Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the 121st meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. This meeting is public.
Today, we'll be continuing our study on the system of shelters and transition houses serving women and children affected by violence against women and intimate partner violence.
Because of the time needed for votes and the apology in the House, we'll be condensing this into an hour and five minutes. Each panellist will have seven minutes as normal, but I will be cutting you off right at the seven minutes.
I would like to welcome the panellists we have today. From Halton Women's Place, we have Diane Beaulieu, executive director. We also have Boyd Thomas, executive director of the Aboriginal Housing Society. Joanne Baker is the executive director of the BC Society of Transition Houses, and we'll find her via video conference. From the Canadian Women's Foundation we have Ann Decter, director of community initiatives. From Horizon Women's Centre we have Linda Lafantaisie Renaud, director.
You'll see on the screen that we also have additional panellists.
We'll start here with Diane for seven minutes, and as I said, I'm knocking you off at seven minutes.
Thanks so much.