Thank you very much for this invitation.
Women's Shelters Canada brings together 15 provincial and territorial shelter organizations representing over 600 shelters across Canada.
The COVID pandemic has challenged us all on so many levels. For women and children living with violence, the anguish is indescribable. As reported by the Canadian observatory on femicide, last month alone 20 women died by femicide. That is one woman every day and a half. These are not merely statistics. Last week, her name was Ashley Wadsworth from Vernon, B.C.
The first point I'd like to make is that intimate partner violence, domestic violence and gender-based violence are non-partisan issues. My plea to you today is to always keep this front and centre in your deliberations. No one is immune to intimate partner violence and domestic violence. They do not discriminate.
However, there are differential impacts. Certain groups of women face much higher levels of violence. Among them are first nation, Inuit and Métis women, women with disabilities, racialized women and trans women.
I will focus on two roles of Women's Shelters Canada. Firstly, it is the organization that oversaw the distribution of COVID emergency funds to shelters. Secondly, it is the organization that, since its inception in 2013, has been bringing together civil society organizations to advocate for a national action plan.
March 13, 2020 is one of those dates that is etched in our memory. Within a week, we were in discussions with WAGE on how emergency funds could be expedited to shelters. We realized this was a huge undertaking, and as a team of six we knew our world was about to turn upside down. We were, however, compelled to take this on, as shelters were in dire need of these supports, and we knew we could deliver quickly and efficiently.
There was and is no partisanship in this exercise. All shelters had access to the same amount of funds and all were contacted at the same time. By April 4, 2020 funds started flowing to shelters. In 2020, Women's Shelters Canada transferred $36 million to shelters across the country. The average per shelter was $99,000. Many shelters could not have remained open had these funds not been provided.
[Technical difficulty—Editor] commitment [Technical difficulty—Editor] in 2021. Women's Shelters Canada is in the process of distributing $81 million to shelters for response and recovery.
Collaboration between civil society organizations, between civil society organizations and government, and between the federal and provincial governments has made it possible for women and children to continue to access services throughout the pandemic.
On behalf of shelters and transition houses, I'd like to thank the federal government for its leadership in providing these emergency funds to GBV services, and for recognizing the life-saving work they accomplish day in and day out. As we move, hopefully, out of this pandemic, we are looking to the federal government to show this same level of leadership and to provincial governments to show this same level of collaboration, in order to move forward with the national action plan.
In January of 2021, working with over 40 GBV experts from across the country, we embarked on a massive and highly ambitious four-month project to develop a framework for Canada's national action plan.
Why do we need a national action plan? Simply put, the levels of services and protection provided to women and people of marginalized genders should not depend on their postal codes.
One of the questions we answered was this: What will it take for Canada's national action plan to be successful? It will need to have independent oversight and evaluation; billions, not millions, in investments; an all-of-government approach; co-operation and coordination between federal, provincial and territorial governments; the voices and experiences of those most affected at the centre; and systemic solutions for systemic problems.
The end product of this project was a comprehensive report, which we are tabling for the committee in the context of this study, that provides a ready road map for the national action plan and its secretariat.
During last Friday's session, the question was asked about the plan's 10-year timeline, which seemed to be long. A NAP is about systemic change. Systemic change takes time, and Canada's national action plan must be developed in a way that will allow it to bring this change, regardless of which government is in power.
We owe it to the 44% of women who will experience violence at one point in their lives and to the hundreds of women and children who lose their lives each year as a result of domestic violence.
Let's not forget that domestic violence is a non-partisan issue.
Thank you so much.