QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Public Safety
Human Trafficking
March 30, 2022
Minister, the 2019 Final Report of the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls noted that while Indigenous women represented only 4% of Canada’s population in 2016, they comprised nearly 50% of victims of human trafficking. In September 2019, just before the federal election that year, the Trudeau government reinstated the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking after cancelling the previous Conservative government’s strategy in 2016.
Minister, how much of the $75 million under your government’s strategy has been allocated to directly help and protect Indigenous women and girls against human trafficking? How has this funding been allocated?
Thank you very much for the question, senator, and thank you for underlining the scourge of human trafficking, which disproportionately impacts Indigenous women and young girls, as we saw painfully laid out in the MMIWG report, which is one of the reasons why we’re committed to implementing the recommendations that are in it.
I was just in British Columbia a little less than two weeks ago to make an announcement of approximately — and I don’t want to mislead you — but I think it was $3 million to $5 million that was going directly to The Salvation Army and a partnering organization to combat human trafficking on the ground. This is part of a broader investment which we have allocated specifically to reduce human trafficking; I don’t know if you know the statistics, but 90% of all of the victims of human trafficking in Canada are women or young girls, which is truly a shocking number.
I assure you that this is a top priority. I assure you that we are allocating funds to meet that challenge and to provide support to those victims of human trafficking so that they can find their way back into communities safely and securely. I assure you that we are continuing to provide law enforcement with all the tools that they need to fight this scourge.
