Status of Women committee  It was CARE International. They are of course a very well-respected organization nationally and domestically. Your point about supports for women entrepreneurs is an important one. First, the partnership with the regional development agencies that provided funding through, for example, Community Futures Development Corporation has been able to provide targeted supports to entrepreneurs.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Mr. Serré. I'll be honest. Rural Canada never fully recovered from the 2008 recession, and women with children never recovered. It's wonderful to have you back on this committee, as well. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, connections are vital to our ability not only to respond to COVID, but also to recover from it.

Status of Women committee  Regarding organizations like the centre in Sudbury and the West Nipissing Community Health Centre, let me, on behalf of the Government of Canada, thank them for their tireless work and for supporting women and children in their hour of need. As you said, not every home is a safe home, and that $50 million response was immediate.

Status of Women committee  You are right, MP Dhillon. The scars that are caused by gender-based violence, including sexual violence, never fully heal. The best we can do is be there for those who experience it and do what survivors have asked us to do, which is work to prevent these violations from happening to others.

Status of Women committee  I will correct the record. We have actually been recognized as having the best intersectional gendered lens to our COVID response of all countries. In the early days of COVID, as you know we were dealing with a disease that none of us really knew. We acted quickly to provide immediate supports to Canadians who needed it the most.

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. Thank you for that question. The bill that Minister Bains put forward did require a comply or explain model. We've seen some progress on the federal boards. As you have also heard, a couple of weeks ago, Minister Bains announced a 50-30 initiative to take the progress that was made and to build upon it.

Status of Women committee  Your question is an important one. When we launched the federal strategy in 2017, it was the first time that the Government of Canada had brought the various efforts it was undertaking under one umbrella. It started to coordinate amongst different departments, but also with provinces and territories, who, frankly, at the time were leaps and bounds ahead of the federal government in what they were doing.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Hello, colleagues. Bonjour. Aaaniin. As-salaam alaikum. I join you live from my basement in Peterborough—Kawartha on traditional Michi Saagiig territory, covered by the Williams Treaties. I want to thank you all for the very important work you're doing, the study that you've begun and the study that you've just wrapped up, which is critical in providing guidance on next steps for an even recovery as well as in response to COVID.

Status of Women committee  The national housing strategy is a 10-year plan with very concrete goals around eliminating homelessness, adding to the stock of affordable housing and repairing existing housing, and also renewing agreements around co-operatives to make sure that what's been affordable stays affordable.

Status of Women committee  The most recent numbers we have are that over a million Canadians have been lifted out of poverty over the past four years or so, and over a million families have access to safe and affordable roof, which they didn't before 2015.

Status of Women committee  On the census, we brought back the long-form census. It was actually our first act as a cabinet. The new census will be rolling out in 2021. One thing my department has worked on very closely with Minister Bains' department and Stats Canada is creating a portal based on diversity and inclusion data so that we can get those different stories and the intersecting identities.

Status of Women committee  I'm a product of those organizations doing the good work that they do. I've benefited from those services and I know we all have loved ones who have directly benefited from those services. I spoke in my opening remarks about the backlash there is to our progress to advance equality.

Status of Women committee  Thank you. I'm grateful for your leadership, too. It's nice to have you back around this table. I saw that you had been elected as chair of the citizenship committee. I wish you all the best on that important work. In terms of the housing strategies, our commitment was to carve out 25% for women and their children.

Status of Women committee  The housing strategy allowed us to get our house in order, much like other federal strategies that we put forward. Legislating housing as a human right was our way of responding to what advocates had been asking for. Minister Duclos, the minister who did the outreach across the country on this, and Adam Vaughan as his parliamentary secretary came back and said, “This is what we've heard.

Status of Women committee  The short answer is yes. We do need to strengthen all the lenses that you mentioned, but also create a culture and continue to strengthen that culture here within our government and the public service so that it becomes automatic to apply GBA at the outset, at the end and throughout the process.