Status of Women Committee on May 18th, 2023

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

Excuse me. I am now going to pass it on to Leah Gazan. Leah, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, in 2019 your government launched a new national strategy to combat human trafficking, a whole-of-government approach that brings together federal efforts. This was supported at the time with $57.22 million over five years and $10.28 million ongoing.

My question is this: How much has been spent to date? As I've brought up many times in the House, in 2020 the government put forward $724.1 million to deal with the crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls. Five per cent has been spent. I know that certainly in my community of Winnipeg Centre, I'm seeing people sitting on money while women are turning up deceased, sometimes on a weekly basis.

How much of this money has been spent to date?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thanks so much. Again it's the numbers, and thank you for pointing to them, Leah.

Within WAGE, there are 63 organizations to implement projects designed to prevent and address human trafficking and to support at-risk populations, victims and survivors. There are 63 of them, okay? There are 42 projects, and there is $14 million as part of the human trafficking initiative. Nearly half of them—so 45% of these programs—serve indigenous people.

Now let's turn to where the money is going.

The Women's Centre for Social Justice is receiving up to $550,000. I'm rounding if off—

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Can you just submit a list to the committee, because I have—

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Absolutely. I have disaggregated data, so I have a complete list of what we're doing and where the money is going.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

There was $14 million.... There is $57.22 million. I think that's what my concern is. It's kind of like Velma's House—when it happens, it's wonderful, but when I'm talking about the $724.1 million, it's just not happening fast enough. I just don't understand why, when we see gender-based violence increase to crisis levels, it's not getting out the door more quickly.

I'd like a list of projects. Also, if you could submit what percentage has been spent to date, that would be very helpful.

I just have a quick question on....

I don't have any time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

No, we're a little bit over.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm sorry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

We are going to do the last round.

We have two questions. We have Anna, and then we have Jenna and Anita. It's going to be four minutes each for the last round.

I'm going to pass it to Anna Roberts for four minutes.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister, for being here to help us understand what's going on.

I have two parts to my questioning today. I want to go back to the summer jobs program, because my budget this year, compared to last year, was cut in half. I have a lot of constituents who have been declined for the summer jobs program. A lot of these people who have been declined provide jobs for youth that nurture them, get them off the streets and help them to stay away from trouble, human trafficking and the rest of the craziness that goes on in this world.

A couple of my constituents are concerned because they have been informed that the applications are approved by MPs. Can you set the record straight for us that this is not the case?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

MP recommendations have everything to do with CSJ. You get a list as an MP. I do this in Toronto Centre. I go through that list and take ownership of the organizations on that list—yes; yes; no; yes. That's one of the things I like most about the program, because MPs know their ridings best.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Okay, so here's my question: If their score is way down there, is it my decision to disagree with Service Canada and say that I want them bumped up?

[Frances McRae]

Thank you for the question.

In terms of how the scoring works, when Service Canada has information sessions with MPs, they do go through the process of explaining what happens with the applications.

The applications have to be assessed. They have to be looked at by the Service Canada officials. Clearly, it's a program that's massively oversubscribed, and it always has been. That's why the MP input on which ones will make the most difference in the community is so critical. There would be many more applications eligible than could possibly be funded. That happened before the pandemic and it's going to continue to happen.

That's really how the two pieces weigh in.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

If somebody scored, say, 36, could I recommend that they be bumped up and remove someone else?

The reason I'm asking this question—and please help me understand this as a new MP—is that we were told by the director of our area that we cannot move someone into the program if they've been declined with a low score, but my constituents have been told, “Well, we've contacted other MPs in the GTA, and they've told us that it's the opposite. We can bump someone out and include the ones with the lower score.”

I'm getting mixed messages, and I really need to understand this.

[Frances McRae]

Madam Chair, what I'd suggest is that we deal with this specifically, because we're talking about very specific situations and conversations that we wouldn't have been involved in.

Generally speaking, the MP's views are very much considered. If an organization has not met the general bar for being, for example, a safe workplace or a workplace where you would want to have a youth, then those kinds of decisions would have to be looked at carefully.

What I would suggest we could do is take it off-line with you and address it with your own constituency office, if that's okay.

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much. That time is over.

We're now going to pass it over to Sonia Sidhu—

[Anna Roberts, Conservative, King—Vaughan, ON]

I wasn't finished.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You weren't finished? You only had so much time. I'm so sorry, Anna.

I'm now going to pass it to Sonia Sidhu online.

Sonia, I know that you're sharing your time with Jenna. You have four minutes.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Minister, I know that you are very passionate about helping young girls, but how is our government working to increase economic security and opportunities for women and under-represented groups in the workforce?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thanks so much for the question, Sonia.

I like to think that my riding of Toronto Centre is a good microcosm of the country. I say this because during the pandemic, a lot of the people in my riding—I'm thinking of St. James Town in particular, which is one of the densest neighbourhoods in this country and happens to be where I come from as well—worked on the front lines of this pandemic. They did not stop. Many of them had kids at home. It was really very hard.

To have $10-a-day child care, to have dental and rental benefits for a family, for a single mom to be able to take her child to the dentist—these are big things where I come from. To have a grocery benefit is a big thing where I come from. There are those who might say, “What's a couple of hundred bucks? What's 300 bucks? What's 400 bucks?” Where I come from, the women in my community in particular can make $50 go a long way.

When it comes to women joining the workforce, when it comes to women being able to make decisions based not just on their family's needs but also on their own needs to achieve their goals, child care is huge. Again, rental and dental benefits are huge.

There are stats that show a huge percentage—I believe it's an 85% increase—of women who have returned to the workforce since child care was introduced. That is not insignificant. That is huge, because we know who the caregivers are predominantly. What this means is that women, those who choose to work outside the home, can do so knowing that their kids are taken care of. That's huge.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

It's over to Jenna.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata—Carleton, ON]

Thank you.

Minister, I wanted to probe a little further on MP Gazan's question, because she's asked it a few times in the House and I feel like we never have enough time to answer it.

You mentioned around $150 million for funding for women's shelters. I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but as you've acknowledged the national action plan, the timing of that is coinciding with the expiration of that funding.

I want to give you the floor to give you a bit more time for that answer.

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I appreciate that, because Leah wanted 30 minutes—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!