On-reserve women shelters remain woefully underfunded

Clients at the Eagle’s Nest Stoney Family Shelter live what the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters’ latest report says.

In July, the ACWS released the report Moving Forward! Planning for Self-Determination, in which it is stated, “Aboriginal women are three times more likely to be victims of spousal violence than non-Aboriginal women, and spousal homicide rates are almost eight times higher for Aboriginal women than for non-Aboriginal women.”
The lack of parity between funding of on-reserve women’s shelters and off-reserve shelters trickles down to what the on-reserve shelters can provide for their clients, said Nora-Lee Rear, executive director of the Morley shelter.

In the 2010-11 fiscal year, the Eagle’s Nest Shelter served 120 women and 350 children.  In the end, it’s the families that are suffering, said Rear.

“With no programs for men, we are missing half the issue,” she said.

Lack of funding for women’s shelters on-reserve is not a new issue –and not an issue that First Nations are ignoring.

In March 2010, the Alberta Treaty Chiefs called for a funding formula that would enable on-reserve women’s shelters to operate at a “predictable, sufficient and sustainable level.” Non-reserve shelters are funded by the provincial government, while on-reserve shelters are funded by the federal government through Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Canada.

However, the report shows that ANAC’s funding of on-reserve shelters in Alberta in the past five years has moved away from parity. The report found that “in 2010-11 alone existing Alberta on-reserve shelters were underfunded by $2.2 million when compared to provincial shelter funding levels.”

In 2006, the federal government’s commissioned report, Shelter Funding Methodology for the Family Violence Prevention Program Final Research Report, proposed a new shelter funding formula that would enable shelters not only to operate at predictable and adequate levels but also with regular reviews for implementation in fiscal year 2007-08.

“It is unacceptable that those recommendations have not been followed to this day,” said Jan Reimer, provincial coordinator of the ACWS.

While there have been increases in overall funding to the Family Violence Prevention Program from $18.5 million to $28.6 million in the 2007-08 and 2009-10 fiscal years, providing $2.8 million to Alberta for six on-reserve shelters, the FVPP has not been evaluated since 2005, despite ANAC’S identification of the need for strengthening program management and improving evaluation procedures. Although ANAC claims to have implemented its 2006 commissioned report, the more recent report undertaken for ACWS concludes that ANAC has not acted upon the nine recommendations put forth for the new funding methodology.

Reimer is calling for immediate action from the federal government for equitable funding that is on par with provincial shelters for staffing and salaries, including cost-of-living increases.

 “If we can’t take care of ourselves and our staff, it’s hard to take care of other people,” said Rear.

The ACWS report noted, “While non-Aboriginal women report a decline in the more severe forms of violence (43 per cent in 1999 to 37 per cent in 2004), the rate for Aboriginal women has remained steady at 54 per cent.”

The report concludes that these inadequacies have compromised on-reserve shelters. They are “unable to function as autonomous institutions by receiving funding direct from (ANAC), unstable and insufficiently funded and threatened.”