Hon. Margaret Dawn Anderson: Honourable senators, my question today is for the government leader.

Today is National Awareness Day for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, also known as Red Dress Day. I rise to mark the day and to ask the Government Representative in the Senate what advances have been made in the establishment of the national action plan to end violence against Indigenous women in Canada. This action plan was to be co-developed with Indigenous community leaders, the families of survivors and all levels of government.

Senator Gold, can you provide this chamber with a status update on the work undertaken so far?

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Senator, thank you for your question. The government is continuing to conduct the collaborative work to develop a national action plan that sets out a clear roadmap to ensure that Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender-diverse people are safe. The government has been engaging with a series of working groups led by Indigenous women comprised of Indigenous governments and organizations; federal, provincial and territorial governments; two-spirit and LGBTQ organization leaders; family members and survivors.

I’ve been advised, colleague, that the national action plan will have several different components, only one of which is the federal chapter. In that regard, good progress is being made on developing the federal chapter, but I’m not in a position to provide a concrete update on all components of this work.