Status of Women Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2021

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent.

Mr. Serré, the last four minutes are yours.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much to the witnesses especially for the two points on broadband and child care.

I want to go back to you, Mr. Maddox, and to your members.

Please advocate to your members for broadband to go back to their municipalities and go back to the private sector. Obviously broadband is private sector-driven in Canada. It's the investments of the private sector that will drive it, but we need to push the private sector to be investing in rural areas.

I mention that because by doing that, the area will then be eligible for some of the federal programs. I know all of us here have mentioned broadband, which has been mentioned since the 1990s. Of all federal governments, provincial governments, and even minority governments in which the opposition had input on the budgets, no one has made broadband a priority with dollars except our government in budget 2019. We added the $1.7 billion, which, with the private sector and provinces, will look like about $6 billion. There are already a lot of communities that have been funded over the last 60 days, so we have to continue advocating on that element. Please continue to do that.

On child care, I will turn to Madam Zimmerman.

Ms. Zimmerman, you mentioned a national strategy and the issues that exist between the federal government and the provinces. You mentioned other countries that are federations.

Can you make any specific recommendations to this committee, to tell us how the federal government could work collaboratively with the provinces to provide parents with a solid, high-quality program of childcare assistance?

[Debbie Zimmerman]

You've asked me to comment on your provincial-federal relations, and I'm not sure I can fix those for you.

I would say there are Scandinavian countries that have some good models around child care. They may not have the same makeup between the federal and provincial governments. To take it a step further, I would say that we have differences even in our own country between Quebec and the rest of the provinces in terms of child care. We have distinct differences in the delivery models. I think there are some really good models out there that could be looked at and that we could broaden.

I agree with your thinking on broadband. It is through the private sector and there has been great success with the federal infrastructure program that's offered and is available. I think that's very encouraging.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you.

If there are any recommendations, please submit them to the national child care panel that's looking at specific recommendations.

Mr. Zimmerman, when you talked about the 31% of women sales consultants being in rural areas compared to 19% of the population overall, when we look at caregiving and parental leave and some of the investments that our government has made, have some of those federal programs helped your members in being able to expand their businesses?

Can you make a few recommendations to enhance them?

[Debbie Zimmerman]

Are you talking to me or Peter?

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Peter and then you.

[Peter Maddox]

Every move that helps women in our industry in terms of whether.... I don't know the specifics of the rollout of programs across the provinces, but if women have more time to focus on their businesses because they're not focusing on their kids or other things, then, yes, obviously their businesses succeed. Those are very positive steps for our industry.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Ms. Zimmerman.

[Debbie Zimmerman]

I would say that the opportunities available for women, because there is such a challenge for them to be able to manoeuvre with these constraints, both financial and not having access to good child care, especially in our region.... I mean, it's spotty at best. Even though we're 12 municipalities within a regional government and we have social services supports, it's still not the best. However, I think it's an opportunity to take a look at it to see how we can come up with some better ideas on how to get access to good child care, not just—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent.

[Debbie Zimmerman]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's all the time we have for this panel today.

I want to thank you, Mr. Maddox and Ms. Zimmerman, for your testimonies today.

We are going to turn our attention to the second panel on challenges faced by women living in rural communities. We will suspend while we do our sound checks.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you for being with us today.

We have today, as individuals, Lorie Johanson and Wendy Rewerts.

Then, from the Central Alberta Victim & Witness Support Society, we have Louise Rellis, administrative and client support.

Each of you will have five minutes to address the committee. Then we'll go into rounds of questions.

We will begin with Lorie for five minutes.

[Lorie Johanson, As an Individual]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

It has always been a privilege of mine to be able to live and farm in Alberta, but for the last few years it hasn't been so great since rural crime has really ramped up in our area and our province. I have to say that it's been mentally draining and exhausting to be living and dealing with this, as I've been a victim multiple times. Other members of my family have been as well.

It's terrifying for me to realize that I'm not safe in my own home, yard and country. Like I said, it's exhausting. Our sense of safety and well-being has been taken away by the criminals who think it is their right and entitlement to come into our house, our yard and our property and take whatever they want. The thing that really frustrates me is that a lot of the time they're saying it's their right to be able to do this, but it's not their right to take those things away from me.

The one thing that really bothers me—and it's a question I ask people quite often—is this: How do we get back to where we feel safe in our country, yards, homes and communities? Right now, that doesn't happen.

Sorry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

No, that's fine.

Very good.

We'll go then to Ms. Rewerts for five minutes.

[Wendy Rewerts, As an Individual]

I totally agree with the last statement. It's exactly what I'm going to be saying. Mine's written out here.

My name is Wendy Rewerts. I'm from Cut Knife, Saskatchewan, a rural community situated in north-central Saskatchewan. I have lived in Saskatchewan all of my life. I'm married and have two sons who are married. They have given us four wonderful grandsons. Together we operate a 15,000 acre grain farm.

Over the years, life in rural areas has become more difficult. Rural crime is the biggest community issue with which we are dealing. It is now a daily worry as to whether we will be able to sleep through the night without someone coming into our yards to see what they can steal. Theft of vehicles, machinery, tools and electronics is a constant worry. Police response time is anywhere from one hour to two days.

Usually these thefts take place after midnight when the RCMP are out on patrol, are alone in the police vehicle and are not allowed to pursue a suspicious vehicle. When we have had to call 911, the dispatchers have no concept of rural areas. We use a legal land description as an address. They have no clue what we're talking about. They want a street address, but we don't live at a street address. Then they want the nature of the issue. When we state that a suspicious vehicle is in our yard, they respond by asking, “How do you know it is suspicious?” This is all taking valuable time away from any chance of catching the culprits. By the time we actually have RCMP notified, the thief is long gone. Should we attempt to follow or confront the thief, we are considered the criminals.

We should have the right to protect our own property. On four different occasions it has been the same vehicle in our yard and no one has been able to stop it. This is to the point of being terrorized.

Many of these criminals are now carrying guns, knives, machetes and who knows what else. This is very unnerving when during busy farm seasons, the women are home alone long into the night. We are nervous when a vehicle drives by slowly, wondering if it is just going by, looking to see if anyone is home, or is it just an innocent person driving by.

The police feel that as long as we have insurance, that is all that is necessary. We now know of people who have had so many insurance claims due to vehicle theft and property theft, they no longer are able to carry insurance. They are considered high risk at no fault of their own.

Our hands are tied. We choose to live in the country because of our farming profession. We do not choose to live here and be terrorized by gun-wielding thieves. This is not a gun issue; it's a crime issue.

If, by chance, the thief is caught and faces charges, the person is either covered under the Young Offenders Act or released, waits to appear before the court, gets a slap on the hand, promises to never do it again and goes home, just to do it all over again.

Living in fear only adds to the sleepless nights, stress and fear of being the victim again. We are law-abiding, taxpaying citizens who are fed up with the lack of support we get from the RCMP and the legal system.

I don't consider where we live as being remote, but it is rural Saskatchewan. We don't have the population of Ontario or other densely populated areas. My nearest neighbour is at least five to six kilometres away. Our nearest detachment is 35 kilometres away. The nearest hospital is 35 kilometres away.

These are some of the issues affecting me and other women living in rural areas of this country. I appreciate the time you have given me to voice my concerns that are having serious consequences on our general and mental health.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

We will go to Ms. Rellis for five minutes.

[Louise Rellis, Administrative and Client Support, Central Alberta Victim and Witness Support Society]

Madam Chair, vice-chairs and committee members, thank you for the invite to speak today on the challenges women in rural communities face.

I am representing Central Alberta Victim & Witness Support Society. We're a non-profit society providing direct support, information and referrals to victims of crime and tragedy. We are housed at the Blackfalds RCMP Detachment. Our organization serves a rural population in central Alberta, including large portions of Red Deer County and Lacombe County, an extensive geography of 2,000 kilometres.

Between August 2019 and August 2020, we provided 2,046 hours of direct victim support, 453 hours of court support, supported 1,226 victims, of whom 361 were victims of bodily emotional trauma due to family violence, and 290 were victims of rural crime, where we are seeing an increase in guns being the weapon of choice. These are our two largest file components.

The more common challenges we see women in our rural communities face are access to shelters and counselling, affordable and accessible child care, affordable housing, affordable transportation, access to food, sustainable and dependable Wi-Fi and Internet infrastructure, and assuredness of their safety at home. Although the current pandemic has increased the organization's capacity to reach more clients by going virtual, the Wi-Fi and Internet infrastructure is not there to support this demand in rural communities. Our vulnerable population often does not have data packages on their cellphones to enable typical Zoom calls.

Some women in rural communities, and I quote, “feel stigmatized about being a redneck, and not feeling comfortable accessing resources in the city”. It takes a lot of courage to reach out and ask for help. Too often they do not have a choice of where they go to access supports, for example, the food bank. If they need to access the food bank, it has to be a local food bank that services their area, whether it works for them or not.

The vulnerable women in our rural communities are often victimized further when trying to access emergency shelters, for example. They are expected to uproot their lives, after already being traumatized and many times assaulted, to travel to whichever urban centre has the available bed. This has been a huge factor in getting vulnerable women and children out of domestic violence situations. No regard is taken for them in their personal lives and relationships. It is purely a case of, if you need to access an emergency shelter, you must access the one you are sent to by Alberta Works in an urban centre.

Those in rural communities have additional barriers in accessing services only available in urban centres, such as government offices, courthouses or specialized medical services. Many do not have transportation available to enable access, and all services predominantly are only open regular hours.

Rural crime is another major concern for women in our communities. They do not feel safe in their homes and struggle with more and more anxiety when their partners are gone to work or they are home alone in the evenings or nighttime. Their mental health is suffering. Too often, funding and services are routed to larger towns and cities and nothing is available for struggling families in rural Alberta. Many urban organizations receive funding for outreach programs to support those in rural communities, but many times the rural population must travel to those urban centres to access and they are often not adaptable to different challenges in their communities.

There is an inequitable distribution of funding. Rural communities need to build their capacity to support their community members. We need to stop victimizing victims further. Funding needs to be equitable between urban and rural communities. Take, for example, victim service units. Our rural unit is capped at $150,000 per annum, funded by Justice and the Solicitor General, but up to eight urban victim service units receive double that amount. We cover a larger geographic area and we respond to all calls requesting support. Some urban communities have specialized response teams available, for example, a domestic violence response team and sexual violence response team. Those victim service units don't respond to those calls, domestic or sexual violence, in an urban centre.

The messaging this is portraying to rural women is that they are not valued the same as their urban counterparts. They must endure more challenges to access resources while also having to leave their community to do so. By connecting with the women in our community when they are victims of crime, we assist them in bridging the gap from hurt to hope while strengthening their relationships with our community members and their belief that they are protected, they are seen, they are heard and they are valued. We are often the only connection they have.

We would strongly recommend keeping funds for rural communities in those rural communities themselves. Build their strengths where they are needed most and help them feel safe in their own homes.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

We're going to begin our rounds of questioning, six minutes each, starting with Blaine Calkins.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses.

Your story is one I've heard dozens and dozens of times in the last number of years. In 2017, Alberta MPs released a report, “Toward a Safer Alberta”, dealing specifically with rural crime, and things don't seem to have gotten any better.

I'll start off with a question for Lorie and Wendy.

Would you say it's local people doing the crimes that you're witnessing and that are affecting your communities, or is it people you don't know or are largely unaware of coming into your areas?

[Lorie Johanson]

I submitted a document that basically said the same thing that Mrs. Rewerts said. Because we're stuck between Edmonton and Calgary, we get them from Edmonton and Calgary, and we get them from Red Deer as well. I live about 10 minutes west of Red Deer, so quite often when these guys are on the move, they're coming from Edmonton or from Calgary to Edmonton. They chase them out of Edmonton and they chase them out of Sylvan Lake, and they wind up in my area.

[Wendy Rewerts]

I totally agree with what she's saying. It's not always local ones. We're about an hour east of the Alberta border, so you share your criminals with us. Sometimes they cross the border.

A lot of ours as well are coming out of the gangs, out of Lloydminster and North Battleford. I could name more places, but I don't want to be pinpointing names or anything like that. The gangs are the problem right now. They are intimidating the police, and the police don't seem to have the authority they used to have.

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

The lack of respect for the police and the rule of law.... It sounds like what's happening is organized crime has figured out—and this is what we've heard numerous times as MPs—that if they go into the rural areas, the response times and RCMP presence.... It's just so much easier.

They've actually set up shops in certain rural communities. They've acquired property, doing chop shops, meth labs and so on. Because of the sparse population that we have in rural areas, instead of having these things set up in a city where you have thousands of homes in the area, you have a handful of homes in the area of some of these organized crime spots in rural Alberta or rural Canada, and you get terrorized over and over again. Would you agree with that statement?

[Wendy Rewerts]

Most definitely.

[Lorie Johanson]

Yes, I would.