Ford cuts supports working to stop violence against women

Ford froze funding increases to Sexual Assault Centres and dissolved the Roundtable on Violence Against Women

Ontario was not doing enough to end gender-based violence, but the Doug Ford government has cut those efforts even more by dissolving Ontario’s Provincial Roundtable on Violence against Women and refusing to flow funding increases to Sexual Assault Centres promised under the Gender Based Violence plan.
NDP Women’s Issues Critic Suze Morrison says that the Ford Conservatives must do better.
“The Hamilton Sexual Assault Centre has seen a 100 per cent increase in calls to their crisis line over the past three years. Their waitlist for counselling is now seven months long,” said Morrison. “The 33 per cent funding increase promised to Sexual Assault Centres across Ontario would have enhanced services at existing centres, and expanded programs to underserviced communities. It would have allowed Hamilton’s centre to hire a full-time counsellor to address the increased demand.”
But instead of doing the right thing and supporting survivors of violence, the Ford government has decided not to flow funding. On top of that, Ford has dissolved Ontario’s Provincial Roundtable on Violence Against Women, prompting the resignation of co-chairs Farrah Khan and Pamela Cross.
Morrison put the question directly to the Ford government Thursday at Queen’s Park.
“Will this government honour the Gender Based Violence Plan, release funding that was already promised and immediately re-instate the provincial Roundtable on Ending violence against women?”
No clear answers have been provided by the Ford government.