Status of Women committee  We know that in economic crises women are disproportionately affected. As the minister pointed out in the last hour, we saw it in the 2008 recession and we're seeing it now. I can give you some examples of how that's happening now. In March when we saw lockdowns, women experienced job losses at twice the rate of men, and in May, when we started to open the economy back up and jobs started coming back, men gained employment at twice the rate of women.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. I'll start by talking about what GBA+ is and what GBA+ is not. GBA+ is a tool that we use to take a look at how people are impacted by issues differently, how different groups are impacted differently, so that we can develop tailored, targeted policies, programs and other initiatives.

Status of Women committee  Our work at WAGE doesn't involve us being intimately familiar with all of the discussions that go on as part of the GBA+ process, so I'm not able to speak to any specific initiative that is the purview of another department. In terms of whether GBA+ was applied at the beginning, the middle or the end, my answer is that it depends.

Justice committee  Thank you for raising a really important issue. It's something that's been talked about quite extensively in terms of the impact of COVID-19 on gender-based violence more broadly, and in particular, as you pointed out, intimate partner violence. The research and data that we do have from the COVID-19 [Technical difficulty—Editor] shows that, much like crises more broadly, the pandemic is increasing rates of intimate partner violence and gender-based violence.

Justice committee  I will have to defer to my justice colleagues on this. It's outside of the scope of my expertise and knowledge.

Justice committee  Matters of courts and the law are outside of my expertise, so I cannot comment.

Justice committee  As the member notes, the Government of Canada does have a federal strategy to address and prevent gender-based violence. To date, there has been over $200 million in investments and an ongoing commitment of $40 million per year. In that strategy, we consider various forms of gender-based violence, including forms related to coercive and controlling behaviour.

Justice committee  The Government of Canada has since March invested over $100 million in more than 1,000 shelters, sexual assault centres and organizations providing supports to women and children experiencing gender-based violence. We've been working with these organizations very closely. What we're hearing from them is that they are extremely appreciative of this critical support, which has allowed them to keep their doors open and to provide safe, critical supports and services to those who are experiencing violence during the pandemic.

Justice committee  We do know that creating more supportive and responsive justice and legal systems is important. In fact, it's one of the pillars under our strategy to address gender-based violence in Canada. With respect to other offences, we also know from data that only 5% of sexual assaults are reported to police.

Justice committee  It's a very heavy question. Given the complexity of gender-based violence, there is no single thing that will fix this issue. One thing that the government is doing right now is advancing a national action plan to end gender-based violence. As you've all heard here today, the pandemic has reinforced the fact that we need a national action plan.

Justice committee  As I said, to date we've invested over $24 million in researching data. We're developing three new national surveys to fill data gaps with respect to this issue. In particular, we have put out a survey on gender-based violence. Right now we're analyzing data specifically with respect to intimate partner violence to get a better picture of intimate partner violence.

Justice committee  With respect to women living in rural areas, according to 2018 police-reported data, women in rural areas experienced the highest overall rates of intimate partner violence in the country. I think that is significant to note for this study. Given that fact, it's important to ensure that women living in rural areas particularly have access to supports and services in their area.

Justice committee  As I mentioned, since the start of the pandemic, $100 million has been distributed to over 1,000 shelters, sexual assault centres and organizations providing services to women and children experiencing violence. This has allowed the organizations to keep their doors open to continue providing these critical services.

Justice committee  I don't have these exact statistics in front of me, so I'm going to have to follow up with you on this, but they are astounding. I will follow up on the increase in reports of child exploitation during the pandemic.

Justice committee  I do know that Public Safety Canada and others in the safety portfolio are working on this issue of child exploitation, in terms of making sure that there are services available and making sure we can leverage technology to recognize victims. Again, I don't have the specifics in what we're doing.