Evidence of meeting #69 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 community.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Connie Laurin-Bowie  Executive Director, Inclusion International
Samantha Letourneau  Settlement Manager, Nanaimo, Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society
Jaime Smith  Executive Lead, Centre for Employment Innovation, St. Francis Xavier University, As an Individual
Anne Davis  Program Coordinator, Comox Valley Transition Society
Ellen Frood  Executive Director, Alberni Community and Women's Services
Anne Taylor  Executive Director, Haven Society

9:40 a.m.

Settlement Manager, Nanaimo, Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON

I think a lot of times we talk about what's there. As government officials we assume people are going to know, but when you're struggling there are so many other things to be looking at and so many other challenges. You're trying to find that time.

We are talking about balance in life. When you're trying to balance your family, your work, and your children, and money and everything else that goes on, taking even that five minutes can sometimes be very difficult.

At a federal level we could probably be doing a better job of making sure people are aware of those programs.

9:40 a.m.

Settlement Manager, Nanaimo, Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society

Samantha Letourneau

I think so. With our clients as well, that information needs to be passed onto them, so that they know how the costs of obtaining foreign credential recognition can be covered. That one of the barriers, but it's also a very lengthy process.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON

Okay.

Thank you very much.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu

Very good.

That's the end of the time we have for our first panel.

We will suspend while we change panels.

9:45 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu

All right. We're back with panel two on our study of the economic security of women in Canada.

As witnesses today, we have from the Comox Valley Transition Society, Anne Davis, the program coordinator. We also have, from the Alberni Community and Women's Services, Ellen Frood, who's the executive director. By video conference we have from the Haven Society, Anne Taylor, the executive director.

Welcome ladies, we're going to give each of you seven minutes for your comments.

We'll begin with Anne Davis.

9:45 a.m.

Anne Davis Program Coordinator, Comox Valley Transition Society

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

The organization that I work for, Comox Valley Transition Society, is located on north central Vancouver Island on the unceded traditional territory of the K'ómoks First Nation.

Our organization provides a range of trauma-informed services for women and their children who have experienced intimate partner violence and sexual assault. These include a transition house, an addiction recovery house, women's counselling, counselling for children who witness abuse, an employment program, homelessness prevention, Aboriginal outreach, drop-in services for women who are homeless or living in deep poverty, girls groups, and a variety of education, awareness, and prevention programs, including a program for men. I have worked in our organization for 25 years in a variety of roles, including as manager of our transition house. Before our organization was up and running, I volunteered to shelter women and children in my own home when they were fleeing violence.

I am aware that your committee has heard from many organizations on a wide range of topics related to women's economic security. What I would like to talk about today is the view from the front line—what we see every day in our services. As I'm sure you are aware, half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of sexual assault or physical violence since the age of 16. Intimate partner violence and sexual assault are the only violent crimes whose incidence is rising. It's important to remember that most of these crimes happen within the context of women's daily lives. The perpetrators are most often known to the survivors. They are intimate partners, co-workers, employers, and fellow students. Eighty-two per cent of employed women who have experienced domestic violence report that it negatively affected their work performance. It has been our experience that these crimes leave women traumatized and often unable to remain in their jobs or continue their studies. They often have to flee from the community in which they have been working or studying.

How can we move forward in our lives if we are not safe in our homes, our workplaces, and our schools? Women wait three to four months to access our counselling program. I'm aware of other counselling programs in B.C. where the wait is two years. The faster the response to an assault of any kind, the more likely it is that a woman will be able to move on in her life. Human resources experts tell us that if anyone is off on a long-term leave for more than six months, the likelihood that she will be able to return to work is less than 50%. This has obvious implications for women who have experienced traumatic events and are on leave from work or have had to quit their jobs while they wait, sometimes for years, for counselling support.

Women's shelters are much more than just a refuge from violence. We provide support around the clock, advocacy, and practical help that assists women in rebuilding their lives. In BC, we haven't received any meaningful increases in funding for our shelters in years. Our own shelter in the Comox Valley is funded to provide a stay that will not typically exceed 30 days. In fact, we have women living in our shelter, often with children, for up to six months because there is no affordable housing. That causes us a lot of sleepless nights. We can't turn women out on the street with nowhere to go. But what if we can't accommodate the next woman who is unsafe? Women who are in our shelter often have to give up their employment because they are in hiding and their workplace is the most obvious place for their partner to look for them. Women in that situation need to be able to move on quickly in order to rebuild their lives and maintain or regain employment. Affordable housing is very much a piece of the puzzle when we think about women's economic security.

We operate a trauma-informed detox and supportive recovery facility because, in our experience, a high percentage of female addicts are victims of sexual assault and intimate partner violence. We have seen so many women who were leading productive lives, even working as colleagues in our community, who were not able to get over what happened to them. They turned to drugs and alcohol as a way to cope. For most of those, paid employment is a distant memory.

We can't look at women's economic security without looking at the context of women's lives. We can't change women's lives if we don't change men's perceptions of women. We need funding for programs for men and boys. It's vital that those programs be carried out by women's anti-violence organizations, or at least in partnership with our organizations, so they are informed by a feminist gender equality lens. Our organization hosts a men's group where men can explore the relationships in their lives in a supportive environment. We fund this critically important prevention program through our thrift shop and through grants when we can get them.

I haven't even touched on the justice system. It has greatly improved in the response to women over the years I've been working. It still has some way to go, but that is too complex a discussion for today.

We need a national action plan on violence against women that addresses the full context of women's lives: affordable housing, income security, affordable child care, pay equity, access to legal representation, and men's prevention programs. Our organizations, which provide support services, need stable, core, ongoing funding that is adequate to address the actual needs.

We need senior government to be relentless in keeping the issue of violence against women—intimate partner violence and sexual assault—front and centre. We can't deal with women's economic security in a meaningful way if we don't deal with violence against women.

Thank you again for this opportunity. I will be happy to take questions.

9:55 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu

Very good.

Now we will go to Ellen for seven minutes.

June 15th, 2017 / 9:55 a.m.

Ellen Frood Executive Director, Alberni Community and Women's Services

Thank you very much. I'm very honoured to be here today.

In 1972, my mother was appointed to the first National Action Committee on the Status of Women. I grew up knowing what equality meant or didn't mean, and 45 years ago one of the major things they spoke about was lack of pay equity, and here we are still talking about lack of pay equity. So somewhere along the line we need to do some work on that.

I'm Ellen Frood. I'm with the Alberni Community and Women's Services Society, otherwise known as ACAWS, and we have a cause. Our programs are exactly what Anne is talking about, so I'm not going to repeat them, but I will tell you a little about Port Alberni. We're located on Vancouver Island. We have a population of just under 18,000. Perhaps most notable is that Port Alberni was the site of one of the largest residential schools in Canada. The echoes of this school still resonate throughout the community. Generations of women and children have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the school. We see these women daily through our programs. We see people who don't understand that abuse, violence, yelling, and hitting are not the norm. That's the norm in their families. So working to break those generational cycles is a key piece that we have to work on.

Educational opportunities in our community through North Island College are typically in human services and community care. So for the STEM or the science, technology, engineering, and mathematical programs, you have to travel outside the community. For many women and low-income earners, that's a barrier—leaving family, finding care for kids is not easy.

The “Clayoquot Sound Vital Signs Report 2015” says, among other things, that our region's living wage is $19.27. While that sounds like a dream for a lot of people, the reality is that 67% of people in our region earns less than our living wage. The “2015 BC Child Poverty Report Card” showed that in Port Alberni 31% of all children under the age of 18 live in low-income families, and of that number, 37% are under the age of five. Sadly we are in the top three communities in B.C. with the highest child poverty rate and 37.5% of Port Alberni families are lone parent families.

Anne spoke very eloquently about the programs and the needs and all of those things, so I'm going to tell you a story. It can be any woman's story anywhere in Canada, but this is a little more specific.

A woman aged 42 was referred to our stop the violence program. Her husband of 10 years had been verbally and physically abusing and threatening her. They had been separated for one year, and even though they'd been separated for a year, those threats continued. He was charged with assault and then awaited a court date; that took place in June of this year. There was a no contact order; however, because the threats continued, there was a breach of that no contact order. Again, Anne referred to the justice system and how complicated it is, so this makes it really hard for a woman.

They have three children; she's a stay-at-home mum, and he is the biological father. During the year they were separated the husband put the family home up for sale; it was in his name. She continued to live in the home; however, it was sold in May of this year, and by July 5 she has to find herself a place to live. She has no references because she's never had to. She doesn't have any income, so she's not really sure where the money is going to come from to take care of all of this. She applied for income assistance and did receive minimal allowances, but again, because of her husband's assets and the perception that there's wealth in the family or the ability to pay, the assistance was minimal. She struggled to pay the household bills, but finally secured herself a job full-time, five days a week, seven hours a day, at minimum wage. In addition to that she now has child care to pay for, and no subsidies are available. I've heard the conversations of the past speakers about the ability or not to access child care.

Finally, the court day came and on the way to court she was rear-ended in a car accident and was taken hospital and unable to attend the court. Unfortunately, it went ahead without her. He was charged and given 18 months probation and an 18-month no contact order with her, but contact with the kids was permitted. There was no jail time, and he carried on back to work without any impact on his income or security. The car is in his name, and he refuses to fix it. She can't access any of the assets from the sale of the home because there's no official separation. He refuses to sign an order. A very lengthy court process will have to take place.

You can see how this story rolls out; there's disadvantage after disadvantage. She doesn't have time, and she doesn't know what to do to take care of herself and her kids. Both her kids are in counselling, one for sexual abuse intervention and the other for children who witness abuse. Those kids are going to be impacted for the rest of their lives by this.

Fortunately, we have programs that will help them and we work with women to do that. We also have wait lists in our community, thankfully not quite as long.

I hear stories such as this every day. I hear a story of a woman who was chased by her partner. Because he was going to kill the dog, she grabbed the dog, put the dog in her car, and tried to drive away. He threw a leash at the windshield. He threw it so hard that the clip on the leash cracked the windshield. Do you know what? She returned to the relationship because she had nowhere else safe to go.

The economic security of women is impacted in many ways, and in Canada, domestic violence is one of the largest. Oftentimes, it is one that we don't see and don't know about. Women are afraid to speak or afraid to leave. The story I recited demonstrates so many factors about intimate partner violence and abuse against women and kids and the impact it has on the economic security of women in Canada. I'll tell you again that many women are stay-at-home mums. They provide supporting and nurturing care in the home and of the family. They don't have independent income.

When faced with the need to work to support a family, unskilled minimum-wage jobs are often the only option. STEM educational opportunities, again, are not widely available in our particular region. Travel is necessary.

So what can you do? Our funding basically remains static. It's not increasing. That means we've had deficits over the last two or three years. If this trend continues and we can't raise the money, we will have to cut programs. I don't think that's the answer.

Social assistance is low; that needs to be looked at. Creating safe, affordable housing opportunities for women who are leaving relationships due to intimate partner relationship is critical.

Lastly, I want to introduce a notion. I want to say this because I feel it so strongly. I want to use the word “refugee” when I speak about the women we work with. We have economic refugees here in Canada. The Canadian government defines female refugees as women who are fleeing a country who are in danger of assault, “to a risk to their life or to a risk of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment”. Well, guess what? That's what happens to women in domestic violence.

There's a critical need to ensure that our systems don't re-victimize these women and their families. We all have a role to play. We need a commitment from the federal government to make sure that funding is flowing, not just to the provinces and then through, but directly to organizations in the community to build programs.

10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu

That's very good. Thank you, Ellen.

Now we'll go to Anne Taylor at the Haven Society, for seven minutes.

10 a.m.

Anne Taylor Executive Director, Haven Society

Thank you for the eloquent presentations of both of my colleagues here on Vancouver Island.

I'd like you to imagine that you are standing by a river and you see a drowning woman floating downstream. You rush in, pull her to shore, and give her mouth-to-mouth. You then look up and see another woman drowning. You rush in again, pull her back to shore, and call for help because now you see another woman floating down the river. You and your community organize yourselves because there's now a continuous flow of women and also children coming down the river, all in dire need of assistance.

At some point, someone suggests going upstream to find out what is happening, but even as your team heads up the river, you see more and more women and children in the river. You know what? It's not just one river in Vancouver Island that I'm talking about. It's rivers across B.C., Canada, and the world.

The World Health Organization declared violence against women to be a global health problem of epidemic proportions. Their study highlights the need for all sectors to engage in eliminating tolerance for violence against women and in better supporting women who experience it. The World Health Organization also reports that countries that invest in women and girls see overall improvements in their economies. When women are unable to participate fully in an economy that is inherently gender biased, it benefits no one.

I start with these findings to make the essential link between violence against women and our economic security. My community colleague Deborah Hollins, executive director of Nanaimo Family Life Association, submitted a brief that outlines the key influencing factors related to women's poverty, as well as recommendations.

We strongly support her brief and will focus here on the main point, that gender-based violence and women's economic security are intricately linked. We are constantly asked in my work, “why doesn't she just leave?” This question suggests a lack of understanding of gender-based violence. We know that women facing domestic violence are from all socio-economic, educational, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. There is an implicit assumption that the solution in this question is simply for her to leave. I would even go further to suggest that it represents the inherent and pervasive victim blaming women face each and every day in our country.

When a woman is forced to make the choice to leave her home because of violence, she is really being forced to make the choice to step into poverty and to bring her children along with her. Wage inequity, lack of accessible child care, and safe affordable housing are a few of the barriers she will have to navigate. This is on top of her safety concerns, the trauma she has experienced, and the high likelihood that she may not be believed or taken seriously or she may even be blamed.

This is an untenable and agonizing choice for her to make, often alone and while terrified for her safety and that of her children. She is having to choose to stay on the shore where she is being abused or to jump into the river where poverty, uncertainty, and isolation await her. What kind of choice is this?

I have worked with women in and around the river for over 30 years. Haven Society has been doing the same for almost 40 years. We have a solid history of responding to the crisis of violence in our communities with all of its complexities and challenges. The reality is critical. It is an epidemic and it is not getting better. According to Statistics Canada, a woman dies every six days at the hands of her intimate partner. This is the sombre reality of intimate partner violence in our country. If she survives and chooses to leave, she will face untold challenges to secure what should be a basic right for us all: to be safe and secure in our homes and communities.

Decades of research point to the sexist attitudes and beliefs about gender, family, marriage, sexuality, and intimacy as a causal factor supporting the tolerance for violence which the World Health Organization references. These attitudes and beliefs enable gender-based violence to occur, to remain hidden, and to be rationalized, justified, and supported as an individual problem of the victim.

These same attitudes and beliefs are foundational to women having to go into the river. Efforts to address this are desperately underfunded, and services responding to everyone already in the river are overwhelmed by the demand.

We know that prevention, education, and addressing the paradigm that tolerates sexist attitudes and beliefs are key, but these kinds of initiatives of ours have not been adequately funded in any sustainable way. For example, we have an excellent Violence is Preventable program that schools in our community are lining up for, but we don't have the resources to fulfill the demand. Our efforts are constantly being disrupted, as we have to work to secure funding and rely on limited and dwindling grant opportunities. It's very uncommon to find and secure multi-year funding. Transition houses in B.C. have not received a funding increase since 2008, even though the demand for our services continues to grow.

This paradigm of tolerance for sexist attitudes and beliefs forms the foundation of, and is the perfect breeding ground for, violence to flourish. While serious crimes in Canada are decreasing overall, gender-based serious crimes are not. This paradigm has been in place for decades. It will not be quickly resolved. It will take a comprehensive multi-faceted strategy. It will take communities being well resourced to respond to women already in the river, so that communities have the resources to go upstream.

Our government must be bold and courageous and demonstrate leadership now . It's time to choose. Go upstream and address the sexist paradigm that is showing up in our homes, in our streets, in our schools, and in our communities. It is time to create a culture of safety.

To achieve this will require multi-year funding, even multi-decade funding, for social educational programs focused on shifting the current sexist paradigm. It will require safe, affordable housing for families. The housing crisis is not just in big cities like Vancouver and Toronto but here in Nanaimo as well. Our vacancy rates are alarming.

Moreover, we need adequate and sustainable resources for community-based, non-profit organizations addressing gender violence, affordable and accessible child care, and resources for communities to collaborate, create partnerships, and generate solutions together, creating a coordinated social response that builds on the wealth, expertise, and knowledge that already exists in every community.

We also need a guaranteed livable wage for all Canadians.

I thank you for your time and attention.

10:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu

Very good.

We'll begin our round of questioning with my colleague Ms. Vandenbeld for seven minutes.

10:10 a.m.

Liberal

Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Thank you very much. I'll be sharing my time with Ms. Ludwig.

Thank you, all of you, for the incredible work you're doing. Know that one reason we're doing this study is that we know that many of the women you're working with have been made invisible. Our purpose is to make sure that they become visible and that we are able to find solutions. We know that there is an intersection between violence and economic security and that it becomes a cycle in terms of child care, discrimination, and the judicial system.

One thing that our government announced a few months ago was an additional $90 million in infrastructure funding for building and refurbishing transitional shelters for domestic violence survivors. Just this week we signed a multilateral framework with the provinces on child care, with $7.5 billion to be provided over the next 11 years.

In fact, in addition to Bill C-51 that was just tabled by the government, this committee is going to reduce barriers to the judicial process for women who have faced violence, including by redefining consent. Also, just this week Minister Monsef announced $18 million for a call for proposals—the largest ever call for proposals—for locally based organizations that are finding solutions.

I would like each of you to comment on how that will make an impact and if there are priority areas that we should also be focusing on.

10:10 a.m.

Program Coordinator, Comox Valley Transition Society

Anne Davis

Yes, those contributions have been noticed and, of course, really appreciated. We need much more. I know that the government hears this on every level from everything that it talks about. It's always that we need more, but we truly do need more.

There are so many women and children out there whose lives are being derailed by violence. While more access to shelters will help, the shelters are overflowing. Why is that? One of the things that government could very usefully do would be to invest quite a bit more in prevention with men and boys. The project that started in B.C., the Be More Than a Bystander project with the BC Lions, has spread to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and I believe the whole CFL has signed on to it now. They will be doing it with all the teams, I believe. That's a huge opportunity for men who are admired by other men and boys to stand up and speak out against violence.

The people who contributed to that project with the BC Lions, the players who were trained originally, found it a little uncomfortable to go back into the locker room because the sexist jokes were still being made, etc. What they said is that, because of the training they had received, they now felt compelled to say something when that happened. What was so powerful for me is they said that over time the conversation changed in the locker room. They don't hear those comments anymore. That is a really beautiful example of men making change for other men and boys.

There's a place for the federal government to take a lead on this. We really can't change women's situations without changing men's perceptions.

10:15 a.m.

Liberal

Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Thank you.

Go ahead, Ms. Frood.

10:15 a.m.

Executive Director, Alberni Community and Women's Services

Ellen Frood

I don't disagree.

One of the main points I always make is that, as a small grassroots organization in the community receiving funding from a number of different areas, we're constantly underfunded across all programs. If the federal government does go forward with this initiative and releases additional funding, it would be so helpful to receive unrestricted dollars.

Anne Taylor mentioned the grants and the constant need to renew the funding, and not necessarily getting it. We need long-term sustainability. We need to be able to know that long-term sustainability is there. It's never going to happen through a grant application process.

If you were to look at my financial statements for the last 10 years, you would see where I have funding shortfalls. For the last 10 years, we've tried to raise money—not every year successfully. We have a very small reserve, and it's now depleting so that we can maintain our programs at the current level.

The bottom line for me is that those dollars not be restricted. Don't tell me I have to complete a grant application. Ask me to show you where our shortfalls are and that we've been fiscally responsible. I accept that. Let us make the decisions on where the priority needs of our organization lie. Flow directly from the feds to the organizations, and don't ask us to go through another layer.

10:15 a.m.

Liberal

Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Okay.

Did you wish to add something?

10:15 a.m.

Executive Director, Haven Society

Anne Taylor

I certainly want to support everything that my esteemed colleagues have said. The whole point of my presentation was to say that we need to make a really concentrated effort, first, at naming the paradigm that exists, of [Inaudible—Editor] sexist misogynists at work. All sectors need to be involved together to be able to address that.

You talk about making things visible. That's part of what we need to start making visible. Sexism is alive and well in our country. It's represented in the fact that we still do have pay inequity. When I was in university 30 years ago, I remember being upset that women were earning 80¢ on the dollar. Now we're earning less than that. It's discouraging, but at the same time what it points to is that we haven't been putting our attention and resources in places where they are desperately required if we're going to really shift that paradigm.

10:15 a.m.

Liberal

Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON

Thank you.

10:15 a.m.

Liberal

Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB

The very first time I came before the committee, my question was why that women have to leave their homes in the case of violence. They and their children are the ultimate victims.

How can we make that cultural shift so that the perpetrators are actually the ones who leave and feel more of the pain?

Thank you.

10:15 a.m.

Program Coordinator, Comox Valley Transition Society

Anne Davis

I know that in my community the reason that would be given is that there isn't really anywhere for the man to go. There is a transition house that the woman can go to; therefore she goes.

10:15 a.m.

Liberal

Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB

But couldn't we have shelters for men who are in that—

10:15 a.m.

Program Coordinator, Comox Valley Transition Society

Anne Davis

Absolutely.

I'm a mother and a grandmother, and I've been doing this for a long time and it really bothers me. It really hurts sometimes to see the impact on the children when they're taken out of their homes, when their lives are disrupted. They see what's happening to their moms. They see what's happening with their dads. There has to be a better way to do this.

10:15 a.m.

Liberal

Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB

Thank you.

10:15 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Marilyn Gladu

Very good, that's your time.

We'll go to Ms. Vecchio, for seven minutes.