R. Chouhan: First, I want to give a little background
and ask a couple of questions about the
[
Page 4145 ]
women's
situation in the South Asian community and some women from
the Philippines that I have been meeting with for the last
couple of months.
These women, who are the victims of a system under which
they have…. There are some men, as well, but the majority
of the people who are victimized in this situation are women.
These women sponsored their husbands from either India or
from the Philippines.
When the spouse comes over here, they sometimes end up in
a very abusive relationship. As a result, they would terminate
their marital relationship. What happens, in some cases,
is that the spouse would then go collect welfare or go on
other assistance that he or she might receive from the government.
[1530]
Then the ministry, the government of B.C., would go after
the sponsor. In these cases, these are the women who have….
We now have several cases. In one case the woman has now
been asked to reimburse the province $27,000. In another
case it's $32,000. So these are the victims being revictimized.
My question to the minister is: are the women in this category
on the ministry's radar?
Hon. I. Chong: In addition to responding to the member
for Burnaby-Edmonds, I would like to make some comment,
as well, on the remarks by the member for Coquitlam-Maillardville
in her opening comments. She made the comment that she felt
that there was a philosophical reason as to why the funding
allocation had been changed in terms of providing financial
resources to women's centres.
I would like to be able to correct her and to state that
that is not the reason why the funding allocation has changed.
In fact, the women's centres were advised in 2002 and then
given a further two years until March of 2004 to look for
alternate sources of financing to ensure that they would
get community support, that they would work with other community
organizations to see if they could not find other areas
of financial resources.
What we had said in 2002 was that government was going to
focus the taxpayers' dollars in three specific areas —
in priority areas, in fact. That was to ensure that the
funding of transition houses, including our safe houses
and second-stage housing, would be maintained and sustained;
that counselling for women who are experiencing abuse would
also be sustained and maintained; and that counselling for
children who witness abuse also would be maintained and
sustained. We made a conscious decision to ensure that those
priority areas would continue to receive the funding and
also be able to enhance services in those particular areas.
I have said to a number of women's centres around the province
— because I, too, did travel around and meet with them
— that the services provided by the centres….
I recognized that many of them did good work in their communities.
That's not at all what was in question. But because government
was ensuring that the priority-service areas needing to
be maintained and enhanced…. We would focus on that,
and that is one of the reasons why we said there would be
a two-year period in which they could look for alternate
sources of revenue.
I also want to state it for the record because I think it's
unfortunate that members opposite have alluded so often
to the fact that women's centres all over the province were
closing. That, in fact, is not true.
I am aware of five centres that no longer operate. Again,
they have certain reasons as to why that is the case. In
some cases they weren't operating full-time hours and perhaps
were not able to continue to operate on that basis. In other
cases there are other reasons, and I can't get into those
specifics.
What I did say to the women's centres, as well, was that
by ensuring that these priority-service areas were maintained,
I would still find ways to look to these centres to provide
direct services for women. In that regard, when we announced
Community Action for Women's Safety grants this past January,
I am pleased to say that a number of women's centres applied
for these grants, and a number of the women's centres received
these grants.
They were to focus on women's safety, particularly for four
distinct women's population groups that statistically have
higher representation in terms of abuse than what we would
like. They are for visible minority women, older women,
immigrant women and women with disabilities. We were able
to do that for the first time — to provide those available
grants.
I am continuing to look at services that we need to provide,
and I will continue, at all those opportunities, to ensure
that when the opportunity arises, everyone who is a women-serving
agency has the opportunity to bid on those particular grants.
[1535]
The member for Burnaby-Edmonds asked specifically about
immigrant women, I guess it would be — or visible minority
women, particularly in the South Asian community and the
Filipino community — who had sponsored their spouses
to come to Canada and, in particular, to British Columbia
and then, perhaps, were victims of abuse. They were then
also required to deal with the matter of sponsorship, which
is a financial matter.
I would say to the member that when those arrangements are
made in terms of sponsorship, it's an immigration matter
— a federal matter, I believe. The federal department
does require and does the checks in terms of the sponsorship
requirements. Now, based on specific cases…. In these
instances which the member has mentioned, I don't know whether
they have gone to the immigration department to ask for
special dispensation on the matter. If they haven't done
so, I believe that would be a good place to start.
If the member requires additional information, especially
in regard to sponsorship and immigration, then I would have
to ask him to refer those to the Attorney General for specific
information in that area.
R. Chouhan: When we are talking about the sponsorship
issues, yes, in part, it's federal, but when the
[
Page 4146 ]
money
is collected from those women who are victims of this system,
it's provincial. It's not federal.
My question to the Minister Responsible for Women's Issues
is: has the ministry looked into this matter, or would they
be willing to look into this matter — to meet with
those women to talk about their issues? It is provincial.
Hon. I. Chong: I want to make it clear that when
the member raised the issue about sponsoring a partner,
it led to the matter of immigration. That's why I tried
to direct him to the Attorney General on the specifics.
However, if he's wanting to deal with the area of women's
issues, in particular with the issue of violence —
I know that all of us in this House are in support of the
prevention of violence against women — I can say that
there are a number of organizations around the province
which we continue to work with and continue to fund. I think
he must be familiar with the various groups in his riding,
but in Greater Vancouver in particular, a woman by the name
of Tracy Porteous deals with B.C. Specialized Victim Assistance
workers. She deals with training workers, as well, who are
acute to some of these matters and therefore are able to
assist abused women.
I can say that our ministry has been able to facilitate
a meeting with the Deputy Attorney General to bring to his
attention some of the matters the member has raised and
similar matters in that regard, as well as a number of others
that have come to our attention. We are continuing with
those discussions because in cases such as the member raises,
they sometimes do involve the ministry with the Attorney
General. Our ministry works with other ministries on a variety
of initiatives and facilitates discussion in a variety of
ways, and this is one of them.
We agreed to your suggestions. We absolutely believe it's
important to meet with women when it comes to issues of
violence. As a ministry, we will work with other ministries
that have similar areas of responsibility to ensure that
there are ways that we can all continue to work towards
the prevention of violence.
[1540]
R. Chouhan: We are also dealing with this issue with
the Minister of Employment and Income Assistance, and we
have heard from the minister that they are reviewing their
policy to collect that money from these victims. However,
my question is…. As the Minister Responsible for Women's
Issues, we would request that your ministry also work with
the Minister of Employment and Income Assistance to speed
up the review of their policy that they are doing so that
these women, these victims of these scandals, can get some
assistance.
Hon. I. Chong: I want to thank the member for Burnaby-Edmonds
for his very strong and passionate efforts in this area.
There's no question that our ministry does work with other
ministries in government. My deputy minister, who I've introduced
to you, is also prepared, if you wish, to deal with those
specific cases that he mentioned. We might have a look at
them to see how we might also further their particular case.
We certainly do meet with the Ministries of Employment and
Income Assistance, Attorney General, Public Safety and Solicitor
General — a variety of ministries — to ensure
that the services we provide are better integrated cross-government.
But when we hear of specific cases which are particularly
disturbing, I would certainly welcome any member of the
opposition to feel comfortable in contacting our ministry
and our deputy and to make arrangements to have a meeting.
We can then look at those cases specifically. I want to
thank the member for allowing us to do that.
