Investing in Women’s Futures programs without funding, women’s supports at risk
QUEEN’S PARK, ON — Suze Morrison, Ontario NDP critic for Women’s Issues, said the Ford Conservatives are taking critical services away from women — like help for women fleeing violence and women seeking help to find work.
As the end of the fiscal year quickly approaches, women’s organizations have had to make tough decisions to lay off staff, reduce hours and drop workers from full-time to part-time status due to lack of provincial funding.
“It’s despicable for Doug Ford to take services away from women, and put women’s organizations in a position where they are forced lay off staff,” said Morrison. “This will mean less help for women fleeing violence, less help for women who are new to the country, less help for women experiencing poverty and less help for women seeking employment.”
One of the organizations affected by the lack of provincial funding is a women’s employment service in Toronto Centre. Times Change, which strives to provide economic and social equality for all women, has had to give lay off notice to one employee and reduce hours for others. Across Ontario, women’s organizations are in a similar predicament, with some facing the tough decision to close their doors.
That’s because, after months of delays and lack of clarity, women’s organizations who receive financial support through the Investing in Women’s Futures program are no closer to answers about their 2019-2020 funding. The Office of Women’s Issues within the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services has told them no decision has been made.
“Doug Ford is making things so much worse for women in Ontario,” said Morrison. “First Ford’s Conservatives cancelled the minimum wage increase. Then they slashed the promised funding increase to rape crisis centres. Now the Conservatives are effectively ripping away services that help support women.
“Women in Ontario deserve more opportunities, not fewer. I am urging this government to commit to continued funding for women’s organizations, before it’s too late.”
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- Times Change will be forced to lay off a staff member, severely limiting the services they are able to provide helping women gain financial independence through career and educational counselling — services they provide free of charge.
- Rexdale Women’s Centre will be forced to reduce service hours and will have to lay off up to three staff in the long run.
- The Working Women Community Centre (WWCC) will have to cut 8 of their staff’s hours by 5 hours – 40 fewer hours for immigrant women and their families to seek help and access support.
- Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre will lose administrators, including their Executive Director and Legal Education Coordinator. They rely on the IWF grant to provide assistance and advocacy for women in Northwestern Ontario, and without it, will have to cut services.
- Oasis Centre des femmes will lose the one employee they have for their program, and struggle to pay the administrative costs of offering their programs for francophone women, like free counselling.
- Sudbury Women’s Centre will have to let one full time staff go, and reduce remaining staff to part time hours. Reducing programs will affect 2000 women that they service — they need this money for their centre to survive.
- Scarborough Women’s Centre will have to terminate a counselor, who would otherwise serve 300 women per year, with issues like abuse, poverty, workplace harassment, and more.
- YWCA Muskoka will have to lay off their coordinator and two facilitators, and cut services used by 100+ women each year. Without funding, the services for women experiencing gender-based violence will be severely limited.
- Without funding, Women’s Own Resource Centre in Ottawa will be forced to close their doors – leaving 4000 community members who access the centre in limbo, because the support services are not offered elsewhere in the region.
- Niagara Women’s Enterprise Centre will also be forced to let their three staff go, leaving the unemployed and underemployed women in Niagara with nowhere to go for employment resources and training.
- Maggie’s Resource Centre will lay off both of their staff and will no longer be able to provide programming to the over 100 women a year who rely on their services.
- Windsor Women Working with Immigrant Women would have to lay off 1 coordinator and 2 part-time staff and turn away over 200 women that they serve.
- Women’s Place Kenora relies on IWF as their main funding and will likely have to close their doors and turn down the over 600 women who have used their services this fiscal year alone.
