Status of Women Committee on Oct. 31st, 2022

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

There needs to be suitable housing, but also support from organizations.

In Quebec, we have beautiful social and community housing projects and organizations ask that money be set aside for them. We created an acquisition fund so that some of the funding devoted to housing is paid to the organizations. That way, they can create projects based on the needs of the community. That is extremely important.

You also addressed the issue of homelessness, which has repercussions on mental health. You made the link between these two things. It is important to invest in the fight against homelessness. The federal program Reaching Home, should get a recurring increase so that organizations working on homelessness can have predictability for the next few years.

Could you talk to us about the connection between homelessness and mental health and the importance of the Reaching Home program for helping the organizations?

[Chelsea Minhas]

What we find with most funding streams is that they do not adequately support the realistic operational costs of supporting these units, so they don't allow for adequate staffing levels. They do not account for the specific mental health supports that need to be on site.

With regard to community mental health, the wait-lists are astronomical, so we need to have those supports built right into these programs and the operational funding allotted to these projects through things like Reaching Home. They do not meet the operational costs. For an organization, a non-profit, to come up with the remainder of those funds, especially in times like this, can be very difficult.

What I would encourage you all to think about when you're planning these funding models is to make sure that the operational dollars are sufficient to actually run the wraparound supports that are required. The capital dollars are not enough. We can have tons of beautiful buildings, but if the supports within those buildings do not meet the unique needs of the populations residing in them, it will not work, so that's what I would encourage you to look at.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

The financial community is being asked to ensure more predictability. There needs to be recurring investments in housing, homelessness, and even health. I say that because in Quebec, many organizations that work with these clients receive their funding from the health and social services department.

There needs to be assurances of recurring and predictable funding and a substantial increase in every transfer for housing, homelessness and health to allow the organizations to work on the ground in prevention in the area of mental health.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Perfect. Thank you so much.

We'll now pass it over to Leah Gazan for six minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much, Chair.

I want to start by thanking all of the witnesses for their testimony and sharing.

My first question is for Gabrielle Fayant from Seven Generations.

You spoke about youth suicide.

In 2019, Greg Macdougall of the National Observer reported rates of suicide for first nations youth that were 6.2 times higher than the non-indigenous population in the same age range. He was talking about ages 15 to 24. For Inuit, the rate is 23.9 times higher. Rates of suicide among indigenous youth are being normalized.

You also spoke about murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, and the lack of action and the impacts it has. It's just part of the discussion for indigenous people who share this common history of violence.

In the face of this, I would argue that we see a lack of action to respond to this emergency. I'll give you a couple of examples. The federal government put down $724.1 million to address the calls for action in the national inquiry. In 2020, just a little over $12 million has been spent.

You spoke specifically in this session about call to action 66 in the TRC: We call upon the federal government to establish multi-year funding for community-based youth organizations to deliver programs on reconciliation, and establish a national network to share information and best practices.

On October 16, 2022, it's still in progress, yet we know high suicide rates continue.

I'm wondering how this kind of lackadaisical approach to this crisis is costing lives of young indigenous women and girls and diverse gender folks.

[​Gabrielle Fayant]

Thanks for the question. I'll try to answer it as quickly as possible.

Within our group of indigenous youth who we work with, the majority are women or two-spirit folks. Within how we do things in a community-based approach, we're able to take care of each other through peer-to-peer support and also what we call an auntie network.

That leaves me on call, though. I'm on call 24 hours, and I don't even have a full-time job to do this. Sometimes I have to respond to a suicide intervention crisis at three in the morning. I know that if I don't go, no one's going, so I have to go. That's the same experience of multiple youth groups across the country.

Then there are the youth who aren't a part of those community groups because of the lack of capacity. Those are the young people we're seeing pass away. Those are cousins of young people within our youth group who are having to deal with suicide, having to see their loved ones being murdered.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I have a question.

If the Prime Minister came out when the national inquiry was released and called the crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls a genocide, do you think the lack of action is because governments have normalized genocide against indigenous peoples?

[​Gabrielle Fayant]

I think so, 100%.

A lot of the conversations about the status of women and girls in Canada are about self-care and getting time off work, and vacation and equal pay. We're not even at the same conversation. We're not even talking about that. I haven't had a day off in 10 years. I'm dealing with a crisis every single day. We're talking literally about life-and-death situations at a grassroots level.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much for that. I know you very well, and I know you work 24 hours a day every day. I've known you for a long time. Thank you for the work you do in trying to fight for a better world.

My next question is for Amber Crowe.

I come from the province of Manitoba. Currently in Manitoba, there are about 10,000 to 11,000 kids in care in any given year, and 90% of them indigenous families. We know that many kids who are taken out of care are often placed outside of the community. You spoke about the importance of identity and culture as being a shield or protector in the world, as safety to keep people's identity and culture safe.

One thing we often don't discuss is the impact on a mother when their kids are apprehended. We know that when their kids are apprehended from the home, it's not uncommon for the mother's mental health to further decline. Can you expand on that, please?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We don't have time for that answer, but I will provide 30 seconds for it. It's not a lot, but I know that this is very important.

Please go ahead.

[Amber Crowe]

Sure.

As you noted, missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and the many studies with respect to child welfare and the overrepresentation of first nations, Métis and Inuit children and families all indicate that the removal of children from their mother has a significant impact on both the children and the mother's mental well-being. Some of the protection factors and some of the treatment factors and outcomes are best achieved when the services provided are indigenous-led and indigenous-designed and -delivered.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thanks so much, Amber. I'm sorry for having to cut you off.

We'll go into our second round, with five minutes for the Conservatives and the Liberals and two and a half minutes for the NDP and the Bloc.

I'll pass it over to Dominique Vien, who is online.

You have five minutes.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank all the witnesses here today. Some of the comments are hard to hear. This exposes us to a painful reality, especially Ms. Fayant's testimony.

Ms. Minhas, thank you very much for your testimony. You take in young people. What do you notice in these people that you take in? You talk about beds and internal services. You also opened up more shelter beds. What are the most common mental health problems that you see in the people who use your centre?

[Chelsea Minhas]

Thank you for your question.

I would say that complex trauma is the most common thing we're seeing the young people who walk through our doors experience. They're coming from traumatic histories—

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Excuse me, Ms. Minhas.

Madam Chair, I am not getting any interpretation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Okay.

Chelsea, we'll see if the interpretation comes through now. Please continue.

[Chelsea Minhas]

Is there interpretation now? Okay.

What we see in our organization are really the impacts of complex trauma history. These are young people who are coming to us from homes that have rejected them or from homes where there is significant violence or substance use. These are young people who are aging out of the foster care system with no comprehensive plan. They've just fallen through the cracks. These are young people who have significant trauma histories related to exploitation and sexual violence.

The main thing we're seeing is trauma. That comes out for a lot of young people as anxiety or depression. We definitely see young people who are in our services with different forms of psychosis and different cluster B diagnoses. We see young people with all sorts of complex learning needs. I would say that a lot of it has to do with depression, anxiety, trauma and that sort of thing.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Thank you for those observations.

You are a director of clinical services and you offer counselling sessions. The young people who arrive at your centre have a history. As you mentioned, they have experienced various problems and different situations that have led them to homelessness, for example.

What would you say to us about the type of work that needs to be done? Where do we intervene? Is it with the extended family, parents, school or the community? Where is the missing link? What would you like us to say about this in our report?

[Chelsea Minhas]

I think some of the upstream types of interventions we need to see include some of the things that previous witnesses have talked about—really investing in supports and interventions at the family level, not simply removing children but investing in and supporting the families and dealing with the poverty that these families experience, which can oftentimes lead to situations that can be interpreted as neglect or as not caring for their children. Sometimes they just do not have the means to do it. There is also supporting families, supporting women who are making choices to leave violent partners, and making sure that the choice to leave a violent partner does not result in being destitute and being homeless themselves and increasing family homelessness. We need to make sure that the women have support to leave violent partners when they need to and not be in a situation where in order to provide for their kids they sacrifice safety, which is then, of course, is traumatic to the children.

We need better supports in our schools. We cannot have months-long wait-lists for mental health supports in our school systems. People need to be available when those children need them the most. We need to increase access to mental health supports through our medical systems and our community, rather than their only being embedded. In our province, most child mental health supports are embedded in the ministry of children and families, which means that a lot of stigma can be attached to them.

[Dominique Vien, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Chair, how much time do I have left?

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You're running out of time, Dominique. I'm sorry about that. Thank you.

We're going to now pass it over to Marc Serré for five minutes.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I thank all of our witnesses for their dedication and commitment. You face daily challenges and it is very important. We could have a completely separate study on the extent of problems among young indigenous girls and women.

Ms. Fayant and Ms. Crowe, I wonder if you could enrich our recommendations. Currently, the federal government is in bilateral negotiations with the provinces. I would like to hear your thoughts on the challenges being raised.

Your two organizations primarily help indigenous women. Covenant House Vancouver and DisAbled Women's Network Canada also help indigenous women, but their mandate goes beyond that.

What do you recommend to the federal government in its negotiations and its work with the provinces regarding organizations like yours and agencies that have the mandate to help people? There are indigenous people in urban centres and indigenous people on reserves. These are two different things. I would like your thoughts on that.

Ms. Fayant, I invite you to start before moving on to Ms. Crowe.

[​Gabrielle Fayant]

Thank you for your question.

I'll respond in English.

There are so many. I wouldn't even know where to start, but off the top of my head, I agree that there has to be a study specifically for indigenous women, girls and two-spirit folks. What happens a lot in these big studies is that we get left behind. If we're not addressing the needs of those who are at risk and most vulnerable, then we're not going to ever meet the mandate.

Something we experience as a grassroots youth group is that we have such a hard time accessing funds. The large organizations take the funds first because they have paid writers to apply for these things. The people reading them love what they're reading, but they don't also have connection to community. It's just this cycle that continues on, while there are people on the ground doing this work.

Another thing we observe in the creation of programs is that lack of connection to community and of an understanding of what's really happening on the ground.

In the last couple of months, I've been asked to attend several of these committees, but it's the first time in all of the years I've been working on these that I've actually been asked to come to these tables. The harder part, too, is that I can come here, but I don't have a full-time job to be here, whereas most of the folks who have presented all have full-time jobs or salaries and benefits to be in these positions talking about these issues. We can create the table for indigenous women to sit at, but the equity just isn't there. The restitution isn't there.

There has to be—

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you. It's the time. Madame Chair is really hard with the time.

[​Gabrielle Fayant]

Oh man, there are so many things.