Bev Oda

[Status of Women, December 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, members of the opposition party, when they cut, they took the money and removed it from being accessible to women. This government found savings in government spending and the money will go to women. It is very simple. A cut is made when there is no money and an increase is when the savings go directly to women.

[Status of Women, December 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report that we have had meetings with immigrant women organizations that are actually doing work for immigrant women. They have been in to see us and we have told them that $5 million in additional money will be available. They indicated that they were not told that by the opposition party. Once they knew the true facts, they said that it was good news.

We have been very clear. As a result of savings in administration, this government is putting the money back into women, not into Liberal Party friends.

[Status of Women, December 8th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, we can guarantee that the $10.8 million for women's programs will continue to be there. It is there now and it will be there in the next fiscal year.

The good news is that all the money we found in streamlining the administration will be available in the next fiscal year, which is $5 million more to help the organizations that are actually making a difference in the lives of women in the community.

[Points of Order, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a correction in response to a question from the member for St. Paul's. I made reference to funds being available on April 1, 2008. It should be corrected to read April 1, 2007.

[Status of Women, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it very clearly shows we said that $5 million will no longer go into offices, but will go into programs to help women, and that money will be available April 1, 2008.

[Status of Women, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, as we all know, the expenditure review found $5 million which we could put into women's programs as of April 1, 2007. We are now working in collaboration. We will have information available to the organizations so that we can consider different projects to help women.

In fact, cutting women's programming is what the party opposite did five times in 13 years, and the Liberals did not give the money back to women's programs. They gave it to their Liberal friends.

[Canadian Television Fund, December 7th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table today, in both official languages, the Canadian Television Fund's annual report.

[Violence against Women, December 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I want to make the record accurate. This government has acted: $6 million for shelters in first nations communities; $7 million in permanent annual funding toward the family violence initiative through the Public Health Agency of Canada; $5 million to the Sisters in Spirit to end racial and sexual violence; plus the $5 million from administration directly to women.

In fact, it was the party of the member opposite that cut the funding to women's programs three times and the funding to the Status of Women five times.

[Status of Women, December 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, we will utilize the money in a way that will help women. We know the facts. In fact, conditional sentences are used in sexual assault cases more often than in any other cases of violent crime. That is why this government put forward legislation to put an end to conditional sentences for sexual offenders.

This is a time to remember, but this is also a time for action. We ask members in this House to support us and act on behalf of all women. We have $5 million more available, action and resources now available.

[Status of Women, December 6th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, she is quite correct.

An additional $5 million will be going directly to women.

We have $10.8 million in the women's program. There is $5 million at Status of Women no longer being used for administrative purposes and is available now directly for women's groups. That is $5 million for women at Status of Women to help organizations help women directly in the community.