Madam Speaker, the last time we had this discussion, we were talking about greater support for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
The need is great. One in four women in Canada will experience intimate partner violence or sexual violence in her lifetime. That is according to the World Health Organization. I cannot overstate how badly my region of Nanaimo—Ladysmith needs action to prevent violence against women, and how much has fallen to our front-line organizations who pick up the pieces every day.
One such group, Nanaimo's Haven Society, receives eight crisis calls every day. Every year, it serves close to 4,000 people suffering physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and violence. However, because of inadequate financing, every year Haven turns away over 75 women who are ready to leave abusive situations, but whom the Haven Society simply does not have enough room to house.
Across our country, there is a powerful network of domestic violence shelters picking up the pieces in just this way. One night alone last year, 8,000 women and children were in domestic violence shelters. Every day, 305 women and children are turned away from shelters, mostly because of overcrowding. This means that three out of four people seeking help to flee a violent situation cannot be accommodated.
I acknowledge the dedication of the Minister of Status of Women, and I deeply hope that her Liberal cabinet and the Minister of Finance agree with her that funding solutions is vital. The cost of not dealing with it is extreme.
Justice Canada estimates that the economic cost of violence against women is $12.2 billion to Canada every year. That is $415 per capita annually in costs from domestic violence.
The Liberal government's announcements do not seem to be enough to meet this enormous pent-up need over the last decade. The Canadian Network of Women's Shelters & Transition Houses has said that if half the money went to new spaces, because it could partly also go to renovate or repair existing shelters, it would mean just two new shelters for every province.
For first nations, the budget announcement will only support the creation of five new shelters on reserve and it will take three years to build them. In short, there will be only five new shelters on reserve across Canada over the next three years.
While the one-time capital funding is being welcomed, does the minister's representative believe it will be sufficient and what can she do to address the lingering need for operational cash? More than half the shelters are feeding their clients using food banks. The cost of electricity and every other kind of operating cost has gone up and up while the funding has gone down.
We do not have enough staff hours to deal with the increases in the number of clients served. We have waiting lists for counselling that the clients really need, and more operational funding would help that.
My two questions for the parliamentary secretary are as follows. Is the funding announced adequate for capital funding? What can be done about operational funding to support this very important community work?