Province will not renew $1M in funding to cut waitlists at rape crisis centres
Two weeks before International Women’s Day, a network of sexual assault centres across Ontario received news that additional funding provided by the PC government to help reduce waitlists for counselling services will not be renewed.
The $1 million one-time funding was promised by the Ford government ahead of the 2019 budget in order to deal with the backlog of survivors and victims who required counselling and support services.
“It was meant to mitigate wait times for counselling services at sexual assault centres across Ontario,” said Nicole Pietsch, an advocate with the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). “We are back to where we were in the beginning of 2018.”