True North recoils from provincial funding cuts

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Emergency and domestic violence shelters across Alberta, including True North, located in Strathmore, are experiencing significant funding cuts by the provincial government.

The Ministry of Children and Family Services announced May 19, the new Emergency Family Violence Services program, which notes an investment of nearly $62 million in services throughout Alberta. 

Courtney Helfrich, executive director of True North, explained the new funding model most significantly impacts rural shelters in communities without access to resources common to urban centers. 

“This is a result of the Women’s Shelter Renewal Project that was wrapped up this year and essentially it is a sort of reset of the funding model for family violence shelters, and an update to the funding agreements,” she said. “It is not reflective of the needs in the community, nor the validity of the work, but just sort of an update to this funding model.”

The Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (ACWS) noted via a release, nearly $1 million has been removed from the budgets of rural shelters and redistributed, despite the confirmed net increase to sector-wide base funding overall. 

Strathmore’s True North is facing a funding cut of $70,000 under this new funding model. Helfrich explained the team does not yet have an understanding of the extent of the impacts this will have for the local team.

“The board of directors and I will carefully review our organizational capacity, our programs and service delivery to mitigate the impact of this funding change,” she said. “I do really want to emphasize we are still here and our focus does really remain on maintaining our essential services and ensuring support continues for those who need it most.”

 Despite the cuts, True North intends to continue with the development of its transitional housing project in order to meet the needs of those moving out of the shelter. 

The ACWS adds the reductions disproportionately affect communities which consistently have the highest rates of gender-based and domestic violence.

“We don’t close rural police stations because they serve fewer people per dollar,” said Cat Champagne, executive director of ACWS. “Access to safety should never depend on a community or organization’s ability to fundraise. Women’s shelters are public safety infrastructure, and they need to be funded like it.”

ACWS has launched a public advocacy campaign urging Minister Searle Turton to delay the funding reductions until the next fiscal year, as well as for the province to release the full methodology behind the new funding model. 

For those who are interested in supporting the campaign, they are able to do so online (acws.ca).

“Our biggest call to action with the government right now is to delay this implementation of the funding model change even for another year,” said Helfrich. 

“That allows us to have more time to evaluate this, seek out other funding and fundraising sources to really mitigate the impact… Now more than never, we really need the support of our community, whether that’s to call our MLAs to advocate for shelter funding, be it transparency through these funding discussions, or a delay in implementation.”