Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to participate in the committee's study of resource development and violence against indigenous women and girls.
I am speaking to you from my home in Toronto on the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat people.
I'd like to start by thanking this committee for undertaking this really important study as all forms of gender-based violence are violations of human rights. For decades, far too many indigenous women and girls, two-spirit and LGBTQ people across Canada have suffered in silence. Gender-based violence takes a physical, psychological, emotional and financial toll on victims, survivors and their families. It is simply unacceptable. This happens in our country.
Since the release of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report and its recommendations, our government's understanding of the harmful social norms, structures and relationships that contribute to this issue has deepened. When we take a closer look at the available data, the picture is extremely grim. We know indigenous women are more likely than non-indigenous women to be sexually assaulted or experience intimate partner violence. There is mounting evidence of a correlation between resource development projects, and acts of physical and sexual violence against indigenous women and girls. This reality is unsustainable.
The reality is that many resource development projects in the forestry and mining industries happen on or adjacent to the traditional and, in many cases, unceded lands of indigenous peoples. We learned from the final MMIWG report that resource extraction sites bring with them transient and largely male workforces, and can result in increased rates of sexual offences, domestic violence and gang violence in host communities.
What cannot be ignored is the strong link between human trafficking and the disproportionately high rates of violence against indigenous women and girls. It tears too many families and communities apart and simply cannot continue.
These are not isolated issues that only happen in remote work environments. Evidence suggests that when women are subjected to unwanted sexual attention in public, they withdraw from their regular daily activities and stop going to school, attending classes or even going to work to make more money for themselves and their families. They stop doing these things.
Our government knows that the solution lies in actively educating, engaging and mobilizing everyone in Canada, including boys and men, in this effort. Targeted investment policies and programs that directly address GBV are at the core of this work. Last year, we invested $601 million to advance the national action plan to end gender-based violence, and this year, through budget 2022, we've committed $539.3 million to finalize this plan and support the provinces and territories as we begin to implement within a year.
Along with the provinces and territories, the plan is informed by engagement with civil society, indigenous partners, community leaders and more than a thousand recommendations from stakeholders. Our shared goal is to ensure everyone, regardless of where they live, has reliable and timely access to appropriate protection and services.
My department is a key partner in the federal pathway to address missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQ people, the federal government's contribution to the 2021 MMIWG national action plan. To ensure that these two initiatives complement each other, we will continue to work in partnership with indigenous communities, 2SLGBTQ people, leaders, survivors and their families, along with all governments.
We know that even with the best intentions, modern government policies and programs can also contribute to discrimination and inequity. One of the calls for justice requested that governments critically examine their prioritization and resourcing measures, and eliminate the marginalization of indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQ people in budgets, as well as programs, and that's exactly what we're doing.
The actions and investments that I've described today cannot on their own put an end to gender-based violence. We know that. However, they represent important pieces of the larger solution. By better understanding the links between resource development, social infrastructure and their relationship to vulnerable populations and GBV, I believe this study will be extremely helpful in informing the way forward.
It is critical that we inspire Canadians from all corners of our country to learn about and put in the work to actively prevent gender-based violence.
Thank you very much.