Status of Women Committee on June 4th, 2026

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

I call this meeting to order.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome.

It's already meeting number 42 of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Thursday, April 23, 2026, the committee will resume its study of women's shelters and transitional housing.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders. Members are attending in person in the room or remotely using the Zoom application.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of members and witnesses:

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking.

For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your microphone and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

For members in the room, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand. For members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function.

For interpretation for those on Zoom, at the bottom of your screen, you have the choice of floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel. I would like to remind witnesses that committee members may ask their questions in French or English. If you will need interpretation, please take a moment now to select the desired channel in order to take full advantage of the time allotted for questions and answers.

I would like to remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair. That said, I do not intervene between a member and a witness so as not to disrupt the flow. However, I am fairly strict when speaking time has expired, and I will cut off the speaker.

Before we welcome our witnesses, I'd like to provide this trigger warning. We will be discussing topics related to gender-based violence. This may be triggering to viewers with similar experiences. If any participants feel distressed or need help, please advise the clerk. For all witnesses and for all members of Parliament, it is important to recognize that these are difficult discussions, so let's try to be compassionate in our conversations.

I will now welcome our witnesses.

We are joined by Ms. Marilyn Matheson, executive director of Harmony House Shelter; Ms. Annick Brazeau, president of Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale, joining us by video conference; Ms. Elise Brien, co-lead on political affairs at Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale, joining us by video conference; and Ms. Aline Nizigama, national CEO of YMCA Canada, also joining us by video conference.

Welcome.

We will begin with opening statements.

Mrs. Matheson, the floor is yours for five minutes.

Thank you.

[Marilyn Matheson, Executive Director, Harmony House Shelter]

Thank you very much for this opportunity to appear in front of you today.

The Harmony House shelter is a second-stage shelter in Ottawa that supports women and their children fleeing gender-based violence and abuse.

In 2020, the City of Ottawa declared a “housing and homelessness emergency”, and the pressure continues to grow. The centralized wait-list for subsidized housing has reached more than 15,000 households, and recent data shows the average wait can stretch to seven years or more, with family-sized units especially hard to find.

For survivors of violence, this is not just a housing issue; it is a safety issue. When affordable housing is unavailable, women face impossible choices: remain in an abusive situation or move from place to place, couch surfing, without stability. If they are lucky enough to find a shelter space, they stay much longer than shelters are ever intended to support.

At Harmony House, we see this every day. Survivors who should be moving to permanent housing are instead staying with us for 18 months to two years, or longer. Families of three or more children stay for two to four years, and this is not unusual, because there's simply no suitable affordable housing available for larger families.

If you follow the journey of a typical family—no family is really typical—the mother flees with her children and ends up couch surfing with family and friends, moves to an emergency shelter for three to six months and then moves on to the second-stage shelter for two to four years. Along the way, the children are leaving friends, moving and changing schools. Their grades suffer, and so does their mental health. If they make new friends in their temporary school, they can't invite their friends to their birthday parties or to their house to play, because they live in a shelter.

A generation of children are growing up in shelters.

At Harmony House, we have 16 transitional housing units, with 11 one-bedroom, three two-bedroom and two studio units, including one that's accessible.

Our wait-list currently exceeds 130 families. Over 50 of these families have four or more members, of which 21 have six or more members. There are 18 with children under the age of two and 23 with children aged two to four.

Each bedroom has a bunk bed that sleeps three. There's a double on the bottom and a single on the top. However, this configuration does not work for families with toddlers and infants. It's also difficult for families with older children and teenagers of opposite genders to share a one-bedroom unit with their mother. Our limited number of two-bedroom units are housing families of four to seven children. Our units are not designed for the families we are now serving.

We are currently planning to expand. However, the experience of a shelter being built in Embrun, Ontario, is concerning to us. Their original plan was for the shelter to have 24 units that included several three-bedroom units. Working with CMHC, they had to change this to 35 units, cutting down the three-bedroom units to one-bedroom and studio units, which don't work for the larger families. In addition, they had to cut out the planned child care and the communal kitchen, as well as downsizing office space and consulting rooms.

Our units are rent-geared-to-income. However, many women arrive at Harmony House with no income. They've been forced to leave jobs and their communities to survive. They are ready to rebuild but face systemic barriers, including a lack of affordable child care, gaps in before- and after-school care and immigration and work permit challenges. We've seen women with professional certifications from their countries of origin who cannot afford to take equivalency tests in Canada in order to work. When women are ready to move forward, the system is not ready for them.

Every day, we turn away women and children who have already done the hardest thing: They have chosen to leave violence. They should not face a second barrier—a system that cannot meet them where they're at. Right now, too many women and children are left waiting in unsafe situations, not because we don't know what works, but because we have not funded or built it.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you very much, Ms. Matheson. You show great discipline.

Ms. Brazeau and Ms. Brien, you now have the floor for five minutes.

[Elise Brien, Co-Lead on Political Affairs, Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale]

Good afternoon.

Madam Chair, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for this invitation.

The Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale is a wide-ranging network that has been committed to defending women's right to physical and psychological integrity since 1979. It currently includes 47 support and shelter centres spread across 16 of Quebec's administrative regions.

In 2024–2025, our shelters provided housing for over 2,700 women and more than 2,000 children. Their average occupancy rate was 96%, not including the women and children who received nearly 30,000 services beyond shelter. In total, member shelters responded to approximately 80,000 requests for services and information, primarily from women, but also from family members, professionals and other resources.

We would like to address the issue of shelters' capacity to support women overall. We identified three factors that have a fundamental impact on the experience of women who are victims of domestic violence before, during and after their stay in a shelter.

First, as frontline services, women's shelters require adequate financial resources to meet women's needs when they seek help.

Second, a dedicated shelter construction and renovation program is required to ensure a sufficient number of beds, so that all women—particularly those with disabilities—can access those resources.

Finally, women must be able to leave shelters and move into affordable, healthy and safe housing to support their children.

We believe these factors are closely interrelated and that urgent action on all three is essential.

Shelters face major challenges caused by chronic underfunding of their operations and services. In Quebec, shelters receive mission-based funding through the Ministry of Health and Social Services' community organization support program.

Between 2010 and 2020, no new investments were added to this budget. Given the growing demand for services and the rise in the cost of living during those years, that has reduced the ability to meet needs to approximately 50% of the 2009 service level.

Starting in 2020, a new investment of $57 million for support and shelter homes, spread out through 2026–2027, allowed for some ground to be made up. However, needs were never fully met. If subsidies are not increased, managers will face difficult choices: either fail to adhere to salary scales and cut back on other working conditions—thereby risking the loss of staff—or reduce the number of positions, which could lead to service disruptions in order to meet employers' commitments. For many, the latter scenario is the most likely—but in either case, the quality and accessibility of direct services for women who are victims of domestic violence and their children will suffer.

To prevent this, we recommend supporting mission-based funding for women's shelters and support centres.

[Annick Brazeau, President, Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale]

In 2025–2026, SOS Violence Conjugale, the hotline that receives a large portion of requests for assistance and shelter in Quebec, reported a benchmark success rate of 45%. There is a significant need to create new shelter beds.

In the absence of programs dedicated to the construction and renovation of support and shelter homes—as well as second-stage housing—at both the federal and provincial levels, the creation of new shelter beds and housing units remains mired in an administrative process involving the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, or Build Canada Homes and the Société d'habitation du Québec, not to mention the necessary coordination with the service delivery subsidy from the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services—without which the shelter cannot operate.

We recommend that the Canadian government establish a program dedicated to support and shelter homes—including second-stage homes—within Build Canada Homes. This program would include grants for the construction, relocation, renovation and adaptation of shelters for women who are victims of domestic violence.

Women extend their stays in support and shelter homes because they are unable to find new housing. The housing crisis exacerbates the problem of a shortage of shelter beds. The repercussions of domestic violence hinder women's ability to meet their basic needs and secure housing. Women supported by our services have often experienced a decline in their income and financial security due to economic abuse or an impaired ability to work—often for years—as a result of the violence in their lives.

The women we support also very often have dependent children. To help women leave a violent partner, we recommend the—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Ms. Brazeau, I sincerely apologize, but I must interrupt you. The five minutes are up.

Mrs. Nizigama from the YWCA is next. I said YMCA earlier, so I apologize.

You have the floor for five minutes.

Thank you.

[Aline Nizigama, National Chief Executive Officer, YWCA Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.

My name is Aline Nizigama, and I am indeed the national CEO of YWCA Canada.

Across the country, YWCAs operate 34 shelters and more than 2,800 units of affordable and supportive housing, with more than 2,000 additional units planned or in construction in 18 communities throughout the country over the next three years.

Across housing, child care, youth employment and other community programs, the YWCA movement employs more than 6,500 staff and serves more than 636,000 people annually.

For more than 150 years, YWCAs have responded to gender-based violence, homelessness, poverty and systemic inequities. Today, those pressures are converging, and survivors are facing a system that is over capacity and increasingly difficult to navigate.

The evidence is clear: A recent report from Women's Shelters Canada found that emergency shelters and transition houses have an average of 17.5 funded beds but are operating 21 beds on average. That's about 20% over their funded capacity. Second-stage shelters have an average of 8.5 funded units but operate 10.5 units on average, which is about 24% above funded capacity. Meanwhile, 64% of emergency shelters and transition houses operate beyond funded capacity more than once a month. Because affordable housing is out of reach for many, 80% of emergency shelters and 65% of second-stage shelters are extending stays beyond their usual limits.

This is not just a shelter capacity issue; it is a service coordination issue as well. When survivors cannot move quickly from emergency shelters to second-stage housing or permanent affordable housing with access to income, child care, mental health care, legal assistance and other stabilization programs, the whole system backs up. The result is longer stays, longer wait-lists, more turnaways and fewer stable, safe options for survivors. We see this across the YWCA movement, and we know that the coordination work often starts before people arrive at our doors.

Since 2022, our national emergency survivor support fund has supported more than 1,400 survivors and their children with things like moving costs, transportation, rent, utilities and housing stabilization, and 90% of participants in this program said this support was the primary reason they were able to leave violent situations and start a new life.

We cannot keep up with the demand. A recent internal survey shows an average stay of 19 months in transitional housing, with occupancy averaging above 95% at all times. More than 60% of YWCAs maintain a wait-list for housing units, and close to 9,000 women and their families are currently waiting for housing and support services in our system. These pressures fall the hardest on indigenous women, Black and racialized women, newcomer women, women with disabilities and women in rural, northern and remote communities. At the same time, more than half the organizations report a chronic shortfall in core operational funding, alongside staff burnout and turnover.

The question is really about funding shelters as essential community infrastructure. Renewing the national action plan to end gender-based violence should include plans for sustained and flexible operational funding so that shelters and transitional housing providers can maintain appropriate staffing, programming, building operations and wraparound supports. We need capital funding to expand and preserve safe, affordable and supportive permanent housing so that survivors can move through a real continuum of care instead of getting stuck in emergency spaces that were never meant to function as long-term solutions.

If we are serious about responding adequately to gender-based violence, then our policy and funding decisions must match the reality that survivors and frontline workers face every day.

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Ms. Nizigama, thank you for your statement.

We'll begin with questions from the Conservatives.

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

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Thank you.

Through you, Chair, I want to thank all the witnesses for coming today. It's greatly appreciated that you can share your insights on our shelter system.

I would like to start with Ms. Matheson.

You mentioned that shelters are not designed for current needs. For those individuals fleeing violence who are housed alongside those dealing with severe mental health needs and addictions, how are shelters set up to take on responsibilities that go beyond what they were designed for, particularly when it comes to protecting those in need of additional supports while respecting those fleeing an environment of violence and addiction?

[Marilyn Matheson]

We work with a lot of community partners to provide mental health support, especially for children. We have a grant from the provincial government to have child therapists through the Crossroads children's treatment centre. We're working with them and we work with a lot of the community health centres that also have counselling.

We have outreach services ourselves. We reach out to people who are on our wait-list to see if we can provide a safety plan for them and see how they can maybe move to a different place, such as a hotel that's hosted by the City of Ottawa.

However, those places are really difficult for families, because a lot of the drug dealers and human traffickers wait outside for the teenagers to come out. It's really a difficult situation for parents. I've talked to several mothers who are afraid to have their teenagers walk out after they come home from school when they're living in these hotels and motels. It's very difficult.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

That's terrible.

Women are staying in unsafe relationships because they simply cannot afford rent, groceries or child care on their own. Are you seeing that affordability pressures directly increase demand for shelter services?

[Marilyn Matheson]

We're seeing....

Do you mean the affordability of our services?

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Are you seeing an increase of those in need of shelters because of the affordability crisis?

[Marilyn Matheson]

Yes, we absolutely are. We're seeing a lot of women at our door who don't have any income. They were not allowed to work when they were married, or they weren't allowed to get any education higher than high school, and they don't qualify for anything. We're seeing all kinds of situations at our door.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

When a woman is in an unsafe relationship such as that—you mentioned that they're not able to work—would it not affect them later on or in their retirement years if they cannot accumulate hours of work and have income to support themselves?

[Marilyn Matheson]

Yes.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Would that also keep them in an unsafe relationship?

[Marilyn Matheson]

Yes, absolutely. That keeps them in an unsafe relationship.

Several of these women will have four, five or six kids. We have a family of six kids in two bedrooms. It's very difficult for the family, especially in trying to share bedrooms and divide them among genders. Their bedrooms are very small, and they've been there for years.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

You would acknowledge that financial coercion and financial abuse are also barriers for women—

[Marilyn Matheson]

Absolutely, financial abuse is. Yes.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Does your facility currently have a wait-list? If so, how long is it?

[Marilyn Matheson]

Yes, we do. There are over 130 families.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

What are the dangers of having a wait-list of over 130 families? Does that put vulnerable families at risk of experiencing more violence?

[Marilyn Matheson]

Yes, it does.

As I said, we have our outreach people. When you apply, if we don't have a space for you, our outreach program reaches out to you and advises you of a safety plan. Depending on your circumstances, you may end up in one of the hotels or motels that are operated by the City of Ottawa as shelters.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

With the different dynamics of all the shelter systems, especially those for families fleeing domestic violence, I'm hearing that the statistics do not always show everyone who's in emergency shelter support. Have you heard that?

Could you also tell me what the stats are for the current number of women in second-stage shelters? Has there been a rise in that number in the last five to 10 years?