Status of Women Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2018

[Sharmila Chowdhury]

Yes.

[Bob Bratina]

Ms. Kudloo, go ahead.

[Rebecca Kudloo]

Up north, there's a big backlog in the circuit court system, and women will wait months and months for their court.... You know, if the husband is going to court, they're going to have to wait. It's not....

I'm sorry, English is my second language, and sometimes I get....

If you want to go further....

[Samantha Michaels]

I think the circuit court system, as Rebecca just mentioned, is a really good place to start on the effectiveness of the justice system across the north. There's definitely a lack of access to justice. There's a lack in terms of knowing your rights, which Rebecca also spoke to and which is something that we work hard on.

We're undertaking a project with the Nunavut legal society in looking at the Family Abuse Intervention Act. It's something that I'm deeply passionate about, just in terms of understanding emergency protection orders, no-contact orders and restraining orders. We'll find out, but they're not super effective when you live in a community of fewer than 1,000 people where there's one grocery store and everyone knows each other. There are definitely different elements of that.

The circuit court will typically visit communities two to six times a year, and that's weather-dependent. It can be held off for a very long time, so it leaves women in a very vulnerable position. We know that lethal violence obviously increases after someone has reported. There's definitely a lack of access to justice around that.

Also, as Shar just said, people are terrified to report, of course, because of child apprehension, etc., and people not being in support of the victim, especially when victim-blaming attitudes permeate a lot of communities or institutionally.

[Bob Bratina]

You led me to one of my many other questions. How many languages are spoken in Inuit communities? There are 51 communities and 165,000 Inuit, or something like that.

[Samantha Michaels]

It's 65,000.

[Bob Bratina]

Do they all speak the same language? I don't think so.

[Rebecca Kudloo]

They speak the same language, but there are different dialects. When you're providing services for people with different dialects, it sometimes gets expensive translating for their dialects.

[Bob Bratina]

Right.

There's another issue that has come up. I was upset when the Churchill railway had a problem, but I know we got that fixed. Now there's money going to Nanisivik to create the new refuelling station for the Coast Guard in the north. We've heard of cruise ships coming into those communities. Would a stronger economic situation in the Far North be helpful in terms of the struggles that people are having?

I know that in many cases, in the south and in my community, coping skills quite often collapse when finances collapse. Would more attention to the economic situation, especially in the Far North, be helpful in these terms?

[Rebecca Kudloo]

Just before I came down here, I had a meeting with Agnico, a gold mine in Baker Lake. It's two weeks in and two weeks out for the workers, and all the women are left to survive at home with the children. We were looking at maybe starting a cottage industry for them; women like to work at home. Those are some things we're looking into.

Also, I'll get Samantha to talk a bit about the women's business network that we run at the Pauktuutit board.

[Samantha Michaels]

It's a bit of a different situation across Inuit Nunangat in terms of the fact that there's a large unemployment rate. I think it's double what it is in the south. However, women are more employed than men, which actually can create its own tensions. Much of the time, even though they may have more jobs, they're being paid less. They may be in lower positions. We see that quite frequently.

Yes, it's something that we definitely work on at Pauktuutit. We've created the Inuit women in business network to recognize that a lot of women are engaging in different ways in an informal economy and that they all can be a part of it. We're helping to promote business mentorship and all sorts of skills and development, but there are many challenges in terms of child care—lack of access, availability and affordability—that prevent women from engaging in the formal economy should they choose to.

A lot of this is because of social policies that are just not aligned. There's a lot of misalignment. That comes back a lot to social housing policies.

[Bob Bratina]

That's very interesting, because if it's the woman who is making money, that could create a problem, as you suggested.

Thanks for those insights.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That was an excellent job.

Before I turn it over to Rachael, I do have one question, and it's very non-partisan. I know everybody is saying, “She actually has a question today.”

You indicate that there are 65,000 people living over approximately 51 communities. What does that look like? Do some communities maybe have 100 people and some have 10,000? Could you be a little more specific, comparing the large and the extremely small?

I'll let everybody else talk afterwards.

[Rebecca Kudloo]

We have bigger centres like Iqaluit, the capital, as well as Rankin Inlet. Those are probably 2,000 to 3,000.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Did you say 2,000 to 3,000?

[Samantha Michaels]

Iqaluit is 7,000.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Okay.

[Rebecca Kudloo]

Iqaluit is 7,000, but a small community like mine would have 1,800. The further up you go, like Grise Fiord.... I don't know the exact population, but it's maybe 200.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Excellent. I'm from Sparta, so I understand 200 just perfectly. Thank you so much, Rebecca.

I'm now going to pass it over to Rachael Harder for five minutes.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Ms. Kudloo, maybe you could talk a little bit about the uniqueness of housing within Nunavut.

The reason I ask is that I have had the opportunity to visit. I visited 11 communities in the northern region just in March, in the Baffin Island area, and I had the opportunity to talk with women first-hand with regard to the housing insecurity they face.

Of course, you've made mention of this, but perhaps you could talk a bit more about the fact that home ownership isn't really an option. They're at the mercy of the state, really, providing housing for them. There is a huge shortage, so we're seeing families basically living on top of one another in their homes.

When women access a shelter and they stay there for a time, eventually they want to leave and they want to enter into secure housing, but of course that's difficult. Could you talk a little bit about that?

[Rebecca Kudloo]

A lot of our people live in low-rent housing, and there is a long waiting list. People sometimes wait for years to get a house. If a woman wants to get her own place, I think she would go to the bottom of the list, unless it is an emergency.

Home ownership is not really an option. For some of us who own our homes, the cost of maintenance is very high, if you don't have a family member who will do it for free. You rely on companies that come in to fix things in your house, and the cost is very high. You have to have a well-paying job in order to pay for that. Fuel costs and municipal services costs are very high.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

Madam Chair, I would like to move my motion at this time. It's on notice.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Does everybody have a copy of the motion?

Go for it, Rachael.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

My motion reads:

That the Committee invite the Minister of Status of Women Canada to brief the Committee on her new mandate, given that Status of Women Canada is changing to the Department of Women and Gender Equality, no later that Wednesday, February 13, 2019, and that this meeting be no less than one hour in length.

Madam Chair, the reason I'm asking for this motion to be passed today is that, as outlined in the motion, this particular department has changed from simply being Status of Women to now including gender equality. In the original mandate letter.... We haven't seen a follow-up from the Prime Minister, which is another reason why I'd be interested in bringing the minister to committee, so that we'd better understand what the mandate is here.

In the original mandate letter that the Prime Minister wrote to Minister Monsef, he said:

We have also committed to set a higher bar for openness and transparency in government. It is time to shine more light on government to ensure it remains focused on the people it serves. Government and its information should be open by default. If we want Canadians to trust their government, we need a government that trusts Canadians. It is important that we acknowledge mistakes when we make them. Canadians do not expect us to be perfect—they expect us to be honest, open, and sincere in our efforts to serve the public interest.

He goes on to say that this would include “meaningful engagement with Opposition Members of Parliament, Parliamentary Committees and the public service; constructive dialogue with Canadians, civil society, and stakeholders, including business, organized labour, the broader public sector, and the not-for-profit and charitable sectors”.

Madam Chair, the reason I raise this is that I brought this motion forward a number of weeks ago and it was turned down by the Liberal members at this table. I'm confused as to why they put it on hold, knowing that it would then be stopped because of the date that was on the motion.

So I've changed that date to now say February 13, 2019, therefore giving us a little more time to bring the minister forward. Given that the Prime Minister is committed to openness and transparency, and that the minister of this department has been called on to be open with us as a committee, as well as with those of us who are members of the opposition, I would put this motion forward and ask that we be able to bring the minister forward to this committee and be able to ask her questions with regard to her new mandate, so we would be better able to do our job on this committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Just to comment on that, the motion was not turned down. The debate was stopped. I had to clear that up.

Sheila, you have the floor for questions and comments.