Kwe kwe. Ullukkut. Tansi. Hello. Bonjour.
Let me begin by acknowledging that we are gathered here on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people.
I want to thank all of you for your hard work in supporting this initiative.
Thank you all for the work you have done on this important initiative.
I want to acknowledge and congratulate you, Madam Chair, on your appointment.
I also want to take this moment to thank the former chair, Karen Vecchio, for her long-standing commitment to this issue and her hard work during the committee process.
Let me also thank my colleague and friend Leah Gazan from Winnipeg Centre for her incredible advocacy in uniting the House in supporting the establishment of a red dress alert, along with my colleague Pam Damoff. We are indebted to you for your hard work and your resolve to get us here. This work will save lives.
As we all know, budget 2024 included an investment of $1.3 million to continue developing the red dress alert. This is exciting news that will help keep the momentum going.
Every indigenous person who goes missing and is not found is a failure on our part.
I know that there are some people who are frustrated at the pace of implementing the alert. There are some people who say that this can be done overnight. I do not subscribe to that belief. We need to keep the pressure on and move quickly, but we also need to get this right. There are many factors to consider, as you have heard throughout this study. Those include different regional contexts, strained relationships between communities and law enforcement, and jurisdictional considerations.
Moving the dial on this is not an option or a choice; it is a moral imperative. Despite only making up 4% of Canada's population, indigenous women and girls represent 28% of homicides perpetrated against women. An indigenous woman is 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered than a non-indigenous woman.
Alerting systems in states like California and Washington are helping locate people. The studies show us that the hours after someone goes missing are the most critical time to find them.
In February, I drove the entire Highway of Tears in northern British Columbia. I listened to grassroots organizers on the front lines, like the Tears to Hope Society, who you heard from earlier this week. Alongside a red dress alert, they stressed the importance of resolving this systemic crisis.
At the Denny's where we met, the women told me how important ceremony is to them and how important it is to pass along traditions and languages to the next generation. In 2016, our government called a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls after years of previous governments' refusals.
This June will mark five years since the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released its final report—and the calls to justice.
The 231 calls to justice require investments in shelters, community safety, culture, housing and infrastructure. We are making progress in all these areas. Budget 2024 was another example of that, but I say this all the time: The calls to justice are not a checklist. They require urgent, sustained action and commitment from all parties. They're long-term, structural changes that help us undo the legacy of colonialism. This work is critical and it will not happen overnight.
Eventually, the hope is to get to a place where we no longer need the red dress alert, or, in other words, we build a future where indigenous people are safe. The government will be a partner in that journey.
I thank everyone who has contributed to this process in informing the path forward. Your work is invaluable.
Meegwetch. Qujannamiik. Marsi. Merci.