Evidence of meeting #90 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
That's excellent. Thank you so much.
We will now move over to Bonita.
Bonita, you have the floor for six minutes.
12:20 p.m.
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
I want to revisit the funding cuts on emergency shelters. I asked the minister about the $150-million cut around the emergency pandemic funding, when gender-based violence is still an emergency. It's systemic. It's embedded. It's consistent. This funding is still desperately needed. Saying that the women's program will meet the ongoing needs of shelters.... How much funding are we talking about to meet the need, and is this addressed in the supplementary estimates (B)?
12:20 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
In terms of the work that we're doing with shelters, first of all, Women's Shelters Canada is a very strong partner of ours. We work with them very closely on a range of issues.
There are a couple of things I would say.
One, the minister talked about the gender-based violence national action plan. The shelters are a part of the conversations that provinces and territories are having. As we are able to publish the action plans for each jurisdiction, we will be able to see where those funds are going.
I would also mention the crisis hotline agreements that we had, and this was also during the pandemic. With the demand for crisis hotlines having grown significantly, we committed $30 million over five years to address that. Agreements with all of the provinces and territories have been signed. The money is out there.
We see that there are a lot of areas where we can support. Victim services are our key issue as a key part of the pillars for the gender-based violence national action plan, and we look forward to being able to share all of the provincial and territorial plans with folks.
12:20 p.m.
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
This is very concerning—that what I'm hearing is not a commitment in the supplementary estimates on meeting the needs of shelters. We have $150 million cut from a $300-million promise.
Therefore, my next question is this: What about the other half, then, of this $300 million? Are the women's shelters at risk of losing the additional $150 million promised to emergency shelters?
12:20 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
I'm going to see if I can ask Alia to answer that question, because Alia was around when all of this work was being done.
12:20 p.m.
Alia Butt Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy, Department for Women and Gender Equality
The $300 million was specifically to fund shelters, sexual assault centres and any organization that was supporting those who were fleeing any kind of gender-based violence during the pandemic, so that funding was very specific to that emergency situation.
I just want to clarify that WAGE did not have resources previous to that to provide any kind of funding to shelters specifically in terms of their operations. This was emergency, pandemic-specific funding, so that they could keep their doors open, because we knew there was a rise in violence against women. We could see what was happening in other countries before the pandemic came to Canada, so this was what that funding was for specifically. It's not necessarily a cut, but it was time-limited funding.
The pivot we're talking about now is moving towards a national action plan in which we're working with each province and territory, through the $500 million plus that was announced in the budget, to put in place bilateral agreements under which each province and territory can prioritize what their needs are with respect to ending gender-based violence over the 10-year national action plan.
We talked about things like requiring 25% of the funding to go for prevention, but we also have priorities within the national action plan for the funding, which include stabilizing the sector.
This is where we're sort of moving towards some of that support potentially coming through PTs. As the deputy minister said, we plan to make those bilateral agreements and the plans public on our website.
Thank you.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
I have a follow-up question to that, then.
Can you share what the parameters were by province or territory for allocating those funds? What information was used, by province and territory, to allocate those funds?
12:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
The funds allocated to each province and territory are allocated based on the formula we usually work with Intergovernmental Affairs and the Privy Council office to establish.
12:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
They will all be public. As the agreements are being made public, you'll see all the numbers come out.
Right now, as the minister mentioned, we already have about 82% of the total funds available accounted for, and the rest will be accounted for shortly.
12:25 p.m.
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Thank you.
Madam Chair, can I ask that the criteria be tabled with this committee—not the “post” criteria, but the “pre” criteria with respect to how the money has been allocated—as well as “post”, if that's all we have.
Thank you so much.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
You're welcome. Thank you so much.
We're now going to start our next round, which will be five minutes, five minutes, two and a half and two and a half.
I'm going to pass it over to Dominique Vien for five minutes.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Ms. McRae, I'm interested in the cuts Ms. Freeland announced. Actually, it was the President of the Treasury Board who announced $15 billion in cuts.
Earlier, you said there might be cuts to travel and professional services. Do I have that right?
12:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
I said that, in the supplementary estimates (B), there was $579,000 less than in the main estimates. That's the amount allocated to travel and professional services for this fiscal year. That budget cut applied to every department.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
So, if I understand correctly, all departments had to make cuts to travel and professional services. Is that right?
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Okay.
Off the top of your head, do you know what proportion of that $580,000 is for travel versus professional services?
12:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
The Department of Finance and Treasury Board gave us a total amount, told us what our share was and what was cut.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
Okay.
In this case, is the Department of Women and Gender Equality in a position where it has to cut all the budgets that would otherwise have been spent on services from outside firms? Is there still money for outside firms?
12:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
I want to make sure I understand the question.
Are you asking me if we cut spending elsewhere to pay outside firms?
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
Dominique Vien Conservative Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC
No, that wasn't my question.
You're telling us that almost $600,000 has been cut from travel and professional services. Once those cuts have been made, will there be any money left for you to hire outside firms?
12:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
The $569,000 I mentioned was cut for this year.
12:25 p.m.
Conservative
12:25 p.m.
Conservative