Thank you, Chair.
Minister, I know that you've probably been watching this committee closely, as I'm sure you always do. We're currently just finishing up a study on indigenous and Black veterans, and I want to say that I've been really disappointed with the lack of engagement from the Black community.
We reached out a lot in our office and connected with multiple Black veterans who were very clear in their discussions with us that they had no faith in the process and that they would not attend any of our committee meetings. That concerns me a lot, so I have more than a question: I want to say that I think there's something happening there that is probably really serious, and I hope that the minister will take some time to maybe explore that a little bit, because it always makes me sad when a particular group of veterans feels left out and feels that their contribution in a committee like ours wouldn't make a difference.
My next question for you is around women-only housing. We heard very clearly and repeatedly through the testimony on the women veterans study that a lot of women felt that they couldn't access veterans housing because there's a mixture of people there who can make them feel really unsafe. They also spoke quite clearly about having current serving members popping by to visit, which might be a great experience for some veterans, but for some of the women veterans who had experienced MST it was very traumatizing to see someone come into their space wearing a uniform.
I know that some money has been given to The Pepper Pod, but I'm not clear on what that's for and if that's actually moving towards having some women-only veterans housing.
Could I get some clarity on what's happening on that and if there's any commitment to actually building some women-only veterans housing to especially support women who we know are often facing higher rates of homelessness, especially indigenous veteran women?
Is there anything happening that we can be excited to look forward to as support for these women to keep them safe and keep them housed?