The study is on harms, risks and gaps, so the answer to your question is yes. It's all three: harms, risks and gaps. It's not just a matter of a living wage for women and support for them with their children. It has another twist in it when it comes to human trafficking.
I would say that one of the responses that we need to look at is the infrastructure. It's what housing actually looks like, what is available to women and the disparity in equity of access between men and women.
I continue to assist women. Courage for Freedom has assisted over 3,800 minor-age survivors, and the first thing we do is housing, but most of the things we've done around housing have not been within the system. Co-operation within the system takes four to six weeks. At that time, people are re-risking themselves by returning into their house, their home.
For those who are in human trafficking, there's also an additional measure. A lot of those who are in human trafficking suffer at the hands of a perpetrator and are forced to commit coerced crimes. That criminalization and victimization then put a woman at risk to be able to even apply.
The other thing is their coerced credit. A lot of times, a trafficker uses a victim survivor's credit, and they burn it. Even when somebody gets on their feet and they're ready to transition into a shelter, stage two housing or RGI—rent-geared-to-income housing—they do not qualify, because their credit is upside down. The Province of Ontario has done something remarkable about that, and it would be recommended for every province. It is to reduce coerced debt, especially of women.
I just had a call a day ago from a woman who's fleeing violence. I know from her story that she has not identified as a human trafficking survivor. She doesn't even know that she is, and if she goes to a shelter, chances are they will not be able to flag it right away, get her appropriate care and keep her child safe. One of the things that traffickers do is use children. Making sure not only that women are safe in the shelters but that the children are safe too is very important.
I know you're hard on human trafficking, so thank you for your question.