Thank you very much.
Good afternoon. Thanks for the opportunity to appear here before you. I am a research associate with the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women.
I'd like to begin by paying respect to the Algonquin people, who are the traditional guardians of the unceded and beautiful territory on which I live.
Last year I worked with women from over 40 organizations to develop the national action plan on violence against women and gender-based violence. I think you heard about it earlier this week from Lise Martin, the executive director of Women's Shelters Canada.
Today, my comments draw on the research we did for that national action plan, and they're informed by a feminist intersectional lens that focuses on those who are most marginalized and in greatest need.
I want to focus on the importance of a national public transportation system to prevent, respond to and mitigate intimate partner and domestic violence in Canada. Transportation systems help prevent domestic violence by providing women access to jobs and the incomes they provide. They give women and gender-diverse people a means to escape intimate partner domestic violence. Finally, they help mitigate the experience of domestic violence by providing access to support services, which may be in another community.
Recommendation 20E of the national action plan final report calls for the federal, provincial, territorial and municipal levels of government to create a system of transportation across Canada that prevents and mitigates gender-based violence.
I want to thank this committee for its 2019 report on systems of shelters and transition homes, where you recommended government action to fund transportation for women fleeing violence who have no access to shelter services in their communities. It was important and we need you to recommend further action on transportation now.
The situation has gotten much worse since that 2019 recommendation. COVID has contributed to higher rates of domestic violence, as you've already heard. Also, access to transportation systems has worsened, especially for those in rural, remote and northern communities.
For example, victims of domestic violence were hurt by Saskatchewan's decision to cut its Crown corporation bus service, the STC, which had provided vital transportation between communities in the province. A study there found that 37% of survivors of sexual violence in Saskatchewan identified the lack of transportation as a barrier to access those services and supports after STC was cut. It was a good model and something that should be replicated elsewhere.
On top of that, Greyhound ended its private bus service—in some parts of the country earlier, but other parts in 2021. That made a bad situation far worse throughout the country, especially for indigenous people in remote communities.
As you know, Canada's north has vast distances between communities. Women are often forced to hitchhike or use taxis, ride sharing, Uber, or private vehicles to get out of town or between towns. All those options present risks of gender-based violence.
The report on murdered and missing indigenous women and girls called attention to how the absence of safe and affordable transportation systems contributes to the violence and murder of indigenous women. They also recommended that all governments ensure that adequate plans and funding be put in place for safe, affordable transit and transportation systems.
Women need transportation systems within their community, between communities and between provinces. It doesn't exist now. The federal government needs to provide leadership to both invest in transportation infrastructure and create the incentives for other levels of government to do so. I really hope that this committee will call for more government action.
I've outlined three recommendations for you to consider.
The first recommendation is the long-term, 10-year goal of the national action plan, which is to build a pan-Canadian safe, accessible and affordable transportation system.
The second recommendation is a shorter-term one to get there. It's to establish a federal task force to tackle gender-based violence in transportation and transit, and to provide direction for a system that's needed.
The third recommendation is to encourage the funding of women's groups that are addressing gender-based violence related to transportation, to provide that grassroots push, identification of the problem and identification of solutions, and to amplify the work of this committee and WAGE in addressing the problem.