Status of Women Committee on March 11th, 2021

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

What I'm hearing.... I mean, ultimately, the minister refused to hear any sort of complaint brought forward by Mr. Walbourne. You say that he has followed the processes, but ultimately, there are huge problems with the processes.

Is your department involved in trying to rectify this in taking the recommendations from the Deschamps report? Are your ministry and your department actively seeking the change that you say is so necessary within the Department of National Defence?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Absolutely we are. As you know, Madam Chair, we're working on the national action plan on gender-based violence. The Department of National Defence was always a strong partner in the next phase of our government's response to gender-based violence within the military, but we're expediting some of the measures, and we're also going to be working very closely with the Department of National Defence in a whole-of-government approach to make sure we improve these processes.

We can do better. Women in uniform deserve better. Just look at what they're doing in long-term care homes. Look at what they're doing on the front lines of the fight against COVID and in delivering vaccines. These are noble professions, and every single Canadian who joins the forces deserves to be safe and respected, and we are committed to creating the conditions to do that.

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

So—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good. Now we will go to our second round of questions.

We are going to have Ms. Shin for five minutes.

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for being here, Minister. I appreciate your willingness to hear questions.

Minister, in the Prime Minister's mandate letter to you, he asked you to “develop a National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence, with a focus on ensuring that anyone facing gender-based violence has reliable and timely access to protection and services”. As you know, the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing gaps of assistance toward women. Because of lockdowns, women facing domestic violence are challenged in regard to their exits. It's been a year since the pandemic lockdown. How are Canadian women safer today than a year ago?

On that note, how are indigenous women and girls safer today than a year ago? You haven't released an action plan in response to the report. I asked you this question at committee in July of last year. How are they safer today? What is the process you're in right now in response to that?

In addition to this list of questions, my concern right now is the culture of gaslighting women, which I'm not very happy with. I know we want to counter that, but when you have the Minister of Defence abdicating, and the government covering up for that, to me that is treating the trauma of these women as just invisible. You can say all the nice things and show solidarity through words, but if there's no action.... Then we have these hotel quarantine situations with sexual assaults.

I mean, it's not a safe place right now. It needs to be safer. Can the minister commit to these points and share with us today what has actually been done to make Canada a safer place for women a year after the lockdown?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

MP Shin, I share your frustration, and I want to assure you that in the past five years, more has been done to create greater safety and support for Canadian women than in, I would say, decades, probably not since the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Because of just my own government department, not the whole government but just my own, six million Canadians received supports and care—

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Minister, I'd like to interject, because I've heard that answer before.

I appreciate your sensibility to those other areas, but the reality is that women are being traumatized. They're being raped. It not really being dealt with. Look at the rural broadband and the lack of support there. Counselling is online. These women in rural areas can't even access counselling. These are traumatized women.

I'd like to challenge you, woman to woman: How can you help these women, who are the most vulnerable, who are being physically violated and sexually violated, get the support they need? I think you would agree with me that it's very important that they do find this.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

I do. I think the close to 2,000 organizations we have funded in rural communities and indigenous communities and urban centres for racialized women, for indigenous women, for Black women and for those with disabilities have been a lifeline. Just during COVID, I can say that in their hour of need, close to a million women and children have been able to find support.

That support was there for them because our government reached out to our partners across the country. They told us, “Give us funding, and we'll take care of those who need our help.” We did that. We trusted them with those funds—

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

So, Minister, will you then ask your colleagues to shut down this debacle with the hotel quarantine situation? Not one more woman should have to be afraid and risk going there to be assaulted.

Can you commit to that? All those things really add up to nothing if it's in your power to do something about the situation right now.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

For about a million women and children who have received supports because of our government's investment in front-line organizations, I would say that this support has been more than nothing. It has been a lifeline. As someone who has stayed in one of those places in her hour of need, I can assure you that it's made a world of difference.

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

I know it's made a difference—

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

We will do more. We will do more.

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

—but if these women continue to face the fear of sexual assault and actually experience it, and you have a defence minister who keeps covering up, and a Prime Minister who keeps covering up, this is not good for our country.

I really, really wish, and I will pray, that you will continue to receive the wisdom to deal with this so that we all feel safe.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

MP Shin, there is no cover-up. If anything, we're out there talking openly about the processes that need to be improved. We're out there sharing data about the increases in gender-based violence. We're working on a national action plan on gender-based violence, which can only move forward with provinces and territories.

[Nelly Shin, Conservative, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

It's been a year since the lockdown and I don't think women are safer.

We're reading these things in the headlines and we've passed—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry. That's your time.

Now we're going to Ms. Sidhu for five minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for coming here today.

Thank you to all of the officials for being with us today.

Minister, you are championing feminist recovery at the cabinet table with initiatives such as the feminist response and recovery fund.

Recently, Canada was recognized by CARE International as having the most gender responsive plan to address COVID-19. Kudos to you and your team.

Minister, this week you hosted the Canada Feminist Response and Recovery Summit, with experts from across Canada, including women witnesses who had already appeared at our committee. I attended an interesting session on the topic of the care economy.

Minister Monsef, can you please elaborate on what you're hearing from experts? Can you provide us with an update on how we are supporting our carers, particularly our marginalized women who provide care for Canadians?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you very much, MP Sidhu.

Congratulations on the vote in the House of Commons yesterday on your private member's bill on the framework for diabetes. I know you've been working on that since day one of being a member of Parliament. Your constituents are very smart to have sent you to Ottawa. That work is going to make a big difference.

You're right. The summit included many sessions, including one on women in the care economy. These are women who are working as early learning and child care workers. They are personal support workers. They are looking after those with disabilities and exceptionalities in group homes, for example.

It turns out that our entire economy is built on care at its core. These women have been doing the heavy lifting.

MP Sidhu, you're from Brampton and you also know that COVID has disproportionally asked more of racialized women than others. We saw yesterday in the stats that those racialized women have died due to COVID more than others.

What this means for us moving forward on long-term care homes means having standards, and respecting and valuing the work that is typically done by women. What it means in the meantime is our government has supported provinces and territories with some $3 billion for pandemic pay, the wage top-up for those care workers who are essential to our ability to fight COVID.

One of the conversations our society is reckoning with aside from, as MP Shin and others said, gender-based violence and the culture that creates the conditions for too many vulnerable women, is the conversation we need to have about the true value of care work in our society. If so many women are doing so much unpaid work, if so many women are staying home because they don't have access to quality care, then our economy is not going to come roaring back.

The opportunity here, aside from better respecting care workers and ensuring that there are frameworks and standards in place so that long-term care homes are safer for staff and residents, is the need for universal early learning and child care. Without it we'll stay in a much less than ideal performing economy, and Canadians can do better.

We saw with Quebec that there's a model that works. It gets women back to work and it helps the economy be more productive. That's certainly an exciting opportunity for women and our government to pursue, with provinces and territories, of course.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

Throughout this year, the shadow pandemic has been a common point of concern and discussion. In my area, Peel Region, the police have seen an increase in the number of calls they get to respond to issues of domestic and gender-based violence over this pandemic.

Earlier the Prime Minister and you announced $50 million in support to organizations serving women and their families who are fleeing violence and later, this past fall, announced an additional $50 million fund.

Minister, can you update us on how much of the $100 million in COVID-19 relief funding has gone to organizations? How many organizations will receive it?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

You have 20 seconds.

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Yes. Not including Quebec, in over 1,000 we changed some of the contribution agreements with existing organizations that we had agreements with so they'd have more flexibility. For Quebec, with the first instalment, about 200 were supported. With the next instalment we expect at least another 200 will be supported.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's your time.

Ms. Larouche, I'll give you an additional 30 seconds because of the technical issues that you encountered.

You have three minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'll go back to the question that I was about to ask the minister when my first comments were interrupted.

I'll continue with this analytical mindset. In the main estimates, we can see that the amount allocated in 2021-22 is even lower than the amount allocated last year before the supplementary estimates.

In the department, do people really think that the crisis or the feminist recovery will generate fewer resources than last year? I'm trying to get a handle on the figure.

How will the money be allocated to Quebec and the provinces? We know that Quebec and the provinces are already running programs. They need transfers. How will the money be transferred?

You spoke about the national action plan and said that you wanted to address violence. You said that you spent two days with women. Will more money be needed to implement this plan? Is there a target date and are there examples of these measures? Could these measures have prevented the assaults that we've seen in the military or during the quarantines?

[Maryam Monsef, Liberal, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Madam Chair, do I have time to answer?

Our agreement with Quebec is working well. We were happy to hear finally that it's ready to be signed and that organizations can receive funds for the next phase of instalments. Quebec has said it will act as an observer in the national action plan on gender-based violence for the time being.

Guylaine, perhaps you'd like to add a little more to that.

[Guylaine F. Roy]

Thank you, Madam Minister.

If I may, I want to answer Ms. Larouche's question regarding the main estimates for 2020-21 compared to 2021-22, and the reason for the decrease.

If you compare the main estimates from one year to the next, the $4.3 million decrease is mainly the result of a commemoration fund for missing and murdered women that expired in 2020-21. That's the technical reason for the $4.3 million decrease.

Regarding the agreements with Quebec, I want to add that we have emergency funding agreements. Quebec is responsible for distributing the money.