Question Period Note: Budget 2023

How does Budget 2023 support feminist and equality-seeking organizations?

• The Government of Canada recognizes that women’s, 2SLGBTQI+, and other equality-seeking organizations have been at the forefront of social change. They are key drivers for gender equality.
• Since 2015, more than $556 million has been provided to these organizations, to support over 1,200 projects working to advance gender equality in Canada.
• Through these investments, we are sustaining historic funding levels for Canadian women’s organizations and equity-deserving groups through the Women’s Program.
• We also support the important work of equality-seeking organizations under the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan and the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.

Investments
Women’s Program Investments
•Budget 2023 proposes to provide $160 million over three years, starting in 2023-24, for the Women’s Program to provide funding to women’s organizations and equity-deserving groups, with a particular focus on Indigenous women, women with disabilities, members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities, and newcomer, Black, racialized, and migrant women.
•Since 2015, WAGE has invested over $380M under the Women’s Program in over 900 projects to advance women’s equality, including:
o $100M in historic Budget 2018 funding for projects to strengthen the capacity of the women’s movement. Up to $20 million in additional funding is supporting a one-year extension of existing projects until March 2024.
o $160M in Budget 2019 funding for projects tackling systemic barriers for women in the areas of leadership, economic security and prosperity, and gender-based violence. This funding was primarily used for the Feminist Response and Recovery Fund to provide flexibility for organizations to be responsive to the broad and diverse systemic issues that need to be tackled to build back better, support a feminist response and recovery from the pandemic, and advance gender equality across Canada.

Recent Budget Commitments:

National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence
•Budget 2022 invested $539.3M over five years, starting in 2022-23, “to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence”.
•Budget 2021 invested $601.3M over five years, starting in 2021-2022, “to advance towards a new National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.”

2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan
•Budget 2022 committed $100M over five years to implement the Action Plan.
•Budget 2021 announced $15M over three years for a 2SLGBTQI+ Projects Fund for communities working to address barriers to 2SLGBTQI+ equality.
•Budget 2019 invested $20M to enhance the capacity of 2SLGBTQI+ organizations.

Menstrual Equity Fund
•Budget 2022 committed to establishing a national pilot project for a Menstrual Equity Fund that will help make menstrual products available to Canadians in need.

Overall Investment
•Since 2015, the Department has funded over 1,200 projects providing more than $556M, to work towards gender equality. This includes:
o $181.9M to Indigenous projects (33% of all WAGE investments)
o $63.9M to projects for racialized communities
o $67.6M to projects in northern, remote, or rural projects
o $52.9M to non-status, immigrant, or refugee projects
o $47.4M to youth focused projects
o $83.5M to projects for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+)
o $31.1M to projects targeting low income communities
o $32.6M to official language minority communities
o $14.9M to projects targeting people with a disability

Investments in the 2SLGBTQI+ Community
•Since 2019, WAGE has invested $42.5M in 2SLGBTQI+ organizations, including:
o $27.5M through the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund to enhance the capacity of 76 2SLGBTQI+ organizations. An additional $25.5M will be distributed through the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund as part of funding announced in the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan. Applications for this Call for Proposals are currently under review.
o $15M through the 2SLGBTQI+ Projects Fund for projects addressing barriers to 2SLGBTQI+ equality. As part of the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, $35M in new projects funding was announced in August 2022.

Investments to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (GBV)
•Since 2015, WAGE has invested $110M in more than 190 projects to prevent and address GBV.
•In addition, Women and Gender Equality Canada provided $300M in urgent support to shelters, sexual assault centres, and organizations that offer vital support to individuals experiencing GBV in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
•Additional investments currently underway include:
o $55M to bolster the capacity of Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQI+ organizations to provide GBV prevention programming. As of July 2023, approximately 90 Indigenous organizations are being funded.
o $105M to enhance the GBV Program. A Call for proposals to Address GBV through Promising Practices and Community-based Research closed in February 2023. $539.3M to support the implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (GBV NAP).

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