Ottawa signs agreements with Manitoba and Saskatchewan to implement gender-based violence plan

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Ottawa has signed agreements with Manitoba and Saskatchewan to implement the national action plan on gender-based violence, the first set of bilateral deals since negotiations began last fall.

The deals were announced by federal Women and Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien at a news conference in Saskatoon on Tuesday, and include commitments of more than $20-million to both provinces over four years.

Ms. Ien said the national action plan, which she announced in November, is the product of roughly 1,000 recommendations received from stakeholders and front-line workers and reflects an “unwavering commitment to confront this issue.”

Survivors, front-line workers and women’s organizations have long lobbied for such a plan to address intimate partner and familial violence in Canada, where, on average, a woman or girl is killed every two days. Advocates have argued that access to victim services such as counselling, transitional housing and emergency funding must be standardized across the country, and should not depend on your postal code.

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Specific details of these first two agreements – which will serve as frameworks to tackle domestic abuse and other forms of gender-based violence – will be made public this fall. Negotiations with the rest of the provinces and territories remain in progress in the meantime.

In Manitoba, the agreement includes a federal commitment of $22.3-million over four years, and in Saskatchewan, it’s $20.3-million over four years. Those amounts will be matched by the provinces, Ms. Ien’s press secretary, Johise Namwira, explained – either through new or existing programs.

The federal government has described this as a 10-year action plan. After four years, Ms. Namwira said the government will “assess the impacts of the funding, look at the remaining gaps, and adjust the funding amounts.”

Ottawa has stipulated that at least a quarter of the federal dollars must be put toward prevention programs, which have long been underfunded across Canada.

In Manitoba, the province said in a news release that funding will go toward five pillars: support for victims, survivors and their families; prevention; a responsive justice system; Indigenous-led approaches; and social infrastructure.

Saskatchewan’s Status of Women Minister, Laura Ross, said at Tuesday’s announcement in Saskatoon that “prevention is key. We need to be in front of the problem, not chasing it.”

She said the funding will allow them to “expand and enhance” the work being done currently in the province, and that proposals will be sought from front-line organizations beginning in the fall.

Jo-Anne Dusel, executive director at the Provincial Association of Transition Houses and Services of Saskatchewan, said at Tuesday’s announcement that the funds will have a positive impact on the availability of services in the province, where violence rates are some of the country’s highest.

But she also expressed concern during a subsequent interview about the lack of specific details shared, and stressed that what is truly needed is a promise of permanent, guaranteed support – beyond four or 10 years.

“A 10-year plan is only as good as the people in power willing to pay for it,” Ms. Dusel said.

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At least 184 women and girls were killed last year, according to researchers with the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, who’ve tracked more than 850 such deaths since 2018. Of those 2022 cases, an accused killer was identified in 60 per cent. And within those cases, the accused was a current or former male partner in 62 per cent, and a male family member in another 24 per cent.

Elsewhere across the country, anti-violence stakeholders similarly expressed excitement at the first tangible signs of a long-sought plan – but also stressed the importance of ensuring there is national co-ordination between the various agreements.

Lise Martin, executive director of Women’s Shelters Canada – an organization that supports shelters across the country and led the creation of a “roadmap” for a plan in 2021 – said the need for funding is so dire that any new money is good news.

She said a critical piece will be accountability, and being able to track the money to ensure it isn’t used for programs that the provinces are already doing.

“To our knowledge, there has not yet been an accountability mechanism set up,” Ms. Martin said.

Ms. Ien’s department has said it will work with the provinces and territories to develop a “NAP evaluation plan,” which Ms. Namwira said would be developed through the “federal, provincial and territorial forum of Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women.”

But Ms. Martin also cautions that the plan’s success will hinge on its co-ordination across the country.

“What is the string pulling this national action plan together?” she said. “How is it cohesive and not just 13 separate agreements?”