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

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 launch 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. Federal, provincial and territorial governments are working together with victims and survivors, Indigenous partners, direct service providers, experts, advocates, municipalities, the private sector, and researchers to implement the Action Plan.
•Budget 2022 invested $539.3M to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the Action Plan.
•All agreements are available on Women and Gender Equality Canada’s website.
•The First Annual National Progress Report on the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence will be released in late Fall 2024.

Investments

•Budget 2022 invested $539.3M over five years, starting in 2022-2023, “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”, which included:

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 also provided 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 To date, over $84M has been committed in support of 185 projects.

Crisis Hotlines
o $30M over five years for WAGE to support crisis hotlines across Canada. This funding helps 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 is distributing this funding to crisis hotlines through bilateral agreements with provincial and territorial governments. Agreements have been announced with all provinces and territories. These agreements are publicly available on WAGE’s website.

•Emergency COVID-19 Funding
o Since April 2020, the Department 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. Because of this funding, more than 4 million individuals experiencing violence had a safe place to go and access to supports across Canada.
o This funding served as an emergency response to the pandemic crisis above and beyond ongoing work under WAGE’s Women’s Program and the Federal GBV Strategy. The funding ensured the continuity of services and enhanced 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.
Results

•All bilateral funding agreements with the provinces and territories were announced by December 2023. WAGE will be publishing an annual, national report of progress under the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence starting in Fall 2024.
•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 Development of the second cycle of the 2024-2025 Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, after consultations with over 100 stakeholders;
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

•Through the Gender-Based Violence Program Enhancement initiative, The Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre is receiving $627,842 for a 30-month project to scale the Next Gen Men boy's afterschool programs and community-based groups to the Yukon to strengthen the gender-based violence sector. It will address a gap in supports for men and boys to confidently engage with anti-violence activism and allyship, reflect on harmful masculinities and norms, and access comprehensive sexual education that includes themes of gender-based violence.
Project end date: March 31st, 2026

BACKGROUND:
•The 2019 and 2021 Speeches 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 Minister for Women and Gender Equality’s December 2019 and 2021 mandate letters.
•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 National Action Plan launched in November 2022, 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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