Question Period Note: National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence

What is the status of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence developed with the provinces and territories?

•Gender-Based Violence is one of the most pervasive, deadly, and deeply rooted human rights violations of our time.
•The endorsement of the 10 year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence in November 2022 is a concrete step in fulfilling a long-standing commitment of Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments to work together towards a Canada free of Gender-Based Violence.
•After a Budget 2021 investment of $601.3M over 5 years, Budget 2022 made additional investments, including $525M to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
•Federal funding will flow through bilateral agreements with each province and territory. We have announced agreements with several jurisdictions already, and are looking forward to announcing agreements with the remaining provinces and territories in the coming months.

Investments
•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”:

Gender-Based Violence Program Enhancement
o $105M over five years for WAGE to enhance its Gender-Based Violence Program, with funding initiatives that engage men and boys and increasing funding for initiatives to stop human trafficking, which includes providing support to at-risk populations and victims and survivors of human trafficking. It will also provide support for testing and implementing best practices to address gender-based violence, with a focus on projects that could be scaled at the national level.
o Over $30M has been invested in 74 projects focused on addressing gender-based violence and supporting those who experience it.
o In December 2022, WAGE launched a Call for Proposals to address GBV through promising practices and community-based research. The call closed in February 2023 and successful recipients will be announced in the coming months.

Crisis Hotlines
o $30M over five years for WAGE to support crisis hotlines across Canada. This will help to serve the urgent needs of more individuals in Canada experiencing gender-based violence by offering more robust services, resources, and supports to prevent the escalation of gender-based violence.
o WAGE will distribute this funding to crisis hotlines through bilateral agreements with provincial and territorial governments.
o Negotiations with provinces and territories have almost all been completed. Signed agreements with Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Northwest Territories, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador have been announced.

•Emergency COVID-19 Funding
o Since April 2020, the Department has provided $300M in COVID-19 emergency funding to over 1,400 organizations, including women’s shelters, sexual assault centres, and other organizations providing critical supports and services to those experiencing gender-based violence.
o This funding ensures the continuity of services and enhances the capacity of organizations that provide critical and often life-saving services and supports for women, girls, and Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+) experiencing violence. Because of this funding, more than 2M individuals experiencing violence had a safe place to go and access to supports across Canada.

Results
•Bilateral funding agreements with provinces and territories are currently being finalized, and therefore there are no results directly linked to the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence at this time.
•Through the federal GBV Strategy, which is the Government of Canada’s contribution to the National Action Plan, significant progress has been made since 2017 to address gender-based violence:
o Three new national surveys establishing baselines on gender-based violence and filling critical data gaps;
o Establishment of the GBV Knowledge Centre;
o Funding for qualitative community-based research to help address the needs of underserved populations in the GBV sector;
o Prevention efforts through the GBV Youth Awareness Campaign, launched in December 2022;
o Competency training for RCMP officers and staff;
o Development and testing of promising practices in areas including: sexual violence, technology-facilitated violence, youth dating violence, gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions, human trafficking, and intimate partner violence;
o Enhanced supports for survivors of gender-based violence within the Canadian Armed Forces; and,
o Strengthened trauma-informed responses amongst federal corrections facility staff.

Project Example
•Bilateral funding agreements with provinces and territories will be posted online in fall 2023 and will include all projects being funded with year one of the funding.

BACKGROUND:
•It is estimated that every year, the federal, provincial and territorial governments in Canada spend billions on healthcare, justice, and social system responses to gender-based violence. It is further estimated that Canadian businesses lose millions due to loss of productivity and inability of individuals to work as a result of gender-based violence. Most importantly, individuals experiencing gender-based violence pay considerable direct and indirect costs in terms of opportunity costs and impacts throughout their life course and across generations.
•The 2019 Speech from the Throne committed to taking greater action to address gender-based violence by developing a National Action Plan. This commitment was reinforced in the December 2019 mandate letter, which directed the Minister for Women and Gender Equality to build on the foundation laid by the federal GBV Strategy and move forward with the development of a National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
•In January 2021, federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women endorsed the Joint Declaration for a Canada Free of Gender-Based Violence, which confirmed common vision, principles, and goals for responding to gender-based violence.
•The 2021 Speech from the Throne and December 2021 mandate letter to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth once again underscored the Government’s commitment to move forward with a 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Specifically, Minister Ien was mandated to “move forward with the development of a 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, begin negotiations with the provinces and territories within a year, and accelerate the establishment of a dedicated Secretariat”.
•The National Action Plan was made possible through close collaboration between federal, provincial, and territorial governments and Indigenous partners. It was also informed by engagement with survivors, front-line service providers, gender-based violence experts, academics, and advocates, as well as recommendations from a wide range of stakeholders and experts.

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