Status of Women Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2025

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's your time.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Honourable Minister, thank you for being with us today.

First, I would like to return to a question that was asked earlier. You made some announcements last week. Is it the government’s new strategy to drip-feed measures before the budget is tabled? You received calls. You spoke to me to make an announcement, but not to negotiate, nor to see if it suited us, nor to see if it responded to the demands of groups in our community. It was simply to make an announcement, even though the budget will be tabled tomorrow.

In the context of a minority government, where we must not only talk and make announcements, but also reach agreements and negotiate to improve things, what do you think of this strategy of sprinkling information and teasing out government measures before the budget is tabled?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

What I can say is this. Since the summer, I've met with many women's and gender-diverse organizations, which shared with me their concerns about ongoing support. Having the announcement done prior to the budget allows these organizations to understand that our government sees them, hears them and provides consistent, reliable and stable funding that the sector needs in planning ahead to support women and gender-diverse individuals.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I feel like we’re watching a smokescreen show by the government, which is making announcements to try to cover up budget cuts.

If the goal is stability, why will the budget drop from $407 million to $76 million by 2027-28? It’s in a table. The figures are there.

Will there be bridge funding between the current funding and the funding announced for 2026-27 to avoid any interruptions for organizations?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

As the deputy said earlier, essentially we had several programs that were sunsetting. The announcement I made was in response to those sunsetting programs, whether it's the women's program, the 2SLGBTQI+ program or supports to end gender-based violence.

When we table the budget tomorrow at four o'clock, Parliament will have the opportunity, as it always does, to debate the budget and what's in there. I look forward to those conversations and the debate.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I still feel that it is too little, too late.

How can you guarantee that services for women who are victims of violence will not be weakened by staff reductions? A 53% reduction in staff has also been announced. Will the positions that are being eliminated be related to regional support, expertise or analysis?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Again, I did not make any prior announcements of any cuts. Our commitment of $660 million includes $223.4 million, with $44.7 million ongoing, to strengthen our response to end gender-based violence. We recognize the challenges happening across Canada and that women need to continue to have those supports. These investments will provide the secure, consistent funding required to help support this, in addition to the national action plan to end gender-based violence.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Minister, there is still a risk that the budget will be reduced and that staffing levels for violence against women will also be reduced.

In your opening remarks, you also spoke about collaboration with Quebec and the provinces. This summer, one of my colleagues alerted me to the fact that in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and several other places in Quebec, women’s shelters are grappling with bureaucratic decisions made by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC. This adds delays and increases costs. It is important to remember that the Abitibi-Ouest region needs this first shelter for women who are victims of domestic violence. Why has the government not done everything possible to facilitate the completion of these projects? Why is CMHC’s bureaucracy hindering the assistance provided to women?

As Minister for Women and Gender Equality, you must be able to talk to your colleagues in order to seriously tackle the issue of violence against women. If someone warned me about the problems associated with building these shelters for women who are victims of domestic violence, how come you were not aware of the situation? What did you do? Did you discuss it with the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Thank you for your question.

Our government certainly respects the autonomy of Quebec and the jurisdictions of all provinces and territories. As you're aware, we do have agreements with the Quebec province separate from the national action plan to end gender-based violence. This agreement respects Quebec's autonomy. The Government of Quebec receives its fair share of federal funding to support programs, initiatives and services aimed at ensuring that we're tackling gender-based violence. Some of the funding we've provided has resulted in interesting projects—for example, Femmes autochtones du Québec, with over $1 million in funding.

On the organizations you mentioned, I'm happy to work with you to see what issues are there on the ground, as you mentioned. I'm happy to be able to address that directly with those organizations as well through our department.

Thank you.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Minister, I would just like to conclude by saying that, during the pandemic, Quebec was facing six-month delays compared to other jurisdictions. This is unacceptable. At some point, Quebec’s requests must be respected.

I will come back to this issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Very good.

Now we'll go into our second round.

Ms. Roberts, you have five minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for your attendance here today, Minister.

I didn't hear anything in your comments earlier about helping seniors, and single seniors in particular. We have some stats that are very frightening in our community. Sai Dham Food Bank services 3,600 seniors per month, for a total of 44,000 per year. Vaughan Food Bank services 1,000 seniors per month, totalling 12,000 per year. Seniors are forced to decide whether to pay their rent, buy their medication or feed themselves. The percentage of seniors who use the food bank is 8.3%, up from 6.8% in 2019.

If you wouldn't mind, Minister, could you please explain to the people of King—Vaughan how this is sustainable?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

This is an important question. I appreciate my honourable colleague's advocacy for seniors. My parents are also seniors.

Senior women do face these challenges, as mentioned, whether it be financial abuse or scarcity instances when it comes to elder abuse. Through the Department for Women and Gender Equality, we provide funding in this regard so that we can better support and empower senior women who are facing these challenges. For instance, we provided $499,999 to the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, which is leading a 20-month initiative to empower senior women—

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

I'm sorry to interrupt, Minister, but my question is on the affordability of food.

We have 58,255 widowed women over 65 living in poverty. Single Seniors for Tax Fairness notes that 39% do not benefit from pension income splitting. They actually pay 10% more in taxes than a couple earning $50,000. Between the couple earning $50,000 and the single senior earning $50,000, the single senior pays 10% more, which reduces her opportunity to feed herself.

Again, I will ask you to explain to the people of King—Vaughan who are watching at home today how this is sustainable. We have over 58,000 single seniors living below the poverty line. They can't afford the food, they can't afford the medication and they can't afford the rent. How is this fair to them when they're paying more taxes than a couple does?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

We recognize that things are challenging. That includes the challenges that the member opposite addressed with seniors. What we have been able to do is put forward a tax cut that will assist 22 million Canadians across this country. They've already received that tax cut. This is going to help them. We're helping seniors through the Canada dental care plan as well, ensuring that seniors are able to get the supports they need—

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

Minister, I'm sorry to keep interrupting you, but I have only a short window of opportunity to ask questions for my seniors from my community.

As you know, I volunteer at a seniors home. I also volunteer on the accessibility committee in my township, which I am really proud of. Seniors are coming to me and saying that they can't afford to pay rent and can't afford to buy medication. They are paying a lot of taxes on a minimal income and yet everything continues to go up. How can this be sustainable? Recently, this past January, I had two seniors living in their car. They could not afford their rent.

If we continue this unaffordability and this crisis.... The more we borrow, the more we have to pay. How do we explain that to seniors who have built this country and have raised us and now can't live in dignity because of the high taxes?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

What we've done is that we've brought down the age of retirement from 67 to 65. That has helped ensure that more seniors are able to retire sooner—

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

I'm glad you brought that up. You've led me right into my next question.

You brought it back from 67 to 65, but here are some statistics that are really boggling my mind. Seniors are working into their seventies and eighties because they can't afford this. How is it that we're bringing back the retirement age to 65, but they're not retiring for another 15 to 20 years? How does that help seniors?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Again, through the supports I mentioned with the Department for Women and Gender Equality, we're supporting organizations like the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, which is leading a 29-month initiative to empower senior women who are survivors of violence, for example.

We will continue to help support women-led organizations, whose direct support goes into supporting seniors as well. I just visited the Malton Women Council, which helps support seniors on the ground by providing them with the supports they need.

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

Let me give you this stat. According to—

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Actually, that's your time. You know I'm cruel about it, but there you are.

We're going to Ms. Fancy for five minutes.

We have five minutes for you, Ms. Fancy.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to thank our minister for coming today.

I have two parts to my question, but the first thing I wanted to address was that some of my colleagues from across the aisle today talked about smokescreens within the budget. I really wanted to give you an opportunity today, Minister, to talk about the transparency of offering some of these tidbit announcements before the budget comes tomorrow, such as some of these different announcements on defence, housing and small business.

Thank you very much for being in my riding of South Shore—St. Margarets to help with that small business announcement. A lot of the women in the chamber of commerce are really strong supporters of women in business.

I want to give you the opportunity to talk about the transparency in giving us that announcement five days ago, Minister, and what that can do to help provide transparency as we launch our new budget for our new government.

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

As I was saying earlier, it's important for us to be able to get ahead and share some of the tidbits, as you've mentioned, that are really going to benefit our communities.

In this case, the Department for Women and Gender Equality is really going to help support and provide that consistent funding that organizations are looking to us to have. The budget that we're announcing tomorrow is going to have clear transparency as to the predictable dates that are coming, not just for tomorrow with the budget that we're launching, but for future budgets as well. I think that type of transparency will provide Canadians the opportunity to have future investments, etc.

To the point, Madam Chair, I was in the honourable colleague's riding. I was happy to be able to do that to announce the $100-million initiative through the BDC and Community Futures to provide vital resources to 520,000 entrepreneurs and small businesses in rural and remote communities. We know what challenges they have there. This investment will allow rural SMEs to continue to create jobs, strengthen our communities and ultimately build the strongest economy in the G7. This is what the rural and remote small businesses have asked for, and we are delivering that.

[Jessica Fancy-Landry, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Thank you so much.

I have just one more question.

Thank you for teeing that up so well, Minister, in terms of rural and remote, because, as you know, my riding of South Shore—St. Margarets is a predominantly rural riding, and Atlantic Canada unfortunately has seen quite a large rise in gender-based violence.

My question for you, Minister, to finish up today, would be to ask you, how does the government acknowledge this rise in gender-based violence in rural areas such as Atlantic Canada, where women often find it really difficult to gain access to supports?

[Rechie Valdez, Liberal, Mississauga—Streetsville, ON]

Madam Chair, my colleague is bringing up to me what I've heard from rural, northern and remote ministers in the status of women. We have talked about this at great length. Some of the unique barriers that are faced in those communities are particularly challenging, especially if you're a woman fleeing violence.

Our government understands that women and girls in those communities are having challenges. That's why, through our women and gender equality funding initiatives, like supporting the YWCA.... I'm sure my honourable colleague is very familiar with their work. It provides emergency safe homes for those fleeing violence. These culturally responsive shelters provide immediate protections, emotional support and access to resources, bridging those critical service gaps in those communities, especially those that are accessible only by ice roads, flight or canoes. This ensures that women, regardless of where they are across this country, can get the support they need through the women and gender equality ministry.