Status of Women Committee on May 28th, 2026

[Marie McGregor Pitawanakwat]

Yes, there is a grey zone.

There is federal legislation that governs lands and Indians. This is called the Indian Act and it was made in 1876. Under that act, one-third of 1% of all of the land in Canada falls under the jurisdiction of the Indian Act. The lands are held in trust by the federal government so that individual Indians living on Indian reserves cannot sell that land. It's communally held.

When it comes to women, if, for instance, through domestic violence or marital breakdown or whatever, the woman is forced to leave the home, that grey area means that she usually has to leave the reserve and seek shelter elsewhere. I also realize that there are matrimonial property laws that exist but I'm not familiar with how those work, which first nations have accepted them, and which have not. My experience with women who have undergone family conflict is that they are often shunned, ostracized and made fun of. They will leave the reserve and the typical reasons will be for medical services, employment, education or just plain because they are homeless. They end up going to cities and towns looking for accommodation, and they try to restructure their lives.

What you have are patriarchies that function according to the way the Indian Act operates. There is such a high prevalence of this that any other viewpoint is discarded. An example of that viewpoint is the concept of indigenous allodial land title. What this means is that indigenous people hold original title or underlying title to their lands, irrespective of any foreign government that came as recently as 150 years ago and imposed it.

The women who are evicted from their homes have every right to live on the other 99% of the land because that's still their land too. This is the kind of view that we're adopting, accepting and starting to work with.

Again, I don't know if that helps, but that's what I'm thinking. Thanks.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I will come back to you later to discuss solutions to housing issues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Time has gone by in a flash. Thank you very much.

Ms. Cody, you have five minutes.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you. Through the chair, I want to say thank you to all the witnesses for coming today on such an important topic.

I'll start my questions with Rachelle Walker.

The national shelter study 2024 update shows that the shelter occupancy increased by 8% from 2023.

Do you see the affordability crisis and rising cost of living as a factor resulting in this increase in the length of stay and higher occupancy rates in shelters? Also, has shelter occupancy continued to increase throughout these past couple of years?

[Rachelle Walker]

I think that when there are options taken off the table for women, then shelter seems like it should be the option. I would also argue that we see women coming into the shelter who are in serious need of a safe place to stay. They are being stalked, and the abuse is continuing after she's left the home.

We have women come in sometimes who think that they are almost...not “home free”. I don't want to use that term because there are no homes to rent. They think they're okay once they're in shelter, once they're away from the abuser, but that's not the case. Abuse tends to escalate after a woman leaves and that's when it becomes the most severe. Quite often women don't even realize until they're in shelter that the situation is going to be a little bit worse or maybe much worse than she thought originally.

The lack of affordable housing is what stops women from having the options. Women who have affluence are able to make choices that women who don't have money can't, but I think sometimes those women could actually benefit from a shelter stay as well.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

As intimate partner violence is increasing and as—as I'm hearing from several people—elder abuse is on the rise as well, we're seeing significant growth in the number of people seeking shelter systems. Unfortunately, what I'm hearing is that our shelters specifically for women are full.

Where are these women realistically going to go at night if they're turned away from a shelter system, and what risk does that create for their safety?

[Rachelle Walker]

We don't turn women away. We have to turn women away from our specific shelters, but we don't leave women without options. Our staff will call around to other shelters, the ones closest to us. They will just keep working outward in concentric circles until they find something. We also have put women into hotels. We do some risk assessing on the phone and make sure that they're safe enough to stay in a hotel for a night or two. We have movement sometimes, and sometimes we don't. However, we never leave a woman without options. If she chooses not to take them, that's her choice. We always offer as many options as we can.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Survivors of human trafficking often require unique supports to help them recover from the deep trauma and extreme abuse they experienced. What unique assistance, supports and safe spaces are needed for these vulnerable women seeking shelter to protect them? In your view, do you think the current shelter system provides this support?

Again, that's for Ms. Walker.

[Rachelle Walker]

Women who are leaving human trafficking.... There are definitely similarities, but there are a lot of differences as well. A woman who's coming into the shelter because of an intimate partner relationship is leaving, typically, one abuser. There might be some abuse coming from extended family on that side. However, when a woman is leaving a human trafficking situation, she has more than one abuser to worry about. She has deep trauma. Quite often, these women are leaving situations where they've been abused for their entire lives, from childhood onward. There are further psychological impacts that go along with that than there are for a typical woman coming in for a typical shelter stay.

I think what these women need is time, as well. I think two years, minimum, is something that's going to help a woman be able to rebuild her life. She's leaving a very traumatic situation. She needs something. She needs to be able to rebuild from the ground up.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

In my community, I've heard from a lot of women that they'd rather live in their cars than in shelters. There's a lot of active drug use that goes on within the shelter system, and it's deterring them from going to these shelters. This is particularly difficult for women with children who don't want to expose their kids to unsafe environments and for our vulnerable seniors.

What can we do to address these issues of drug use and violence within these shelters, issues that seem to be a barrier for women, young adults and seniors seeking shelter?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

I'm sorry, Ms. Cody.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

If you have an answer to that, could you please provide it to me in writing?

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you. Time flies so quickly.

Ms. Desrochers, you have five minutes.

[Caroline Desrochers, Liberal, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

First of all, I would like to thank the witnesses for joining us today. I would also like to thank you for all the work you do on the ground. I know that you work with communities and women who are in very vulnerable circumstances. You do difficult and important work. Thank you so much.

Before I ask my question, let me provide a little context. I'll try to keep it brief.

We know that the housing crisis is a major contributing factor to the difficulties faced by women experiencing violence. That is why our government is committed to increasing the supply of affordable housing across the spectrum, whether we're talking about transitional housing, very affordable housing, or social housing.

I believe all three witnesses highlighted the fact that there is simply not enough affordable housing in Canada. It accounts for 4% of all housing, one of the lowest rates among OECD member countries. We are committed to doubling that rate to at least 8% over the next decade. We created Build Canada Homes to launch more projects, and we have allocated $13 billion to it, including $1 billion for transitional housing and supportive housing. However, we know this is not enough. The portal opened in December, and we could already spend all those funds. We know this isn't enough to meet the demand.

In addition, $4 billion in funding, managed by Indigenous Services Canada, is earmarked to support indigenous housing in urban, rural and northern communities. That's not all—as part of Build Canada Homes, we've also made commitments to indigenous communities. Furthermore, I want to emphasize that at least 20% of the funding will be allocated to support housing in rural and remote communities, as we want to ensure they receive what they need.

All of this is part of the renewal of the National Housing Strategy—which is why today's discussion is so important. The witnesses' recommendations will inform this discussion.

My first question is for Ms. McGregor Pitawanakwat.

Do think that this is going in the right direction? We understand that this is not enough, and we understand that this has to be combined with some work in prevention, but do you welcome those investments from the government?

[Marie McGregor Pitawanakwat]

I'm pleased to hear that those kinds of investments are being made. I'd like to put a plug in for the National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Inc. They have a nationwide collection of organizations that are housing providers for indigenous communities. They work both on and off reserve as well as with non-status urban people. Some of the projects have provided shelter facilities for women and children. They're doing very good work. They need to hear that the commitment to what they heard in the beginning will be kept. That's important.

The other thing I want to say about the whole issue is that the multi-dimensional needs come not just from human beings' difficulties. We're also looking at the external reality of what the climate is doing to human beings. For example, you have floods in some communities, you have forest fires that destroy other communities and you have other major natural disasters that cause power outages for hundreds if not thousands of people at a time. There's emergency preparedness that's needed for that. There's natural disaster preparation and work that needs to be done for that.

The other thing that I've seen with the Build Canada Homes strategy is an interest in building to scale and building at scale. That says to me that a majority of that funding will be for developers and contractors. Somewhere along the way, there needs to be a niche or an opening for people who want to learn to build their own. The reason I say that is that indigenous people have been on the North, Central and South American continent since time immemorial, 50,000 years before the present, and in those 50,000 years, indigenous peoples have been able to provide housing for themselves.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you, Ms. McGregor Pitawanakwat. That is all the time we had.

Ms. Larouche, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I would like to thank the witnesses very much for joining us today. We understand how urgent the needs are and the importance of this study.

Ms. McGregor Pitawanakwat, I will address you first, but other witnesses, such as Ms. Walker, may respond afterward.

I would like to talk about the Yänonhchia' project, which addresses housing in indigenous communities and is designed and led by indigenous people.

Why is it important to have solutions designed and led by indigenous communities themselves, rather than imposing one-size-fits-all models on them?

[Marie McGregor Pitawanakwat]

Yes, I really like that idea. Co-development is important, as well as people learning to build their own homes again.

If you go to any reserve and see where homes have been built by contractors or developers, what's missing sometimes is the inclusion of the people for whom those homes were built, as in the training, the participation, the co-design, the set-up of the grounds, the design of the rooms and putting the thing together. There's a lot of hands-on, on-the-ground work that's missing. Once they get into the home, and they have the key, all of a sudden, things start to go wrong. Then it's everybody else's fault that the toilet doesn't flush, the blinds don't work or the fan is out of order or that kind of thing.

Whereas, if people had on-the-ground experience of putting this stuff together, learning how to do it—I'm assuming that these are the trades that have to do with building homes, which can include indigenous and gender-diverse people, women and young people learning how to do what we used to be able to do—then you would see a lot of pride in ownership and pride in maintaining these things. How do I know this? I've done it myself. If anyone tries to separate me from my tiny home, woe betide.

I'll stop there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you very much for those clarifications, Ms. McGregor Pitawanakwat.

I now give the floor to our colleague Mrs. Roberts for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Through you, my first question is for Ms. Rachelle Walker.

Before I ask my question, I want to say that you guys are doing an amazing job. You're not just helping women. You are heroes, because it takes people like you to dedicate your lives to helping other women. I want to thank you. You deserve it.

Here is my question, Ms. Walker. This committee continues to hear heartbreaking testimony from women who want to leave violent situations but simply cannot find affordable housing or shelter space. After nearly a decade of Liberal housing strategies and spending announcements, shelters like yours are still overwhelmed and operating at capacity.

What are you seeing on the front lines? Why are women still falling through the cracks, and what should this government do to help?

Did we lose her? Oh, my God. Maybe she's upset.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Mrs. Roberts, can your question be addressed—

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

I have another question. I guess I scared her away. I do that to people.

My next question will be for Laisa. You spoke earlier about $3.4 billion needed to assist with housing. You spoke about this action plan. On April 24, 2026, the housing minister announced funding for housing. There is nearly $2 billion that will be going towards based agreements with first nations, Inuit and Métis partners, $1.2 billion in existing funding as well as a $780-million top-up for new funding.

How has this helped your community?

[Laisa Audlaluk-Watsko]

Can you repeat the last part? I'm sorry.

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

There was a top-up of $780 million in funding. How is this helping your community? Have you started to see it flourish?

[Laisa Audlaluk-Watsko]

Because we lack trades here in the north for building houses, while the ambition is good with the housing proposal for, I think, 3,000 in Nunavut, that has gone slower than planned. We are slow in building, but even with that coming, we have already been informed that it will be lower than expected because so much more housing is needed for young families having children.