QUESTION PERIOD — Women and Gender Equality
Women's Shelters
April 26, 2023
I do have a serious question. Thank you.
My question is to the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, CBC reported this week that more than 600 women’s shelters across Canada will soon lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. According to a national survey I commissioned in late 2021, 83% of Canadians think that violence in the home is a very important problem facing women, and almost as many — 77% — say that violence against women in society at large is a very important problem facing Canadian women. Indeed, violence against women is seen as the most important issue facing women in this country by both women and men.
Women’s shelters play a vital role in assisting women fleeing violence across this country by providing a place to go where they can find support. Senator Gold, can you explain to us the government’s intentions and plans with respect to funding these shelters? Thank you.
Thank you very much for the question. It’s always a timely one — no less so today for reasons we all heard.
The government is deeply committed to addressing the issues and working to eradicate gender-based violence in Canada — focused very much on the safety of vulnerable women. As we know — in the course of the pandemic as well as after — in a series of budgets, the government provided hundreds of millions of dollars of additional funding to support women’s shelters because, tragically — predictably perhaps, but tragically — the isolation and the forced isolation had devastating effects on those who were living at risk in their homes.
The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and the historic investments in Budget 2022 of over $530 million are key to support that work. I’m advised that Minister Ien is at the table actively in negotiations with provincial and territorial counterparts as a key step in implementing this plan. And if I can just say, personally, my dear wife Nancy has long been involved in a women’s shelter in Montreal. It touches all of our lives in so many different ways. The government is doing its part, as much as it can, with provinces and territories and the private sector, frankly, to support this important work.
