Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for Fredericton for her hard work and advocacy on this important subject.
Since 2015, our government has been working to prevent gender-based violence, to address the root causes, and support long-term solutions. We have worked with women's movements and organizations on the ground who have been doing this work for decades, even when the government before us left them underfunded and undermined for 10 years. We know that the experience and knowledge of these groups is so important.
Ending gender-based violence does not happen overnight, but I can confirm that our government will continue to be collaborative, persistent and committed to sustainable change. Thanks to the investments of our government in women and gender equality, six million people benefit each year. In 2017, we announced the first-ever federal strategy to prevent and address gender-based violence by bringing together all federal efforts to prevent GBV.
Think about that: It took 150 years for a federal strategy to be created and designed to prevent GBV. Through the federal strategy, over $200 million has been invested to expand and align federal efforts against gender-based violence. Through that strategy, we have supported innovative projects and programming with a whole-of-government approach.
Here are a few examples: Developing a framework to address gender-based violence in post-secondary institutions; creating and testing innovative practices to prevent teen dating violence; supporting the Canadian Centre for Child Protection; addressing gaps in supports for indigenous survivors of GBV across the country. Building on the foundations laid by the strategy, we are now working with provincial and territorial governments and indigenous leaders to advance the national action plan to end gender-based violence.
The key word there is “national”. In January, just a month ago, federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for the status of women came together over a few days with a joint declaration on a commitment to a Canada free from gender-based violence. This is such a significant milestone. This plan will address root causes to prevent gender-based violence and ensure that anyone facing GBV has reliable and timely access to protection and services, no matter where they live.
However, our work does not stop there. We announced $22.4 million in new funding to organizations providing supports for at-risk populations, including survivors of violence, as part of the national strategy to combat human trafficking. In December, we announced our government's support for 63 organizations engaged in this work.
We are also actively working to provide crucial support to those most vulnerable in the COVID-19 pandemic. We are providing up to $100 million in funding to shelters, sexual assault centres and other organizations working to support those experiencing GBV at this difficult time.
We believe strongly that, by acting quickly, by listening to experts and advocates and by engaging all levels of government, working closely with our partners and by investing in the most sustainable approaches, we will be on track to end gender-based violence in all its forms.