Speaker, tomorrow is Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Ontario and across the country. As many members of this House know, human trafficking is a cruel and vicious crime that deprives individuals of their freedom, dignity and basic human rights.

Here in Ontario, the most common form of human trafficking is sex trafficking, with children and young women being the most targeted. I find it deeply troubling to see that the average age of recruitment into sex trafficking is just 13 years of age.

Victims are lured by traffickers who pretend to be their friends or romantic partners, often gaining their trust and then manipulating them and coercing them into being trafficked. In many cases, the victims believe that their traffickers care for them, making it all the more devastating when they’re exploited and abused.

Victims are isolated from their families as well as their friends. They can be moved away from home, left with no access to money or ID, and can have loans taken out in their names, making it very hard for them to leave their traffickers.

That’s why our government supported the passage of legislation which protects survivors of human trafficking from fraudulent debts incurred by traffickers in their name—and I want to thank the member for putting that initiative forward.

Speaker, human trafficking is a deeply troubling, multi-faceted problem that demands nothing less than a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach, and our government is taking action to fight it.

In March 2020, we launched a comprehensive, $307-million strategy to combat human trafficking. The strategy focuses on raising awareness, protecting victims, intervening early, supporting survivors and holding offenders accountable. Our strategy includes key actions in law enforcement, led by my colleague the Solicitor General, who will say a few words right after me.

In the transportation sector, our government is taking actions led by my colleague the Minister of Transportation, including investing in training for truck drivers, such as:

—the program developed by the Women’s Trucking Federation of Canada to help drivers spot the warning signs if they encounter someone who is being trafficked;

—placing decals on buses and trains operated by Metrolinx and Ontario Northland, so anyone who needs help is aware of the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline number; and

—training drivers and operators of public transportation vehicles to be aware of the signs of human trafficking and where to direct someone if they need help.

We’re also taking comprehensive actions to keep students in our schools safe—online and in person—from violent offenders. This work is being led by my colleague the Minister of Education, who introduced a first-of-its-kind policy in Canada that requires all school boards to have an anti-sex-trafficking protocol in place to protect students and disrupt trafficking networks. He was the first minister in Canada to mandate anti-human-trafficking knowledge for students in the health and phys-ed curriculum in 2019, and he invested more than $1.6 million this year to help community partners and school boards deliver tools and resources to support student safety initiatives, including addressing victimization and violence, to help prevent sex trafficking. He also implemented mandatory training for all educators and staff to recognize, identify, respond to and prevent sex trafficking.

Speaker, our anti-human-trafficking strategy represents the largest total investment in dedicated anti-human-trafficking services and supports in the country. This includes specialized supports designed to protect children and youth from sex trafficking, like the Children at Risk of Exploitation Units, or CARE units. These units are intervention teams that pair up police officers with child protection workers and Indigenous liaisons who work collaboratively to identify and locate children experiencing or at risk of trafficking, connect them with culturally relevant supports, and investigate and hold offenders accountable.

In 2021, we launched Ontario’s first CARE units in the city of Toronto and in Durham region, with an investment of $11.5 million over three years. And these units are changing lives every single day. Between April 2022 and March 2023, they supported 218 children and youth who had experienced or were at risk of sex trafficking, and 136 of them were under the age of 15. These are young people who, without the intervention of the CARE unit, might not have known how to get help or that there was a way out of trafficking.

Our next priority is to establish a CARE unit in a northern community where Indigenous youth are disproportionately impacted by sex trafficking. I am pleased to report that we have begun community engagements on a new CARE unit in the Kenora region, which I announced last month with my colleague the Minister of Indigenous Affairs. Our discussions with Indigenous representatives, community-based organizations, children’s aid societies and police services will help us develop an intervention model that reflects the unique needs of the region, and it will ultimately help protect more children, youth and Indigenous women and girls from this horrible crime.

Since we are approaching the final year of our anti-human trafficking strategy, we’re starting a review to inform our next steps. This review will involve hearing from the public, survivors of human trafficking and family members, as well as Indigenous communities and organizations, and front-line service providers. Our goal is to ensure that Ontario’s strategy is as effective as possible so we can continue making progress towards ending this crime.

As we prepare to mark Human Trafficking Awareness Day tomorrow, I’d like to recognize the tireless work of community organizations and front-line workers across the province providing services and supports to survivors and people at risk. We’re deeply grateful to the hundreds of service providers working across Ontario. From early intervention to crisis supports, their efforts directly contribute to the safety and wellness of the individuals and communities they serve. Thanks to their commitment and dedication, victims and survivors have access to the critical supports they need as they heal and rebuild their lives. Today, we join our voices with theirs to shed light on human trafficking.

I also encourage my colleagues in the Legislature to learn the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline number: 1-833-900-1010. Please post it in your offices and share it with people in your communities. It could help someone in need or even save their life.

Speaker, I believe that, together, we can build a future where all Ontarians are free to live a life without the fear of violence, abuse and exploitation.

I stand in the House today to recognize May as Sexual Assault Prevention Month here in the province of Ontario. Speaker, the fact is that most of us know someone who has been sexually assaulted. That’s because statistics show that in Canada, one in three women and one in eight men will experience sexual violence in their lifetime. While it can happen to anyone, women are more likely to experience sexual assault and physical violence. Indigenous women, racialized women, older women, and women with disabilities face even higher levels of violence. Sexual assault and all forms of gender-based violence have a devastating impact on individuals, communities and society as a whole.

Mr. Speaker, it is critical that people affected by violence and exploitation receive the support they need and that offenders are held accountable through the justice system.

I want to be clear: Our government has zero tolerance for sexual assault and other sexual offences. That’s why we’re taking action to prevent and address gender-based violence in all forms and providing critical supports to survivors and their children, making sure that they have the support they need to be able to heal and rebuild their lives.

Over the last year alone, our ministry invested more than $250 million for victims of violence and violence prevention initiatives. This investment supports key services such as crisis lines, sexual assault centres and emergency shelters for women and their children. It also provides programs and connects women with supports like safety planning, counselling, mental health services, supportive housing and culturally responsive healing programs.

Speaker, it would be impossible to talk about sexual assault prevention without mentioning efforts under way to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and youth. In 2020, we released our five-year anti-human trafficking strategy with an investment of $307 million. This is the largest investment in anti-human trafficking initiatives in our history and one of the largest strategies in Canadian history among all levels of government. Under this strategy, $96 million is going directly to community-based organizations that provide wraparound, trauma-informed, culturally responsive care to survivors, including specialized support to children and youth.

We also recognize the need for specific actions to address the disproportionately high rate of violence Indigenous women and girls experience, which is why, last year, we invested more than $90 million in the Indigenous Healing and Wellness Strategy. This strategy includes measures to help address violence against First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and girls through investments in culturally responsive programs to reduce family violence and violence against Indigenous women and children, as well as resources to support First Nations police with sexual assault, human trafficking and domestic violence investigations.

Speaker, together with community partners, we’re working towards an Ontario that is free of violence.

In March, my colleague the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity joined the federal government to announce $8 million over four years in additional funding to support Ontario’s provincial crisis lines. These lines provide urgent help in times of crisis and support long-term healing and recovery by connecting victims to services and supports. This investment will assist our dedicated crisis lines in offering more robust services, resources and supports for survivors of gender-based violence and their families.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the many front-line service providers across the province who are working tirelessly each and every day to help victims, survivors and their children rebuild their lives. We commend them for helping people who have experienced violence at their time of greatest need.

As we mark Sexual Assault Prevention Month, I hope Ontarians will take the opportunity, not only this month, but every single day, to reflect on the role we can all play in supporting survivors and ending gender-based violence. And I know that my colleague the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity has more to say on this very important matter.