Status of Women Committee on June 4th, 2026

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

You mentioned housing, and I think everybody on this panel mentioned housing. My concern is this: What percentage of women seeking transitional housing are currently unable to access your services due to the capacity constraints?

[Marilyn Matheson]

As I said, we have a waiting list of 130 families, and there are a lot more out there. I don't have the exact numbers of the percentage that can't access our housing, but it's stable housing that we need, not just shelters.

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

Here's what confuses me, and maybe you can help clarify this. I will ask this question of all the witnesses.

In July 2024, we were called back to committee because of the 76% increase in intimate partner violence. Here we are, two years later, still hearing about the lack of housing from all witnesses. How is it that this current government has a housing plan, and yet in every committee that we go into, every witness who comes forward has the same scenario—lack of housing? What is it that we need to do to make this government understand the importance of saving women and having the ability to provide them with proper housing? It's two years later, and we're still hearing the same thing.

Anyone can answer that.

We'll start with you, Mrs. Matheson.

[Marilyn Matheson]

If we don't provide the housing and get children out of the shelters, we're not going to end the cycle of abuse. They may continue the cycle because of this. Down the line, it's going to get worse.

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

I will ask everyone the same question.

Do we need to put more pressure on the government to ensure that housing is ready for these women so that they can have a safe place to raise their families, yes or no?

[Aline Nizigama]

I can jump in.

You asked a question about why we're not seeing any.... The stats are continuing to go up.

We know that times of economic crisis or difficulty are accompanied by increasing violence levels.

What we are not seeing in current approaches is a dedicated carve-out in the funding that we have for affordable housing, especially for shelters and transitional housing. We need to have a dedicated carve-out.

You asked a question about statistics. Current estimates are that 40% of all wait-lists for affordable housing are for women, children and families, a lot of them fleeing unsafe situations. We need to see equivalent levels of funding—a dedicated carve-out for women and families facing violence in order to have the tracking numbers that—

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

I'm sorry to interrupt.

What would you tell this government is the most crucial thing right now to ensure that we protect these women escaping violence? What is the number one thing?

[Aline Nizigama]

We need to fast-track the housing. We need Build Canada Homes to work with established organizations like YWCAs or other community partners that have shovel-ready projects and can start building right now. We have wait-lists already. Then we can start unclogging the system and have that flow. Shelter beds would be freer for whoever needs them next.

We are not seeing that yet, but we are hopeful. We've included this in our pre-budget submission.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

Thank you very much for your comments, Ms. Nizigama.

I'll now turn the floor over to Ms. Tesser Derksen for five minutes.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to ask a quick question of Ms. Matheson about what my colleague Ms. Roberts was saying about criminal law reform legislation.

I was in the House delivering a speech on Bill C-16, which is the protecting victims act. I'd like to follow up on your previous answer and get your take, Ms. Matheson, on the steps this bill is taking to make women feel justice is more accessible to them.

I worked in family law and the violence against women sector. A complaint we often faced was that justice is so difficult for these women to access. Even though these women might be seeking emergency housing or other types of safeguards, navigating the justice system in family courts—which often intersect with criminal courts—is so convoluted, expensive, time-consuming, puzzling and confounding for them.

We're talking about Bill C-16 and the measures we're taking to enhance victims' rights, whether it's through having testimonial aids, ensuring that the justice system moves faster or making sure we allot additional time to cases of intimate partner violence so they don't get turfed out based on Jordan rules.

Can you talk to me a bit about how you and your sector are interpreting how Bill C-16 will affect or impact these women's lives and your work?

[Marilyn Matheson]

One of the problems women are facing is the cost of getting legal counsel to help them. All of our frontline workers are tied up helping with wraparound services so that these women know where to go and how to access it. There is no free legal help out there. It's a big barrier. Then they end up falling back. There are so many other things they need to consider: their job, looking for a job or their kids. It sometimes falls off the table for them.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Yes, I fully understand what you're talking about. It's really about those on-the-ground practical supports. Access to legal advice and some services is expensive and hard to come by, for sure.

At the federal level, the tools we have are largely legislative. When we talk about reforming criminal law, or at least making laws more.... I wouldn't say “friendly”, but it's about making laws more conducive to women feeling that they can come forward and at least seek that type of assistance. It should be faster for them to navigate through the courts, for example.

I understand you have some practical concerns about how women access justice on the ground. As far as what we can do at the federal level in terms of reforming criminal legislation, do you have more suggestions for how we could flesh that out?

[Marilyn Matheson]

There's looking at the parole system as well, because some of the abusers are getting out too soon, or the fear of their getting out is not helpful to these women.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Yes, and to that end we have Bill C-14, which is our bail and sentencing reform legislation. It is currently at the Senate. We're hoping to get it into the hands of law enforcement so that they can start having on-the-ground impacts as well.

I'd ask a question of Madame Nizigama, if I could.

This is about your experience in dealing with folks around equity who might have intersectional identities. I want to ask specifically about youth who may be from the 2SLGBTQIA community. How common is it to have young people seeking shelter from the YWCA?

[Aline Nizigama]

We see young people come in with their families, with their parents, when they are in the same violent situations, but we can also catch some of the younger people who are facing difficult issues, for example, discrimination, because they may be trans. They're coming through our youth programming as well. We have very low-barrier expert counselling services that can catch certain issues when they present in those services.

I can share some statistics later. I don't have them at the top of my head right now. We see a fair number of those, because we know there has been rising rhetoric around queer youth that is making it unsafe for them to reveal certain situations. We're trying to catch them when they come with families, as well as through our youth programs.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Further, for those queer youth specifically, really, the work we would like to do is just prevent all of this from happening in the first place.

[Aline Nizigama]

That's exactly right.

[Kristina Tesser Derksen, Liberal, Milton East—Halton Hills South, ON]

Can you talk to us a bit about the systemic issues you're seeing that are causing these youth to seek emergency services, whether it's familial, cultural, linguistic, financial....

[Aline Nizigama]

It could be the situation at home—

[The Chair, Conservative, Dominique Vien]

That will be for another round, Ms. Nizigama. Your time is up. I'm so sorry. I always seem to catch you. Thank you for your understanding.

I now give the floor to Ms. Larouche for two and a half minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Witnesses, thank you again for being with us today for this very important study. Thank you for all the work you do every day. I hope you take care of yourselves so that you don't fall prey to compassion fatigue, because that's a huge risk when you work in this environment.

I'll be quick. I'll turn to Ms. Brien. Ms. Brazeau might have something to add afterward.

We talk a lot about shelter spaces, but we also know that a lot of women are experiencing hidden homelessness before they seek help to get out of a cycle of violence in tough situations. How is that reality reflected around you? What are you hearing about hidden homelessness?

[Annick Brazeau]

Can I answer the question first? That's good.

In fact, these are often women who will stay with a bunch of different people. They will live with friends or with men they have some kind of relationship with. These are women who move from place to place. They can only stay at a shelter for a certain amount of time. Shelters can't provide long-term housing.

Since women aren't able to find other affordable housing and so on, they'll live with someone else, as I just said. Sometimes, they will couch surf or stay in a spare room and then become victims of violence by the person who is supposed to be housing them and showing them kindness. That's not what should be happening.

Sometimes women are at risk. They will experience violence again, whether by a regular or casual partner, because they can't find housing and so on. There are all kinds of relationships.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I see you nodding, Ms. Brien. Do we have enough data to measure the extent of the problem?

[Elise Brien]

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to document, given that it is hidden homelessness.

What I would add on this issue is that women are in a unique situation, especially when they have children. They're at risk of losing their children because of hidden homelessness. That leaves them even less choice, which means that they will likely return to an abusive partner because they have a real fear of their children being taken away.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

That's the problem.

I have fewer than 10 seconds left, but beyond shelter spaces, I want your human resources to be okay. We can talk about that another time.