Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Minister, the importance of investing in housing is a cross-departmental issue. You can't get a woman out of violence without getting her out of the cycle of poverty, without finding her housing so she can be in a safe place.
It's also important to have this discussion with the minister responsible for entrepreneurship programs, because it's even more difficult for women to get into entrepreneurship and to access programs that provide funding.
I would like to come back to your collaboration with the Department of Justice. Several experts in the field of intimate partner and spousal violence testified before the committee during this study. They called on the federal government to criminalize coercive control.
This has been done elsewhere in the world. Scotland is a model for this. These experts have demonstrated the importance of broadening the definition of this violence, because domestic violence is not just physical; hitting is not always involved, but it always hurts.
Considering that 60% to 80% of women who seek help for domestic violence have experienced coercive control, do you not see the urgency and importance of criminalizing coercive control through legislation?
Do you think your government could learn from Scotland?