Status of Women Committee on Dec. 7th, 2023

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

They've already removed those amendments.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

On a point of order, Madam Chair, I want to remind the member to please allow the witness to answer the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I appreciate that.

As is always the case here, the majority of the time will go to the questioner. That is the time. There will always be time given to the minister as well.

Thank you very much, Sonia.

Go ahead.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you, Minister.

I go back to the words you said, that “policy comes from things that are measured”.

When violence against women has increased 79% under this Prime Minister, how much more measurement do you need in order to implement change and to not remove amendments in a bill that protects the victim, that consults the victim, that removes the words “intimate partner” and replaces them with “persons”?

How can you justify that?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Bill S-205 is still being studied, Michelle. I look forward to what comes out of this committee.

Thank you so much.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

The bill is being studied, but your party removed these words, and that is done. That was done in this committee.

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I am not part of this committee, Michelle.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much. We'll now move over for the next five minutes. I'm going to pass it to Anita Vandenbeld, who is online.

Anita, you have five minutes.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Minister, let me start by saying that I appreciate very much that you are giving agency to the members of this committee to make our own decisions and our own choices when it comes to legislation. I think it is very important that the legislative branch be able to make those decisions. Thank you very much for making sure we're able to do that.

Can you go into a little more detail about the earlier question about the wage gap? In the 42nd Parliament, I was chair of the pay equity special committee. Out of that, as you know, we finally have, for the first time, after 40 years of feminist groups trying, pay equity legislation at the federal level. Pay equity itself is not the whole story on the wage gap. There are also women's caregiving responsibilities, the fact that women-owned businesses aren't able to scale up as quickly on entrepreneurship, and the fact that when women face violence, they often also face economic abuse. There are many things that create barriers that contribute to that wage gap. I wonder if you could address what we're doing, broadly, on the gender wage gap.

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you, Anita, for giving me the opportunity to expound a little more on what we're doing and have been doing.

I want to start by saying, because I mentioned indigenous women before, that in my estimation, it's a story that isn't told enough—how that wage gap and those opportunities for indigenous women are turning into, and have been, amazing success stories of businesses across this country. They are businesses that are recognized globally. Of wage funding, 31% goes to indigenous people. I point out that statistic because it speaks to empowering women and empowering communities. We know that when women do well, communities do well.

There are so many stories, Anita, of women who were afraid to go to financial institutions because they knew they wouldn't be heard. There were stories that they were turned down for loans, weren't supported, didn't have the mentorship they needed or had a dream they didn't think they could actually pursue, because they wouldn't have the benefits that, frankly, men would have. On top of that, as you mentioned, there are children. We know that, in this country, by and large, women are caregivers.

This is where we weave everything together when it comes to having child care, and $10 a day child care, being rolled out in our country. In my home province of Ontario, $8,500 per child is being saved. That allows women to stay in the workforce. It allows them to learn. It allows them to progress, so there is that.

I also believe that, as the federal government, we are a model. Because we've passed this legislation that you mentioned, Anita, this is a model to the private sector. It's a model to others that shows what can happen when women are rightly paid the way their male counterparts are and rightly given the opportunities that they deserve.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Minister, thank you so much for talking about the intersectionalities and the fact that different groups of women, of course, face that barrier even more. You mentioned indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. What about women with disabilities, racialized women or newcomer women?

There are a number of different intersectionalities. It can be many of those things within one woman. Could you talk a bit about that too?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

That's the basis of what we do. In all our programming at WAGE, we have put those who are disproportionally impacted first. That means everybody you just mentioned in that intersectionality, Anita, whether it is women with disabilities, women from rural communities, racialized women or newcomer women. That is where the mentorship opportunities.... I mentioned the Pecaut Centre, but there are others, even within friendship centres across this country. There are opportunities now for women to get mentorship from those in the private sector, pro bono. There are programs, and that means newcomers are welcomed to their communities and given the skill sets they need to get their first jobs.

Might I point out here that—

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you, Minister. I'm sorry. That's all my fault. We're way over time. I'm sorry, Minister.

I'm sorry, Anita. That's my clock error. I apologize.

I'm now going to pass it over, for two and half minutes, to Andréanne Larouche.

Thank you.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Minister, I’d like to come back to the issue of violence against women and gender-based violence.

Yesterday, I met with representatives of the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne, and they told me they had been completely overlooked in the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. They told me there were no measures to help francophone women.

Of course, when a woman is a victim of violence, it’s vital that she have access to services in her own language. For example, there are no shelters for French-speaking women in far too many places in Canada. They have no way of getting help in their own language.

Minister, do you plan to rectify this situation?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you for the question, Ms. Larouche.

I was pleased last week to be in Quebec—we missed you being there, and we will catch up—to announce with Minister Biron a Quebec strategy to end gender-based violence. Minister Biron pointed out all the things that Quebec is doing in order to address this.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Excuse me, Ms. Ien. I wasn’t talking about the Quebec strategy. I was talking about Francophone women, from the francophonie elsewhere in Canada.

At the Secrétariat à la condition féminine du Québec, of course, French is spoken. However, Canada doesn’t provide the same services under the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence to help francophone women outside Quebec. At a meeting yesterday, representatives of the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne lamented the fact that there was, regrettably, nothing to help them in this action plan.

And yet, they were consulted, Minister. They submitted proposals to you.

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

I was about to say that they were consulted. They are part of the minority groups that are laid out in the action plan.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Minister, although you say they’re among the minority groups in the Action Plan, there are no measures, there are no proposals. Francophone women outside Quebec have no help or services in their own language. There’s nothing specific in the Action Plan to help them. There are no adapted services in place to support them. That’s what they told me yesterday at the meeting. They asked me to put the question to you, because they would like to see the situation remedied. They want help in their own language, French. That’s what I wanted to say.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you, Ms. Larouche. Your time is up.

We will now pass it over to Bonita.

Bonita, you have two and a half minutes.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister, in July of this year, CBC published a report card on the implementation of the calls for justice from the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. It has been four years since the national inquiry published the calls, yet only two out of 231 calls have been completed, while more than half haven't even been started.

What is WAGE doing to further the implementation of the calls for justice? Why aren't these efforts mentioned in the fall economic statement or being funded?

[Marci Ien, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

As I mentioned—I wouldn't be going too far to say this—the bedrock of this ministry, 31% of all WAGE funding, goes to indigenous people, indigenous-led businesses, indigenous communities. Under my portfolio, we've invested $55 million over five years to bolster the capacity of indigenous women and 2SLGBTQIA+ people and organizations.

This is violence prevention programming. This is grassroots programming. This is programming that I've seen. This is young people getting back to the land and learning from elders. This is the revitalization of language. This is starting and being led by indigenous people but starting with the youngest people. This is looking at the root causes of violence.

I might mention the red dress alert, because Leah isn't here today and does such excellent work. As you mentioned, Winnipeg Centre is the epicentre of a lot of this. Leah is now sitting at a table. She is alongside Emergency Preparedness. She is alongside Crown-Indigenous Relations. She's alongside ISC. She's alongside many other ministries in understanding how we roll this out well and make sure that this happens in a way that is indigenous-led. Leah is sitting at that table and I'm glad she is.

There is a lot of work being done, Bonita. Is it all that needs to be done? Absolutely not, but on WAGE's part, I will again say that it is the bedrock.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

That's excellent. Thank you very much, Minister.

We'll now finish up this round with five minutes to Dominique and five minutes to Emmanuella.

Dominique, I'll pass the floor over to you for five minutes.

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

I will share my five minutes with my colleague, Ms. Ferreri.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Very well.

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

Minister, last April, your colleague Ms. Fortier, then president of Treasury Board, announced $15 billion in upcoming cuts in no particular order, after the budget was tabled, because there had been a great deal of spending.

Were you specifically asked to proceed with budget cuts in your own department?