Status of Women Committee on May 20th, 2022

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I'm going to go back to the spring of 2020, Andréanne, to clarify the signed agreement we had with Quebec and to make sure this is on the record. In the spring of 2020, Canada and Quebec signed an agreement in order to transfer emergency funding to the province to support organizations and to support shelters helping women who were victims of domestic violence and abused women right across the province of Quebec. Then, after the spring of 2020, in August of 2021, Canada and Quebec amended the agreement to provide an additional $44.4 million over two years to Quebec directly to continue to support frontline organizations in response and recovery to COVID-19.

Madam Chair, I see you encroaching....

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much, Minister.

I'm now going to turn the floor over to Niki Ashton for six minutes.

[Niki Ashton]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My first question for the minister is on the issue of the national inquiry and the calls for justice.

How many of the calls for justice from the national inquiry have been implemented by your government?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Niki, thank you so much for the question.

As you know, we work hand in hand with ministers at WAGE, with Minister Hajdu and Minister Miller. We support Minister Hajdu and Minister Miller. That is the role we have.

[Niki Ashton]

Okay, that's very much understood, but of course we were looking for a number there. That comes rooted in the concern that nowhere near enough is being done to actually implement these calls for justice.

To that, the National Family and Survivors Circle commented on the missed opportunities to specifically reference how affected families, communities and survivors of gender-based violence would benefit from the funding allocated to indigenous communities for housing and trauma-informed mental wellness services. They talked about how budget 2022 missed the mark on those fronts.

What is your ministry doing to listen to the survivors circle and rectify these missed opportunities?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I wouldn't characterize them as missed opportunities, Niki, and we have been listening. We've been listening hard.

You heard Minister Miller's testimony just minutes ago. You've heard from me. You know that this is a priority, so I would definitely not characterize this as a missed opportunity. The listening and the action continue.

Under the federal GBV strategy the key priority is to increase support for our most vulnerable populations. Indigenous populations are at the top of that, so of course it includes indigenous women, and of course it includes girls. This is something that is not just top of mind for us, but this is priority for us, Niki.

Since 2015, so I am going back seven years, now, before I worked with—

[Niki Ashton]

Perhaps, Madam Minister, with all due respect, I think we're moving on to a different topic.

Let's be clear. These aren't my words. Here I have the press release from the circle, which talks about how they were, in their own words, “left out of Federal Budget 2022”, so I think it's very important that we not mischaracterize my comments. These are the comments of survivors and families themselves, and I think they merit respect.

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

They absolutely do merit respect, Niki, but I will say that nobody was left out. We are engaging. Minister Miller said this before as well. This is not a matter of disrespecting anyone.

The indigenous communities that I speak to, and I am in touch with often, understand that we have their best interests at heart, but they also lead and we listen.

[Niki Ashton]

Exactly. Yes, I appreciate that and I think we're all very clear on the need to respect the language that they're using, and clearly they've expressed concern around, as they say, being “left out” of the federal budget.

I'll leave it there and then I'll go to another important topic.

There has been a lot of talk from your government about supporting access to abortion. Obviously many women across Canada are very concerned about what's happened in the States and the reactionary attack on a woman's right to choose. While we have the right here in Canada to access abortion, the reality is the question of access is very much a problem.

For example, we know that northern and rural women have a much greater problem in accessing abortion. Here in my region, for example, even though the abortion pill is free, only one doctor in our region, for example, is able to prescribe that. I think we can all agree that's not the kind of access that there is much to celebrate about. I acknowledge women here in our region—and I've been proud to support them—have fought to expand that access, but we're nowhere near where we should be.

I am wondering. What is your government doing, besides supporting the right to abortion? What are you doing exactly to expand access? I don't mean advocacy. I mean access, ensuring that there are doctors who will prescribe the abortion pill. I'm talking about pharmaceutical and surgical abortions, which are clearly largely inaccessible to many women across swaths of our country. What is your government doing to expand access in concrete terms?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I want to say that our government is working on providing further access and of course there is much work to do. You're right that this is a large country and when it comes to rural, when it comes to indigenous, when it comes to racialized women in many cases, the access isn't there. That's why Minister Duclos and I, just some days ago, made announcements, along with a couple of organizations that are working on exactly what you're talking about, Niki, access.

Bear in mind, from a federal perspective, our role and the provincial roles are very different, but the announcements that Minister Duclos and I made were specifically targeted to exactly what you're talking about, things like connecting a woman in a rural area to a helpline, a line that can tell her where she can go and help her to get there, that can talk her through perhaps a very traumatic experience and is there for her.

These are the kinds of things that our government is doing to help to provide access through organizations on the ground.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much, Minister Ien.

Just to let you know, I have been speaking to people around the room. If you haven't seen me in the chair the entire time, it's because I'm just trying to see where everybody is at. I know there are a few others who have time issues for today as well, whether it's travelling home or meetings at 3:30, so in the room we have gathered consensus that we are going to go directly to the votes.

Are there any issues there? Okay.

Minister Ien, and to everybody who has come from the department, thank you so much for your time. We really do appreciate this.

Have a great weekend.

Thank you so much.

We are now going to get on to our votes.

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're going to vote on the main estimates for 2022-23.

DEPARTMENT FOR WOMEN AND GENDER EQUALITY

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$58,957,562

Vote 5—Grants and contributions..........$245,212,502

(Votes 1 and 5 agreed to on division)

Shall I report the main estimates, 2022-23, to the House?

[An hon. member]

On division.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That's excellent. You guys are so good at working together.

I just want to thank everybody. Today has been a really good day, even when we're dealing with time constraints and things like that. It's been an exceptional meeting, and I'm really proud of the work we are doing at this committee.

I am going to now adjourn this meeting so that we can all get back to the busy days we have ahead.

Thank you, everybody. Have a great constituency week.