Status of Women Canada approved few projects focused on aboriginal women

The federal agency that's supposed to promote theequality and advancement of women has only approved a handful of
projects in recent years that had anything to do with aboriginals.

Now opposition parties are asking why Status of Women Canadadidn't give the green light to more projects focused on aboriginalwomen and girls, who disproportionately fall victim to violence andpoverty in this country.

The federal agency recently provided statistics in response to a question from New Democrat MP Niki Ashton showing 31 of 210 projectsapproved since the fall of 2011 14.8 per cent were focused on aboriginal women and girls.That included projects by both aboriginal and non-aboriginalgroups.

• NDP forces Commons debate on murdered, missing indigenous women
• Visit CBC Aboriginalfor more top stories

The agency provided two sets of figures. One shows the number of proposals received by Status of Women Canada; the other shows thenumber that were ultimately approved.Status of Women Canada didn't offer any details about the nature of the projects. But the figures show clearly that the agencyapproved relatively few projects focused exclusively on aboriginalwomen and girls.

That can perhaps be explained, in part, by looking at the totalnumber of proposals that the agency received.Take, for instance, the proposal for projects aimed at "Engaging young people to prevent violence against women on post-secondarycampuses." Only one of the 53 proposals focused on aboriginals. Theagency ultimately approved 22 projects and the one aboriginal-focused pitch didn't make the cut.

But that explanation doesn't seem to apply to the rest of the projects, which all received a substantial number of pitches focusedon aboriginals.

Sixty-six of the 308 proposals for projects aimed at "engagingcommunities to end violence against women and girls" focused onaboriginals. Yet only three of those 66 aboriginal projects gotapproved.

Department officials assessed the merits of each of the fundingrequests, said Andrew McGrath, a spokesman for Status of WomenMinister Kellie Leitch.

"Each call for proposals has specific criteria thatorganizations must meet in order to be approved for funding,"
McGrath wrote in an email.

"In circumstances where funding proposals aren't approved,Status of Women officials offer to work with organizations on howthey can improve their submissions for future calls.

"Status of Women Canada has a rigorous assessment process toensure that approved projects a) are in line with achieving the goals and objectives of each call for proposals; b) have thegreatest impact possible; and c) ensure that taxpayers' dollars arebeing spent in an effective manner."

'It's a true reflection of how little commitment this governmenthas if any to indigenous women."- NikiAshton

Opposition MPs say the lack of projects focused on aboriginalwomen and girls speaks volumes.

"It's a true reflection of how little commitment this governmenthas if any to indigenous women," Ashton said in an interview.

The Conservative government has often said the reason it refusesto hold a national inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginalwomen and girls is because it's time to take action, not study theissue further.

Calls for an inquiry have been growing louder since RCMPcommissioner Bob Paulson revealed that nearly 1,200 aboriginal womenhave been murdered or gone missing in Canada in the last 30 yearshundreds more than previously thought.

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett said the project figures show thegovernment isn't taking the issue seriously.

"The government's refusal to back up its rhetoric about thisurgent crisis with actual resources and concrete action is
unconscionable," she said in a statement.

The latest Conservative budget included a five-year, $25-millionrenewal of money aimed at stopping violence against aboriginal women and girls.

The government is also spending additional money on shelters andactivities to prevent family violence, a DNA-based missing personsdatabase and continuing support for police investigations throughthe National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains andspecial RCMP project teams.