Status of Women Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2021

[Louise Rellis]

They do, but it's taking them longer. They're talking themselves out of reaching out. They're not seeing the support they need in their rural communities, so they say, “What's the point? They can't do anything for me here. I'm not going to get the help I need.”

When we do reach out to them, we have so many barriers that we have to try to knock away to build their confidence, and let them know we're here for them in whatever capacity we can help. We are trying to strip away the barriers they have built up as a defence mechanism, as well as their feelings that they're not worth it, because they are not seeing the supports available in their communities.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good.

We'll go to Ms. Mathyssen for six minutes.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Ms. Rellis, I'm truly always moved by the incredible work done by organizations like yours. That hopelessness, that despair, that feeling of not having options and choices is the exact opposite of where we need to be in terms of those supports for women. I'm so grateful for the work you do.

I want to build a bit on what Ms. Hutchings was talking about in terms of that funding. You don't receive federal funding. I would be so grateful to her and her office to know what supports you need, and to see where you need to go for some of that federal funding, if possible.

You also talked about being capped. Why are you capped? I don't understand that.

[Louise Rellis]

From my understanding, and as I said, our executive director deals with the funding aspects, so she would have more information on that, but up to two years ago, all victim service units were capped at $150,000 as a funding grant. It was—

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Provincially.

[Louise Rellis]

Yes.

We were continually told that they were trying to access the victims of crime funding. That was changed to what our belief was that victim service units could actually access that funding when it got reconfigured. Two years ago, urban centres were granted twice the amount. They were given $300,000, while all the other rural units were still capped at that $150,000 mark.

I have been with the unit five years, and in my role and position with the unit—I started as a volunteer advocate before my position—unfortunately, I have seen the files increase phenomenally. It shocks me as a community member that we're still capped at the same funding amount.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

As with a lot of the organizations that you work with, I think that you're in the same boat. You rely upon individual donations—

[Louise Rellis]

Yes.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

—from fundraisers and so on. That, of course, has been impacted, like so many, by COVID. You're unable to run typical fundraisers.

I assume you've heard that as well from a lot of the organizations that you rely upon—

[Louise Rellis]

Yes, I have.

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

—or that you work in partnership with.

One of the things that I've been pushing for is—that do receive federal funding or any sort of government support—that there is a fundamental shift away from that project base to a core operational funding model, so that you don't have to shift so much.

Would you be in support of those sorts of solutions? Do you see how that would help? Give examples of how that would help your organization.

[Louise Rellis]

Yes, for sure.

I feel that in an equitable funding distribution going out to the rural communities, to those organizations.... Even looking at the history of our budgeting and our funding applications and how much they have grown, our operational cost is greater than what we receive in funding. Looking at that and how much that has built over the years is a clear example of our not getting enough to support the victims we need to support.

The costs of everything have increased all across the board over time. In that sense, the funding should match the increase in costs.

If we knew that we had the core funding to do what our core units can do and then we can have access to the programs, it would be showing the value of what we do as a unit. We are first responders. We get calls to.... I'm sure you can all imagine what we get called to at times.

However, we are not seeing the worth in what we do. We are seeing, “Okay, you do important work, but you're not worth being paid what your value is.” Seeing that is disheartening, you could say, that you have to fight to get what your worth is.

It's not for yourself. It's not personal gain. It's to get out to those people in the communities, and the rural communities especially, to say, “We're here. We've got you. We're not sending you to an urban centre. We're not sending you 50 kilometres somewhere else. We have you right here where you're needed.”

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

To shift a little bit, a colleague of mine introduced a private member's bill that would help address domestic violence, which, of course, you also help with and see a great deal of. It would help in terms of making controlling or coercive conduct in those intimate relationships a criminal offence.

In your experience, would you agree that police often lack the ability to intervene in domestic violence cases until it's too late, until something physical has happened?

This type of legislation is something that the federal ombudsman for victims of crime has supported.

Would you and your organization be supportive of this type of legislation? What do you think would specifically help if this type of legislation was enacted?

[Louise Rellis]

I, for sure, see that it's something we would get behind.

Touching on officers and domestic violence—and this is in no way to diminish their role or their capacity, and it's human too—they see the hard stuff daily. When they're called to domestic violence and the victim is not openly saying what happened, won't give a statement, they're tied; there's only so much they can do.

It's not to say that they're diminishing the importance in that role. However, when they've seen those accidents where someone is on the side of the road, those workplace accidents, where they've seen a tragic situation and then they're coming to a home where the victim looks okay, she says she's okay and is not making a statement, well, there's not much they can do.

The bruising is on her body. It's not visible. While there's the fear in her voice “help me”, trying to break that barrier is just.... The officers don't see that because they have seen so much worse.

Even re-educating and trying to build the capacity, for sure....

[Lindsay Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

I keep shifting—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry. That's the end of your time.

We're going to the second round of questions now, and we'll start with Blaine Calkins for five minutes.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

My goodness, it's my first day at this committee in years and I'm getting all the time. I appreciate that Madam Chair.

I want to go back to Lorie and Wendy.

You both indicated clearly that you've been victimized numerous times; you don't feel safe. If you were to talk to your friends and neighbours in your respective communities, would they have similar experiences to yours? Have they all been victimized as well?

If you took a 10-mile swath all around you in a rural area, what would you say that percentage is? Would you say that most people have been, for lack of a better term, hit by now?

[Lorie Johanson]

Thank you for bringing that back.

Yes, because we help run our rural crime watch association, quite often the first email that comes from the RCMP comes to us. Because we're so close, if we took a 10-mile radius, you would have very few people who have not been hit by rural crime at least once. Quite a few people have been hit more often.

[Wendy Rewerts]

It's the same in Saskatchewan in our area. In a 10-mile radius, I would say 80% of the residents have been victimized, not only once but on numerous occasions, vehicles being stolen out of their yards and that sort of thing. It's for sure several times.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Roughly and anecdotally, we're looking at an 80% and up victimization rate in your neighbourhood. I'm talking about recently, not 25 years ago.

When I grew up on the farm, I think the biggest threat we had was that maybe someone would pull up to the gas tank—the purple gas—and fill up a car. Very little stuff went missing. That's not the case at all anymore, is it?

[Wendy Rewerts]

No. We have security cameras inside the shop building and outside in the yard. We've had video of these culprits coming in, but they're wearing masks or they have their hoods up. They're smart enough to have their backs to where they see the cameras. Therefore, it's of no use to the police when we show it to them. They can't identify anybody.

[Lorie Johanson]

As I said in my statement, in our case the first time they came in the house, they just took menial things. However, when they were in the second time and the third time, they were after the big stuff as well as our guns that we use to put down cattle.

They're not just after the fuel anymore. We have had that as well. The second time they were in, they were after the fuel, but they were also standing there with cigarettes, so we're not quite sure how that would have worked out had they gotten the nozzle off the tank.

We find in this area it's more your big things. It's your quads. We use those every day to move our cattle and stuff and to work with our cattle. Here, it's a little of everything, but mainly they're after our guns and the ammunition for those guns. Ours were hidden in our shop. They had to work in there if they wanted to find it, and they managed to get it.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

Isn't that something?

[Lorie Johanson]

Yes.

[Blaine Calkins, Conservative, Red Deer—Lacombe, AB]

As a general consensus in your community, notwithstanding my encouragement to report all crimes, what are the barriers to reporting crimes? Are people just throwing up their hands and saying, “What's the point?” How much do you think goes unreported in your area, anecdotally?