Evidence of meeting #122 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 data.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Research Consultant, National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence, As an Individual
I would have to say that for women's shelters on reserve, because they are federally funded, there should be an entrenched funding formula that is applicable on a district basis, not even on a provincial basis. We realize the vast geographical differences in where women's shelters are located.
I agree that it is not a women's issue, and it's ISC that funds the on-reserve shelters.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
We had two witnesses who came from the north and who talked about issues in the Northwest Territories and in Yukon—the lack of transportation, the difficulty getting to them, and so on.
I only have about two minutes left, Dawn, but I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that.
Acting Executive Director, Haven Society
I think it's important for government to value women and children, to see them as of value. When you talk about the changes in government and core funding being pulled, it speaks to the fact that this is not as important an issue as it needs to be. I think there needs to be more light shed on the whole issue of violence and how we can best support families, because they are our future.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Dr. Harper, all of your work is being done in rural and indigenous communities. How often are firearms involved in women coming into your shelter?
Research Consultant, National Aboriginal Circle Against Family Violence, As an Individual
I really can't answer that. The rate of domestic homicide in indigenous populations, though, is at least five times higher than the average Canadian rate. In many cases, firearms are involved, but I cannot give you statistics on it.
Survivor and Frontline Worker, Hiatus House, As an Individual
That's one of the high-risk questions we ask. When I look across the shelter, that would be one of the things that qualifies them. The stats might be a little bit skewed there, because when there are firearms involved, that places them at a substantially high risk, so we're bringing them in more frequently.
Acting Executive Director, Haven Society
I would agree with Eva. When we're doing an assessment, we focus a lot of attention on safety. That's just our work.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Thank you so much. This has been a great panel.
Eva, Anita and Dawn, thank you so much for bringing so much information to our committee today.
I'll suspend for two minutes, and then we'll be back with Pam.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff
I will call the meeting back to order.
Welcome back to the 122nd meeting of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. For the second hour, I'm pleased to welcome Mr. Yvan Clermont, the Director of the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics at Statistics Canada, and Kathy AuCoin, the Assistant Director.
I'll now turn the floor over to you for your opening statement. You have seven minutes.
Yvan Clermont Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
Very good. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon.
Thank you for the opportunity to present our findings, which I hope will give you insight into the demand for shelter space among women seeking help because of intimate partner violence. I will be presenting data collected through police reports as well as a shelter survey.
Slide 2 shows our key findings. In the past three years, the rate of intimate partner violence against females has increased slightly, by 4%. The rates are highest in the territories, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The last time we collected shelter data, we found that one in four women had sought shelter from the facility before and that more than half of the women who sought shelter because of abuse were admitted with their children. I would also like to point out that we have new shelter data coming out in the spring, data I believe will be essential to the committee's study.
Slide 3 shows data from the survey on shelters. The last time these data were collected was in 2014. At that time, more than 600 shelters across Canada offered services to women fleeing domestic violence and their children. In all, the shelters provided over 12,000 beds. The provinces with the most shelters were Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The day on which the survey was administered, more than half the women who had sought shelter were under the age of 35, and more than seven out of 10 women were looking for a shelter in a big city. In 2014, the average number of beds per facility was 19.
Moving on to slide 4, I should note that it provides an overview of shelter capacity in relation to the number of police-reported incidents of intimate partner violence. We know that, during the same year, about 70,000 women were victims of intimate partner violence, as reported to police. Once again, the highest rates were observed in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, the three largest provinces in the country.
Another data point worth noting is the rate of intimate partner violence. From that standpoint, we look at the number of victims and population differences. That way, we are able to see which regions present the highest risk. In 2014, the regions with the highest rates of intimate partner violence, as with crime overall, were the three territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta.
Switching to slide 5, from this slide we note that the majority of women in shelters cited abuse as their primary reason for seeking shelter in 2014, and 78% of them identified their abuser as an intimate partner.
If you turn to the next slide, slide 6, this graph shows the various forms of abuse women have been reporting to the shelter. Note here that women can report more than one form of abuse. We can see the various forms of abuse experienced by these women on this chart. For example, two-thirds reported emotional abuse and half reported physical abuse. Also, 21% of women reported that sexual abuse was a factor for seeking shelter, and more than a quarter of women wanted to protect their children from witnessing the abuse.
On the next slide we can highlight some information that looks at capacity issues. In 2014, on a snapshot day, more than 300 women and 200 of their children were turned away from a shelter. More than half of these individuals were turned away because the shelter was at capacity. Other reasons for being turned away included alcohol and drug issues, 8%; mental health issues, 6%; and women being on a non-admit or caution list, 4%.
Another critical data point to consider is that one in four of the residents served on the snapshot day had stayed at the shelter before—that is, they were return clients of the shelter. Among these, 37% had stayed at the same shelter one time in the previous 12 months, and 17% had stayed there two to three times, while 30% had stayed at the shelter but had their stay more than a year ago.
Additionally, almost half of the female residents had not reported the abuse to the police.
Now we turn to the type of services these shelters are offering. According to the last iteration of the transition home survey covering the year 2014, there was a range of services that were available to women residents, including counselling, transportation services and housing referrals. Many shelters were also able to meet the diverse needs of indigenous women and children.
Up to now, I've presented information that was collected in 2014, the last time we captured information on shelters. Now I'd like to provide you with trend analysis related to intimate partner violence against females reported to the police and coming from the uniform crime report.
Overall in Canada, between 2009 and 2014 there was a year-over-year decline in rates of intimate partner violence against women. However, since 2014 these rates have increased by 4%, almost all driven by an increase in females being victims.
We now look at regional differences.
The largest increases over the three-year period were noted in Northwest Territories, Manitoba and Prince Edward Island. However, decreases were noted in Yukon, B.C. and Alberta. Remember these are percentage changes. Overall, levels of intimate partner violence against females remain much higher in the territories and higher in Manitoba and Saskatchewan compared to British Columbia and the east.
To finish this presentation, I would like to draw your attention to two new surveys that are still in collection right now and being processed, and will be informative to your critical research here.
The first survey is the survey of residential facilities for victims of abuse, which is replacing the transition home survey we conducted the last time in 2014. It will be collecting important new information listed on slide number 11 here. Specifically, the survey will provide us with information on the characteristics of shelter residents, according to age and gender, and further by indigenous identity, visible minority identity, residency status and whether they have disabilities, and, if so, which type. The first results will be available next spring, in 2019.
Also coming toward the end of next summer in 2019, Statistics Canada will be releasing data from the new survey of safety in public and private spaces. We will have additional information that will be of value to this committee—in particular, intimate partner violence victims will be asked to report on whether they have had to leave their home because of violence and, if so, where they went. Combined with numerous individual characteristics and other victimization results, these data will present a very interesting picture of the situation.
This ends our presentation today, so we're ready for questions. Thank you.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff
Thank you very much for your presentation.
For the first seven-minute round, we're going to turn to Marc Serré.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Clermont, thank you very much for your presentation and the work you're doing in this area.
There's a lot of information to digest. I have several questions for each slide. You talked about the statistics being compiled in 2014, mentioning that new data would be released in 2019. You also referred to a new report.
You heard a number of witnesses comment on the lack of data and the need for more information. I'd like to know how we can improve the available data and get you the additional resources to do that.
For my first question, though, I'd like you to briefly explain the difference between the two reports, if you would.
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
I would be happy to, Mr. Serré.
You're asking about the transition home survey, which is a type of survey in which the data are aggregated. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say it's a survey we conducted every two years up until 2014. At that point, we felt the need to rework the survey. We wanted to incorporate important elements of information and reassess the databases that were being used for the survey because of deficiencies in certain areas.
We redesigned the survey and are now able to conduct it once again. Right now, we are collecting data. The new survey will deliver much more detailed content, and the results will be released in the spring of 2019.
In terms of what we need, or the requirement for additional resources, I can tell you that the survey is funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
That's great.
On slides 4 and 5, you provide statistics for each province. Beyond the provincial breakdown, do you have any data for urban versus rural areas?
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
With police data, it would be possible to compare the situation in urban and rural areas.
Liberal
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
It's not part of this deck, but we could provide it for another meeting, as needed.
Liberal
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
Yes, of course.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
Very good.
Slide 2 deals with intimate partner violence. What sorts of statistics do you have? Do you have data on violence involving a firearm, for instance? Again, it would be important to have that information for urban versus rural areas.
November 19th, 2018 / 4:45 p.m.
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
When we are using police-reported information, we are able to say whether a firearm was used. On December 5, we'll be coming out with a report on family violence containing data on that very issue, the use of firearms in intimate partner violence.
Liberal
Marc Serré Liberal Nickel Belt, ON
I see.
Slide 5 shows a breakdown of the various forms of abuse, which can include dependence.
In light of your study, do you think there are statistics that aren't being collected but should be? That's something you could recommend to the committee.
Director, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada
Are you referring to slide 5 of the deck?