomas]

It's realizing that the business people are also experiencing the effects of what's happening in the economy. I had one gentleman put it to me like this: “I don't necessarily need to have the big piece of the pie; I just need to have small pieces of several pies.” There are times when you just have to do what you can to weather the storm, so you can prosper later. That's what I do. I look for those opportunities.

I say listen, instead of you making a big profit margin this time, why don't we do this, so that we can point to you and say, “Thank you very much, this is what you've done.” They've added to the quality of the community, and people remember that. People remember this is a company or organization they can trust, and they say, “Maybe I'll work with them for my next project, because they're trustworthy.”

It really is a symbiotic relationship that needs to be developed.

[K. Kellie Leitch]

What are some of those things that you do to promote those private sector individuals who are good enough to step forward to be able to...?