Status of Women Committee on Nov. 24th, 2020

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

My second question has to do with human trafficking.

With lockdowns, the world moving online to virtual meetings and the excessive time spent on social media, young girls have become prey to predators scoping out victims for human trafficking. It's not just young girls either, but because we're on the topic of women, I'm focusing on them. Canada has a wide border to the south which makes our country a stomping ground for human trafficking.

What is the government doing to educate children, indigenous girls and youth who come from abusive and challenging home environments on how to protect themselves?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm sorry. That's an excellent question, but you're out of time.

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

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Good afternoon to our witnesses and officials. Thank you for being here today.

My first question is about something the minister mentioned. She said that in 2008, women hardly recovered from the economic crisis.

Ms. Gardiner, can you speak to us a bit more about that and how during the pandemic we've seen similar things that are again affecting women negatively?

[Nancy Gardiner]

Thanks very much for the question. I'm going to turn to my colleague Lisa Smylie, who will respond to it.

[Lisa Smylie, Director General, Communications and Public Affairs Branch, Research, Results and Delivery Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality]

We know that in economic crises women are disproportionately affected. As the minister pointed out in the last hour, we saw it in the 2008 recession and we're seeing it now.

I can give you some examples of how that's happening now. In March when we saw lockdowns, women experienced job losses at twice the rate of men, and in May, when we started to open the economy back up and jobs started coming back, men gained employment at twice the rate of women.

There are certain groups of women that are disproportionately affected. In fact, younger women are still 11% away from their pre-COVID employment rate. They have not gained back their employment. These are young women between the ages of 15 and 24. They are newcomer women, immigrant women and visible minority women. On that latter point in particular, visible minority women are 11% away from their pre-COVID employment rate. Indigenous women are only at 88.4% of their pre-pandemic employment rate. We know that this is in part because of care work and in part because of industry segregation and the sectors women tend to be overrepresented in.

These are some of the ways women have been impacted economically and some of the reasons why.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Thank you for that answer.

I read something last week with one of the organizations regarding women fleeing situations of domestic violence or being unable to do so. We see there are children who are witnesses to that violence. There are children who are susceptible to that violence. Have you seen a lot more of an impact on children who are vicariously experiencing that violence through their mothers, those who are victimized by abusive partners?

[Nancy Gardiner]

Thank you so much for that question. It's a really important point that you're raising.

As we have been working with the organizations that have been providing support during COVID, children have been a really critical part of that response. We know that the organizations that we have been supporting used some of the support to actually look at what they need for the children that are going to be part of their centre their shelter. We know that these organizations, with the support that we've provided, were able to access funding to allow them to get special services, materials for kids if they're actually in school, and things like that. It's a recognized need that has been demonstrated throughout the pandemic, for sure. We're hearing that.

Minister Monsef held a number of round tables in line with what's been happening for gender-based violence and the national action plan, focusing on keeping kids safe during COVID. We learned that a lot has taken place with other government departments, but mostly in terms of the shelter support network. It's been a priority focus for that group as well.

I'll turn to my colleague, Danielle.

Was there anything else to add on that?

[Danielle Bélanger]

We've also heard that the online sexual exploitation of children tip line saw a 66% increase in reports. We find that to be very troubling, and it's certainly something that we should be turning our minds to in the next little while.

[Anju Dhillon, Liberal, Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle, QC]

Thank you so much for bringing us that very important statistic. That's a very significant jump in the reporting of sexual trafficking.

Can you please explain to us what could be leading to this type of jump in statistics when it comes to trafficking and the vulnerability and victimization of children?

[Danielle Bélanger]

Thank you for that question.

During lockdown, and especially with children being at home and not in schools very much at the beginning of pandemic, that's where there was a noticeable increase. Lots of children were online. That definitely increases the vulnerability of children. Potentially with parents who are either essential workers and not in the home at the time, or if they're in the home working during those hours, that could have contributed. That's just my own opinion at this point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to come back to the gender-based violence issue. The 2020-21 main estimates provide transfer payments of approximately $13.5 million for Women and Gender Equality Canada's gender-based violence program.

What types of projects would be likely to receive grants and contributions under the gender-based violence program?

[Nancy Gardiner]

In terms of the federal strategy on gender-based violence that we have under way right now, we are funding about 60 projects in the department for just over $50 million. These projects are actually working towards providing the supports and pieces that need to be in place to end gender-based violence in Canada and to support individuals. I have a number of projects at my fingertips, but I will name just a couple.

The project at the YWCA in Montreal is one example. It involves looking at some of the models available to support individuals coming into Canada and the services available to newly arrived immigrants who are survivors of gender-based violence. There are a couple of other examples. In Ontario, the Family Transition Place in Orangeville provides support for rural responses, promising practices to support survivors and their families. Another project I would highlight is one through the DisAbled Women's Network Canada. It looks at evaluating peer support of promising practices for women with disabilities who have experienced violence.

As I said, a number of these projects that are under way look at approaches that can be piloted and what we can learn from those projects so we can implement programming across the country.

We're in the very initial stages of this initiative, the wage portion of the federal strategy on gender-based violence. A lot of these projects have just started within the last year and they're multi-year projects. There are three or four projects really looking at a longer-term analysis, the results of which could inform our future programming

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

All right.

How will the department allocate and distribute resources from the gender-based violence program?

What commitments can the department make to evaluating projects and programs included in the program?

[Nancy Gardiner]

That's an excellent question. We have programming, as you know. We have the gender-based violence program. We have the women's program capacity-building fund. Through a number of other programs, we're supporting about 650 projects across Canada, distributed across the country, depending on which organizations apply and depending on the needs in certain parts of Canada.

Often when we have a call-for-proposals process, we look at what applications are coming in and we determine whether there are gaps. In some cases if we didn't see projects in Atlantic Canada or in our territories, we would work with stakeholders on the ground to determine whether there were initiatives that they felt needed to be supported and see how we could actually help them ensure that some of these projects were submitted for application and review. We just want to make sure there is no part of the country that does not have the support and programming required, which is why we pay particular attention to that type of distribution.

Earlier, with regard to the national action plan on gender-based violence, the minister mentioned working very closely with the provinces and territories. That has been very key for us. We have excellent working relationships with our provincial and territorial colleagues across the country on not only gender-based violence programming but all programming that supports women. We're often in close contact with them when we have a call-for-proposals process to ensure that proposals coming in are in line with some of the projects they've seen or with the needs they've seen in their province or territory.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Those folks are better versed in what is happening on their turf. For example, Quebec's needs are not the same as British Columbia's. Regional differences became apparent during the crisis.

If I understand correctly, the department intends to take into account these partnerships with Quebec and the provinces and be more attentive to what is happening on the ground for the future and for this action plan.

[Nancy Gardiner]

Absolutely. For the COVID response, with the original amount that I talked about for shelters and sexual assault centres and other organizations assisting women fleeing violence, we worked in partnership with the Province of Quebec and provided support to the Province of Quebec for that government to provide support to the organizations on the ground. As you said, knowing exactly what was happening was really critical for us, and working with the province was great.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Your time is up.

Now we go to Ms. Mathyssen for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We heard from the minister, with regard to the gender-based violence action plan, that there are many consultations still taking place and that she will be coming up with a plan. There weren't any concrete dates, and I think many of the questions were actually about specific deadlines.

Have you been given any expectations from the minister about those specific delivery dates or deadlines?

[Nancy Gardiner]

As the minister pointed out and Danielle referenced earlier, we are in the process right now of looking at, working on and participating in a number of engagements across the country. The Speech from the Throne reiterated the need to have a national action plan for gender-based violence. We are continuing that work, and that work will inform us as to the pieces that absolutely must be included in a national action plan.

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

This has been going on for a number of years now. Do you have any sense of a potential closing date by which we could actually expect an action plan to be announced, a specific date?

[Nancy Gardiner]

I don't have a specific date, but I can tell you that the national action plan is something that was reiterated in the Speech from the Throne.

We do have a federal gender-based violence strategy, and I'm going to turn to Danielle to highlight some pieces of that. We're building on the federal strategy, informing a national action plan and working with the provinces and territories—because that's a really key part of the national action plan—as well as with our indigenous partners.

Danielle.

[Danielle Bélanger]

Thank you for that, Nancy.

The national action plan was reiterated recently, but on the federal strategy we have been working for a few years now. In 2017-18, there was an investment and a commitment of $200 million over five years and $40 million ongoing. We're working with key departments, federal departments, including the Public Health Agency, Public Safety, Immigration and Refugees Canada and the RCMP, and we're starting to see some early results.

We do have a GBV federal strategy annual report. We have already released two annual reports and we have a third coming up that will demonstrate some of those accomplishments to date.

As we mentioned earlier, engagements are happening across the country because we know there are many recommendations for an integrated national action plan with our provinces and territories. That is something we're working on in parallel with the federal strategy. That is going to be happening over the course of the coming months.

Thanks.

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

When talking about the capacity-building fund, I believe you said there are 650 projects funded under that. I know that a lot of women's organizations continually talk about the need for core funding. I tried to address this with the minister, and I'm wondering if they've also approached you with regard to that need for core funding.

Has the department explored converting that capacity-building fund into permanent programming that could deliver that core funding for women's organizations?