Evidence of meeting #4 for Status of Women in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was care.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Marcie Hawranik  Founder and President, Canadian Equality Consulting
Megan Walker  Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre
Ann Decter  Director, Community Initiatives, Canadian Women's Foundation
Morna Ballantyne  Executive Director, Child Care Now
Hélène Cornellier  Coordinator of Action Plan and Communications, Association féminine d'éducation et d'action sociale
Sara Wolfe  Director, Indigenous Innovation Initiatives, Grand Challenges Canada
Vicki Saunders  Founder, SheEO
Kaitlin Geiger-Bardswich  Communications and Development Manager, Women's Shelters Canada
Lorraine Whitman  President, Native Women's Association of Canada
Jill Earthy  Interim Chief Executive Officer, Women's Enterprise Centre
Linda Gavsie  Senior Vice President, Universal Learning Institute
Anita Khanna  National Director, Public Policy and Government Relations, United Way Centraide Canada
Rhonda Barnet  President and Chief Operating Officer, Avit Manufacturing
Armine Yalnizyan  Economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers, As an Individual

12:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number four of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women. To begin, I would like to thank all of the members for being here today. To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.

Occupational health and safety staff have requested that we limit our movement in the room and wear masks unless seated. Anyone who has their mask on right now is able to take their mask off if they wish. It's a little warm.

Floor markings indicate the path of travel around the table counter-clockwise. Individuals should respect physical distancing and remain two metres from one another, particularly when unmasked. I know for our committee that's very hard because we actually really do care about one another. Try to stay away from one another today.

Seats and microphones have been placed in a manner that respects physical distancing. Therefore, I'm asking that they remain in the same location throughout this meeting.

To minimize health risks, you will note that personnel attending today have been limited. Staff have received a phone number and they can listen in on the proceedings in real time. You will note that no paper documents have been distributed. All documents have been distributed electronically to members. Should you require a copy of a document, please advise the clerk of the committee by emailing her at fewo@parl.gc.ca.

Today we're going to begin on the motion from Jag Sahota to begin a study today on the effects of COVID-19 on women.

I'm going to pass this over to Jag to read her motion.

12:05 p.m.

Conservative

Jag Sahota Conservative Calgary Skyview, AB

The motion reads as follows:

That the committee commence a study of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, for a total of six hours to begin an examination of: a) how the COVID-19 pandemic has uniquely impacted women; (b) what supports women need in preparation for a potential second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic; and, (c) to consider the specific challenges that women in Canada are facing, namely: (i) women’s physical safety and security as it relates to evident increases in domestic violence, human trafficking, and overarching health-related concerns for vulnerable demographics, such as seniors; (ii) women’s economic stability as it relates to the closure of workplaces across the country, reduced family income, and the inability for many women-owned and operated small businesses to conduct business as usual; and (iii) social pressures or obstacles due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including caregiving for children, elderly parents; or other family members; and that as a part of the study, the Minister of Women and Gender Equality and the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, as well as other witnesses appear before the committee on July 7, 2020 to discuss the government’s response to COVID-19 and how it relates to women.

12:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Thank you very much, Jag.

Is there any discussion from that motion? Seeing no discussion, do we all agree with this motion?

(Motion agreed to)

That's unanimous. Thank you very much.

Beginning at 12:30, the committee will commence a study of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women for a total of six hours. We will hear from the ministers tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. till 12 p.m. Following the study, a report will be produced for the consideration of the committee. If the committee agrees, we will quickly discuss drafting instructions with the analysts before we adopt the study budget.

Is it agreed to move in camera to have this discussion?

(Motion agreed to)

Fantastic. We will now move in camera. Thank you.

[Proceedings continue in camera]

[Public proceedings resume]

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

I'd like to reconvene our meeting. Good morning to everyone.

Welcome to the study of the impacts of COVID-19 on women. Today we're meeting until 6 p.m. to receive the testimony on this important topic.

We'll begin with opening statements of 10 minutes from the witnesses, followed by the rounds of questions. During the questioning of witnesses, there will be six minutes for the first questioner of each party, as follows: round one, Conservative Party, Liberal Party, Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party. For the second round, we'll continue to work together on those.

I'll ask the members to raise their hands to ask any questions, if we're not able to get everything circulated appropriately.

We're going to start with our first panel and I am very honoured to welcome Megan Walker, the executive director of the London Abused Women's Centre, as well as Marcie Hawranik, founder and president of Canadian Equality Consulting.

We'll start off with Marcie.

Marcie, you have the floor for 10 minutes.

12:35 p.m.

Marcie Hawranik Founder and President, Canadian Equality Consulting

Thank you. I'd like to first thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to testify before you today regarding the impact of COVID-19 on women or, as I like to reframe it, the intersectional gender impact of COVID-19.

To start, I'm sure we all agree that we live in a country that isn't equal and where gender inequality persists. You can see this to be true by looking at the many barriers that women and other marginalized or under-represented populations in the workplace experience, which I see every day in my work. You can also see gender inequality in the lack of women in leadership and in domestic violence rates in this country, by examining the ingrained biases and stereotypes that we all have and that we've all learned, and by looking at gendered sectors and the value or worth that society places on them.

For instance, sectors heavily dominated by men are given greater value than those by women, and sectors dominated by women tend to still have male leadership. Also, there is the persistent gender wage gap. You can pretty much examine any sector in Canada and find evidence of gender inequality, and this was our reality pre-COVID-19.

We were also starting an economic slump pre-COVID-19, especially in Alberta where I'm based. As you typically see in economic downturns, violence against women increases, caregiving responsibilities to women increase, and many of those other gender inequality indicators skyrocket.

Now, once COVID-19 hit, it accelerated and exacerbated all of these inequalities. Then employment dropped related to social distancing measures, creating a large impact on sectors with high female employment shares. The virus itself doesn't discriminate based on gender or sex, but its systems and sectors that we have created and designed are discriminatory. COVID-19 is the flashlight illuminating all of the cracks of inequality in our system.

The workers who are most affected by COVID-19, those who we rely on to keep us safe and informed are, by the very nature of their jobs, at most risk of contracting COVID-19, and they are predominantly women. Our health care sector is dominated by women in Canada. Nurses are 92% women, lab techs are 80% women, respiratory therapists, who are very important during COVID-19, are 75% women, and home care workers and personal support workers are 90% women. These workers at the front line of fighting COVID-19 are all predominantly women, and this extends beyond the health care sector to other jobs on the front line of COVID-19. Our grocery store workers are 84% women, food service industry workers are 72% women, and janitorial staff are 71% women.

When we look at the non-profit sector that includes food banks, shelters, women's shelters, homelessness supports and support for people living with disabilities, that sector is 75% women. That sector alone employs over two million Canadians but also relies heavily on a volunteer workforce of over 13 million people with the majority of those, which is incredibly important, being unpaid labour that helps support our most vulnerable during COVID-19 and, again, they are predominantly women. This sector in particular has also been crippled by a lack of financial relief and by having to delay or cancel fundraising activities.

Then, when we look at the health workers in non-profit sectors that are predominantly women, they also require PPE to do their work and stay safe. We've seen a drastic shortage in PPE that is designed to fit women's bodies. We know that the majority of PPE, even though it is deemed unisex, was designed with only average male bodies in mind, so we are unable to adequately protect these women working on the front line.

The education system is dominated by a female workforce. Teachers are 77% women, and TAs and EAs are 96% women. They have all been drastically affected by COVID-19. When we look at the closing of schools, this results in predominantly women having to home-school their children, having to become their own day cares or care for elderly parents, neighbours or co-workers while meticulously cleaning and sanitizing their homes now in addition to the usual grocery shopping, organizing and laundry, and this is on top of working their usual day job. We know this because 75% of women caregivers in Canada are also employed full-time. We know that women are more likely to work over 20 plus hours a week than men as a caregiver and twice as likely to provide personal care. These stats come pre-COVID-19.

When we apply an intersectional lens, we also learn that racialized women have more caregiving responsibilities than white women. Alternatively, as you know, COVID-19 has also resulted in women having to completely drop out of the workforce due to these heavy caregiving and schooling responsibilities. A study was recently conducted to verify this and found that the majority of women who were seriously considering quitting their jobs during this time due to this caregiving were single mothers, then racialized women, followed by Asian women and then white women.

We also know that in March alone labour data revealed that women accounted for two-thirds of job losses despite making up less than half of the workforce to begin with. Those who didn't lose their jobs lost 50% more work hours than men. Also in March, women between the ages of 25 and 54 years—that core working group—lost more than twice the jobs than men in that same age group. Nearly half of this decrease was among women working in part-time and often low-paying jobs in the service or care industries.

In other cases, it's been reported that women are choosing to exit the workforce. Between February and March, the number of core-age women who were not in the Canadian labour market grew substantially, by over 10%, but this isn't a choice to leave the workforce. It is a need, because, for example, in heterosexual relationships, women are typically paid less than their male partners and are expected to be more responsible for caregiving, and now someone has to do it and look after children and school them, because they're all at home together. The CERB program may help these women in the short term, but this unfortunately will also have longer-term negative effects on their career and future earning power. That needs to be considered.

The pandemic has also resulted in heightened domestic violence. Shelters, support organizations like the YWCA and organizations that provide informal support to survivors, like Sagesse in Calgary, as well as policing agencies, have all reported heightened domestic violence rates. Several of them mentioned that the rates were lower at the beginning of the pandemic due to strict social isolation when women were trapped at home with their abusers, as an example, and then, once restrictions started to loosen, the rates just skyrocketed.

We also know that women are more likely to experience poverty and have lower incomes. Women work two-thirds of minimum-wage jobs, putting them increased risk of unemployment and a greater risk of poverty.

All of these impacts that have been documented thus far contribute to greater gender inequality in Canada. In order to mitigate these disproportionate impacts and to prepare for a second wave of COVID-19, we need to ensure that all of our decisions are made with an intersectional gender lens to ensure we're not repeating these patterns of inequality and discrimination and that we can begin to make incremental and lasting change for the betterment of everyone.

I'm an advocate of gender-based analysis plus, or GBA+, and it's incredibly important to ensure that this lens is being applied to all COVID-19 response, management and prevention decision-making. Now is the time to double down on GBA+. A good GBA+ analysis doesn't examine just sex and gender but also includes race, ethnicity, culture, language, ability, age, sexual orientation and other factors such as geographic location. The government's GBA+ informed program would then be more effective and tailored to specific regions in Canada to remove barriers that specific populations may experience.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission, the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council and the United Nations, along with a multitude of gender equality stakeholders across Canada and the world, have been advocating for countries to take a feminist approach to COVID-19. If we don't double down and ensure that an intersectional feminist lens like GBA+ is effectively applied to all of our decisions and interventions, we will fail Canadians, and women will continue to bear the brunt of the pandemic.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Thank you very much, Marcie.

Now we're going to move over to Megan Walker, the director at the London Abused Women's Centre.

Megan, you have the floor for 10 minutes.

12:45 p.m.

Megan Walker Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Good afternoon to you and the members of the committee.

The London Abused Women's Centre is a non-crisis, non-residential feminist agency that provides women and girls over the age of 12 who are victims of male violence with immediate access to long-term, woman-centred, trauma-informed service. This includes women and girls who are abused in their intimate partnerships; are trafficked or sexually exploited into the commercial sex trade, including pornography; are sexually assaulted by strangers or acquaintances or via date; and/or are subjected to sexual harassment and torture.

LAWC also provides support and counselling to family members of women and girls who have been trafficked or sexually exploited, who are missing or who have disappeared. Many parents have travelled from cities across this country to London, Ontario, to meet with us at LAWC to help us find their daughters. Without LAWC's support, more than 200 family members would continue every single day to check online ads to see if their daughters were still being advertised to provide violent sexual services to men. They do this because they need to know whether their daughters are alive or dead. During the 2019-20 fiscal year, LAWC provided service to 8,100 women and girls, a 107% increase over previous years.

COVID has significantly impacted the lives of women, girls and all children. Women have been forced to isolate in their homes with their abusers. Imagine, just for one moment, how your lives would be impacted if you were forced to remain in your home while knowing that you would be repeatedly assaulted, raped, tortured, debased and maybe even killed. Now imagine your young children being forced to witness or be exposed daily to the violence their mother is facing. Some of these children may be harmed as they attempt to help their mothers. Others may be murdered along with their mothers. Older children will sometimes gather the younger siblings and take them to their bedroom, where they will pull dresser drawers or chests in front of their bedroom doors to keep their dad away.

During COVID, many agencies, including LAWC, had to close their physical space and work from home, providing online groups and phone counselling. Women trapped in their homes who needed help couldn't call for phone counselling. They couldn't call for the police. They couldn't run to a friend's home. Leaving their abuser under ideal circumstances is very, very difficult. During COVID, it was almost impossible. If they themselves were able to find a way to leave, they wouldn't do so if it meant leaving their children behind. Most women in these situations live under constant threat of being killed or having their children killed. If the police do arrive, thanks to the wonderful alertness and intervention of a neighbour who decides to take action, where will she take those children? The shelters are full. There is no place for women and children to go.

During COVID, we did connect with the London Police Service because we identified that having no place to go was a huge gap. Police need to have a place where they can take women and children immediately, so the London Abused Women’s Centre, in collaboration with the London Police Service, responded by developing a protocol whereby LAWC secured safe hotel rooms so that police could take women and their children immediately to a hotel. LAWC negotiated with the hotel so that police could just drop in there with women day or night, at any time, and LAWC would respond any time by stepping in to provide food cards, clothing, diapers and any other identified needs. We provided counselling and safety planning immediately, and we helped women get to shelters as spaces became open. We helped them find long-term housing.

This was a huge upfront cost to the London Abused Women’s Centre, but we were later supported by the United Way and recently by WAGE through the Canadian Women's Foundation to cover those costs. It certainly was not a perfect solution, but it provided hope when sometimes it was hope that was missing.

Aside from the last two weeks of April and the first two weeks of May, following the femicide in Nova Scotia when LAWC service demands increased by almost 50%, our overall service demands during COVID decreased by 18%, as did the London Police Service's. This was all attributed to the nine weeks when we worked from home. Our physical office was closed to walk-in and drop-in clients and we were not able to provide services to women and girls in youth or adult detention services. Phone and Zoom groups were simply not accessible to women at home with their abusers. COVID kept women hostage in their homes with their abusers. How could women possibly reach out for service when they couldn't even go to the bathroom without asking for permission to do so?

However, LAWC's anti-trafficking program saw a 37% increase in service requests during COVID, notwithstanding the federal government's decision to discontinue to fund our trafficking program in the very middle of COVID. The London community sustained us by providing funding to keep our program open until July 31. Had our community not provided funding to sustain that program temporarily, 650 trafficked and sexually exploited women and girls to whom we have provided long-term service would have had no place to go except back to their traffickers, where they may have ended up in the morgue.

That of course does not bode well for a government that prides itself as being feminist. The fact that the Trudeau government thought it was okay to eliminate funding to all anti-trafficking programs across Canada in the midst of a deadly pandemic is deeply concerning about this government's commitment to women and girls. We find it devastating and appalling.

Trafficking and sexual exploitation did not suddenly disappear or slow down during COVID. It increased. Men who believe they have a right to pay to rape women and girls increased their demand for underage and young women and girls. Sex purchasers fuelled the demand for young girls and women, and it is traffickers who are always at the ready to make sure they have the supply needed to meet this increased demand. COVID was no exception. Traffickers continue to traffic vulnerable young women and underage women from city to city and from hotel to hotel along the 400-series highways.

There is of course no social distancing and no PPE in the sex trade. While those precautions are mandated for health care practitioners exposed to bodily fluids, that would be contrary to the very purpose of the sex industry, which is to allow men unfettered access to rape women and girls.

Men pay more for unprotected sex, and they pay more for the money shot where they can ejaculate on a woman's face. Not only have I not heard any public health official or politician address this, we've heard that too many of them believe that the role of women is to satisfy men, their sexual fetishes and fantasies.

With schools closed, with children at home and parents working from home, we saw an increase in online luring of children. Girls were pressured to strip and masturbate for traffickers. They were young and naive and thought the boy or man online was interested in them. They never expected to be videotaped in various stages of nudity and masturbation.

The videos were uploaded to foreign sites like Pornhub that is operated by MindGeek in Montreal. Horrified and devastated parents called LAWC for help in removing these videos. We have been attempting to do so, working very hard, but the reality is that, once these videos are up, they are easily downloaded and, even when removed from porn sites, they remain forever embedded in somebody's download file.

It's important for you to know that the funding the Trudeau government eliminated for LAWC's anti-trafficking program on behalf.... We served on behalf of the government, and it was eliminated. It cost only $164,000 per year.

12:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

We only have a few seconds left, Megan.

12:55 p.m.

Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre

Megan Walker

Okay, thanks.

I just want to say that we are living in extraordinarily difficult times for women and for girls. Governments make a lot of promises to vulnerable and marginalized populations, but their actions move at a snail's pace, if at all.

We're asking that the government take its blinders off and invest in all Canadians, not just those with a voice and the means to make campaign donations.

Thank you.

12:55 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Thank you very much.

We're now going to start our round of questions. I'm going to pass the floor over to Raquel.

Raquel, you have six minutes.

12:55 p.m.

Conservative

Raquel Dancho Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to Ms. Walker and Ms. Hawranik for being here today. I greatly appreciated your testimonies.

I'm a member of Parliament from Manitoba, and we know that the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted women, as you have both outlined, and in Manitoba we're facing a quite dire situation.

Ms. Hawranik, as you mentioned, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we were facing some of the highest rates of domestic violence against women in the country. We have over 12,000 children, from my last count, in child and family services, which is the most per capita in the world, and for those reasons and many others, I've been advocating to the wage officials and the minister that we get an office in Manitoba, which we don't currently have, and there have been a number of alarming things that have popped up lately in the media.

We had a report from Shared Health Manitoba that there were over 90 cases reported of sexual assault involving the date-rape drug in 2018, and of course we know that very few sexual assault cases are reported.

This is clearly a rampant issue in Manitoba, and I just want to say that I really appreciate the work you're both doing. We take this very seriously as members of Parliament.

I want to speak to you first, Ms. Hawranik, about the GBA+ work that you do. I want to get your take on some of the programs the government has announced over the last number of months. We know it acted very quickly to bring forward these programs. My concern is that we're not aware of any GBA+ that was put on some of these programs, and I was wondering if you could comment on the CECRA program, the commercial emergency rental assist program for commercial properties. I may have got the acronym wrong there, but it's the program where the government will pay 50%, the tenant 25%, and then the landlord would take a 25% cut specifically.

We're seeing very little uptake of this program, and anecdotally I'm hearing that women entrepreneurs are having a much more difficult time getting this program. I'm wondering if you've had any experience with that and if you could elaborate on what a GBA+ may have shown on this program, had it been done.

1 p.m.

Founder and President, Canadian Equality Consulting

Marcie Hawranik

Sure.

Thank you for sharing those stats about Manitoba. It's pretty similar out in Alberta as well.

In terms of the Canada emergency commercial rent assistance program, I know that and I've been in communication with a lot of different women's support organizations, particularly organizations that work to advance female entrepreneurship in Canada. I've seen and heard very similar things from female entrepreneurs across the country. I've heard from ones in Manitoba and Alberta and even in downtown Toronto.

What we know is that female entrepreneurs experience many unique barriers. One of them is being able to access capital and financing. Women entrepreneurs already face an uphill battle in growing and scaling their businesses and in having the necessary capital and income to ride out pandemics like COVID-19. Added to the situation, what I've heard from female entrepreneurs across the country is that the Canada emergency commercial rent assistance program—on which I haven't yet seen quantitative data, and I would encourage the government to share that if they have it—has failed them in a way.

For example, there's an entrepreneur in downtown Toronto named Caleigh. She's an incredible entrepreneur who owns an amazing business that is a large-scale fitness company but that also incorporates a coffee shop and co-working spaces for other female entrepreneurs. She almost had to close her doors for good. The only thing that prevented her from having to shut down for good was that the public health restrictions had started to loosen. She was able to slowly reopen and re-engage, but definitely that program itself didn't help.

1 p.m.

Conservative

Raquel Dancho Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB

Thank you, Ms. Hawranik.

I'll go to Ms. Walker now.

I have one question regarding some of the funding the government announced, some $75 million of targeted funding, much of it related to human sex trafficking. I know that, Ms. Walker, your organization, the London Abused Women's Centre, did not receive any of that funding in this round. I do know that PACE in Vancouver, an organization that takes an approach that is different from that of your organization, to, I suppose, legitimize sex work rather than combatting human sex trafficking, which I know is the London Abused Women's Centre's approach....

I just want to get your two cents' worth on how you feel about this government's approach to sex work versus human trafficking and the priorities they are thereby putting forward.

1 p.m.

Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre

Megan Walker

We would never call it sex work because we don't believe exploitation of women and girls is actually work. What is really upsetting is that the Government of Canada did not advise any of the organizations that were previously funded through MAPI that they would not be receiving the funding. In fact, it took us calling repeatedly, and it was not until after our funding period ended that we were advised there would be no funding.

The government has now taken an approach in which instead of allocating funding equally across this country as it did at one time, it has issued a targeted proposal call to nine organizations whereby each of them can apply for up to $750,000 per year for four years. Three of them will be chosen.

When you compare $750,000 a year for four years for three organizations to $164,000—the cost of the work the London Abused Women's Centre, an internationally recognized organization, has done nationally—none of this makes sense.

1 p.m.

Conservative

Raquel Dancho Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB

Thank you, Ms. Walker.

Thank you, Ms. Hawranik, as well. I appreciate the comments from both of you.

1:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Sonia Sidhu

Gudie.

1:05 p.m.

Liberal

Gudie Hutchings Liberal Long Range Mountains, NL

Thank you, Chair.

Ladies, thank you both for being here today in these unprecedented times. Most importantly, thank you for the work you do helping Canadians, helping women and young girls and everyone. You're doing phenomenal work.

Ms. Walker, I want to give you a shout-out. I believe it was early days in the pandemic that you realized and brought to attention the fact that the human trafficking hotline had ceased to work. Thank you for bringing that to the government's attention. It was interesting that you reached out on one day and the next day, thankfully, the Minister of Public Safety had it up and relaunched. Since the relaunch, it's received more than 340 contacts. So I thank you for that. If it wasn't for that, those ladies and friends would have slipped through the cracks again.

Ms. Hawranik, I really loved what you said, that COVID is the “flashlight”. We all know that a lot of these issues have been on the go for so long, and COVID did put the flashlight on them. What are we doing, and what can we do better, to make sure that when the second wave comes, we've addressed it, and that, more importantly, we've made changes for the organizations and these women and children and young boys in the future going forward?

I have just a couple of little points I want to bring up with you. Number one is that with regard to the funding that was announced in 2015, it was known that it was going to expire in 2020. We recognize the importance of human trafficking. That's why the human trafficking strategy will be launching at the end of this month, I believe. That will be great. We know that we're investing $75 million across the government, with $10 million for WAGE; applications from the WAGE funding for that will open shortly.

We know that there's an urgency of action. That's why we're rolling out some things now. We know that we need to address gender-based violence in all its forms. That's why we're supporting the national action plan with more than $200 million in additional investment. We know that women are at the core of our first-ever national housing strategy. It's our 10-year, $55-billion plan to give more Canadians a place to call home. Of those investments, 30% has to go to projects that benefit women and girls.

On top of that, we've promised to create at least 7,000 shelter spaces by 2027. We hit that number long before the pandemic of COVID-19 hit. However, since the pandemic began, we've doubled down on funding for vulnerable women and their families. One of our first announcements was $50 million for this group, including $30 million for shelters and sexual assault centres; $10 million for indigenous shelters through Indigenous Services Canada; and a $10-million contingency fund for groups, like the London Abused Women's Centre, to provide the essential non-shelter services to help so many women.

Through Women's Shelters Canada, we've provided more than $20 million to more than 420 women's shelters across Canada from coast to coast to coast. Through the Canadian Women's Foundation, we've provided more than $2 million to more than 90 sexual assault centres. We've worked with the Province of Quebec to deliver funding there as well. We've provided that province with $6.46 million. According to the most recent report, that has gone to over 120 women's shelters and 50 sexual assault centres in the province of Quebec. As we speak, the contingency fund is flowing out the door via the Canadian Women's Foundation.

We don't know exactly how many organizations have received money from that so far, but we do and can confirm that one of the recipients was yours, Ms. Walker, the London Abused Women's Centre.

To touch on child care for a minute, I just want to make sure.... Again, from all the conversations, in terms of our women being ready and able to go back to work, it's the child care component that is so important. We proudly signed the first-ever multilateral agreement with the provinces and territories on early learning and child care, because we understand that investing in our children means investing in our future. We have provided $7.5 billion, between 2017 and 2028, to give the children the best possible start in life. Since 2017 we've created more than 40,000 child care spots, providing kids who need it the most with quality, affordable and culturally appropriate child care. We have put a lot of money in the pockets of nine out of 10 families with the Canada child benefit. We're currently in the process of renewing each of the bilateral agreements with the provinces and territorial partners. We hope to announce those agreements soon. We all know that child care is basically the responsibility of the province, as many segments are, but we're jumping in to help out there.

We know that there's still quite a lot more to do. It's important to recognize how far we've come, but between 2015 and 2019, our government increased funding to women's and gender equality-seeking organizations from less than $20 million under the last year, in 2014, of the Harper government, to more than $65 million a year since then.

This year, through the Department of Women and Gender Equality, WAGE, a department that didn't exist before but was instead a subsection of another department, our government has approved total funding of over $110 million. That's more than the combined total funding in the last five years of the Conservative government, so it's wonderful that this has come to the forefront. Thanks to our investments, we are providing essential funding to more than 1,200 organizations.

Ms. Hawranik, I'd be curious to hear from you, as we talk about the COVID-19 issue, about your experiences in Alberta when you hit the downturn in the oil and gas industry, which my province is going through now too. What programs did you come up with that really helped? How can we learn from what you did in Alberta and from your experiences there? What can we learn and glean from that to take forward in what we're doing in COVID now and what we have to do coming up in the second wave of COVID?

1:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Sonia Sidhu

I'm sorry. The time is over. You have just 10 seconds. Quickly, please.

1:10 p.m.

Liberal

Gudie Hutchings Liberal Long Range Mountains, NL

I thought I had seven minutes. I'm sorry.

1:10 p.m.

Founder and President, Canadian Equality Consulting

Marcie Hawranik

We're still in the thick of it in Alberta and in the emergency response phase. I think it might be too soon to share anything we did that's really good and that could be replicated across the country, because Albertans are still really suffering, especially the women, but I do have some more general recommendations that I think would be applicable across the country, and that's to ensure that collection of diversity- and gender-disaggregated data in everything.

I've communicated with emergency management agencies across the country. What they've all shared with me is that they are not applying a GBA+ lens and they are not putting this intersectional lens on their work, because they feel that they're in an emergency and it is the first thing that gets left out, which I think is unacceptable. I'd love for the federal government to take leadership and push or advocate for that, especially since GBA+ should not be slowing down their work or their processes at all. It's been around since 1995. It was reinvigorated—thank you very much—in 2016. Over the last few years, it should already have been seamlessly integrated into the way the government does business.

I commend you for your investments in child care and, as well, I think a really targeted approach to fund emergency, accessible and flexible child care for everyone would be amazing, and also, even establishing permanent top-ups for professionals who work with people with disabilities, the elderly or those experiencing domestic violence and homelessness.

I also think that anything we can do to disrupt and affect the social norms that perpetuate inequality and advance gender equality, which could be some sort of campaign to disrupt these biases and social norms to prevent the—

1:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Sonia Sidhu

Thank you, Ms. Hawranik.

The next speaker will be from the Bloc.

1:10 p.m.

Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre

Megan Walker

Excuse me, Madam Chair. Your former speaker, Ms. Hutchings, mentioned the London Abused Women's Centre twice. I just want to say that this opportunity for us to appear is important so that you can learn what's going on in the community.

1:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Sonia Sidhu

Ms. Walker, you can answer in the next question.

Now the next turn goes to the Bloc.

Go ahead.

1:10 p.m.

Executive Director, London Abused Women's Centre

Megan Walker

I'm just concerned about political speeches on the floor when we are here to actually be consulted with.

1:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Sonia Sidhu

Andréanne, go ahead.