Evidence of meeting #39 for Status of Women in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was housing.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Shelter Movers
I appreciate the question. It's simply not my field of expertise, so I won't respond.
Conservative
Chief Executive Officer, Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society
Yes, but it's only part of the whole system of things that we need to do.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Okay.
Ms. Dugal, do you think the bail reforms protect our women?
Executive Director, Women's Shelters Canada
I think there needs to be more attention on how they can protect women, how they're implemented, and, like Ms. Silverstone, I agree there needs to be more than simply bail reform.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
My next question is going to you, Ms. Silverstone.
Every one of you spoke about housing, and we know we have a lack of housing, especially with single seniors, who are.... Unfortunately, the tax fairness for them is unrealistic. They pay more in taxes as single seniors than as couples. We need to ensure that we change that.
One of the things I'm a little confused about is this. We have this housing crisis, and then we have these survivors who are trying to find a financially affordable place to live. Why are their perpetrators not being accountable for some of these costs? Why aren't we going after them and saying, “You've committed this crime; now you're going to pay your dues.”
Do you not feel that they should be accountable and be responsible for what they've done?
Chief Executive Officer, Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society
Yes, and so does the Supreme Court of Canada, because they've just passed a tort of intimate partner violence. When perpetrators do have financial assets, there is now going to be a mechanism within Canada to go after them.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
I'm not sure if you have heard of Cait Alexander. She has an organization called EVE. She testified here at the committee a few years ago. Unfortunately, that didn't go very well, but one of the things that we know is that intimate partner violence has increased 76%.
How do we continue on this path without making changes so that this number...? It shouldn't be 76%; it should be zero, as far as I'm concerned, but we continue to ignore the importance of all the laws that are involved, especially with bail reform.
If we're not going to protect these women, then we have to stop lying to each other. We either do something about the law or we do something different in how we protect them. How can we do this if we don't change the laws?
Does anybody want to take a stab at that?
Chief Executive Officer, Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society
I can quickly say that I think it's about changing the laws, but it's far more than that. We need to change norms, attitudes, values and beliefs in Canada about how we think about issues of gender-based violence and how we think about issues of gender.
This committee has looked at anti-feminist ideologies and misogyny. I think that this committee might also be undertaking a study on menopause. All of these pieces are part of what contributes to how society views gender, how society views women.
It's not just one thing. It has to be a whole-of-society response.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Would you also say that there should be an educational piece so that we can educate our men to understand the value of women and the importance of working together? Men should not have that power over women.
I have met with several survivors, and I'm telling you that the stories I've heard are that the perpetrator comes from a family that witnessed their father or grandfather do the same thing.
Would you say that an educational piece has to be implemented to ensure that this change happens in society?
Chief Executive Officer, Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society
I agree 100%.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Shelter Movers
If I may, Shelter Movers recruits about 1,000 volunteers across Canada, many of whom are men.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dominique Vien
Thank you, Mr. Hull‑Jacquin. Time flies.
Ms. Nguyen, the floor is yours for five minutes.
Liberal
Chi Nguyen Liberal Spadina—Harbourfront, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much to the witnesses for being here on a really important topic. It's critical that we continue to explore and understand some of the dimensions we need to address in our systems, so women can truly imagine a life where they can live free of violence.
Building on Ms. Goodridge's question about best practice examples, I'm curious about whether Ms. Dugal, perhaps, could speak to any policy interventions at the provincial and municipal levels that are working really well, ones that we want to make sure get shared out across the country.
Executive Director, Women's Shelters Canada
One example has already been mentioned: Clare's Law. I believe it makes a difference. Many provinces are now adopting it.
There are many local initiatives, including things like Ask for Angela, which is a prevention program. It's more to prevent sexual assault, but it is also important.
Safe houses are another model that has been implemented in different areas. Depending on what the needs are in northern communities like Nunavut.... Safe houses are extremely important because there are so few shelters and there is so much distance between shelters.
I think those examples also depend a bit on the local community and the needs identified there.
Liberal
Chi Nguyen Liberal Spadina—Harbourfront, ON
Thanks very much.
I'm going to ask a question now about the role of the federal government.
A lot of shelter services and housing supports are delivered by the provinces and territories, municipalities and community organizations. Could you each talk a bit about what an appropriate role of the federal government could be, in addition to financing and resourcing? What is our place here?
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Shelter Movers
Maybe I'll start with an example.
Shelter Movers received a level of funding from the federal government a few years ago to establish and scale a promising practice. The federal government viewed Shelter Movers as an innovative approach to responding to gender-based violence, and to preventing it. We received some funding to expand and establish chapters across the prairie provinces—Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Over a three-year period, we were able to build relationships with local shelters, police and law enforcement, then begin receiving survivors and getting them to a safe place.
Shelter Movers views the federal government's role as one that identifies these promising practices, supports promising and innovative scaling approaches, and takes a community-specific approach in its analysis to determine where the gaps are so that services available in one part of the country are available across the country, where appropriate.
Executive Director, Women's Shelters Canada
The national action plan to end gender-based violence should support standardized service levels and regional inequities, in both funding and accessibility, to ensure that every survivor in every region can have timely, appropriate and sustainable safety, housing and support. That's where we think the federal government should step in right now.
Chief Executive Officer, Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society
We see the federal government as being responsible for our federal Criminal Code, as well as for parts of our Divorce Act. It's very important that the government pay attention to gender-based violence when making legislation, as well.
Domestic violence and personal violence are public health issues, and the Public Health Agency of Canada needs to be addressing them as such. The national action plan out of WAGE is great, but we also need to be looking at this as a public health issue across Canada.
Liberal
Chi Nguyen Liberal Spadina—Harbourfront, ON
I'm going to ask a follow-up question about rural access and some of the challenges there in building out the infrastructure.
I live in a downtown riding. I know we have capacity there. Well, we need more capacity, but women know there are places to go.
Could you speak a bit about what we can be doing as a system to respond to those living in rural contexts, Ms. Silverstone?
Chief Executive Officer, Sagesse Domestic Violence Prevention Society
We work a lot in rural and remote communities. We're in Alberta and Saskatchewan. One of the things that upset me the most is your postal code determining the level of service you get. That should not be the case. There needs to be equity, not equality. This means there needs to be additional funding given towards people living in rural and remote communities—given to rural and remote services to address the fact that there are additional costs and less service as a result of that. That's probably one of the most important things to note.
As well, Canada needs to get better at building infrastructure—such as Internet services, phone services and transportation services—across this great and very large country of ours.
Those are two things that I would say are very critical.
Liberal
Chi Nguyen Liberal Spadina—Harbourfront, ON
There is a portable housing benefit for survivors of gender-based violence. Is it working? Is there too much red tape? How do we make it more efficient?
I'm sorry. I know we have only six seconds or so.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dominique Vien
That's excellent, you reached exactly zero.
Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for being here today. We're grateful to you.
We will now conclude our first hour.
I will suspend the meeting. We will resume later in camera.
[Proceedings continue in camera]