REGINA - There was news from the legislature Wednesday of a commitment coming from the province to fund second stage shelters in Saskatchewan.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General Bronwyn Eyre confirmed during Question Period that operational funding is being allocated in the 2023 budget to second stage shelters. These shelters would go toward providing long term housing and supports to those women escaping interpersonal violence.
In speaking to reporters in the rotunda of the Legislature, Eyre said “we felt that it was an important signal on this day, on International Women's Day, to let the people know in the province that we were looking at this in the budget, that it's going to be forthcoming in the budget in terms of additional funding.”
Eyre told reporters the province had already spent $25 million on emergency shelters and services for what’s known as the “first stage” for those fleeing interpersonal violence.
“This would go to the next stage and we've been looking at this for a while. Second stage is generally in that 18-to-24 month period and there are a lot of important phases that that covers in terms of making sure that that people are safe, that their families are safe, and in some cases that they are educational and other opportunities for children who are involved, job transitions for for those fleeing violence.”
She pointed to some previous investments the province had made on the capital side, pointing to $3.3 million going to the YWCA in January.
This funding “would be more on the operational side” said Eyre. She also indicated this was something the province had been looking at for a while to see what would fit best.
“Again, can't go into a lot more detail before the budget but we've looked at this for a number of months, and to really get a sense of what services are currently in place and where the best wraparounds would be around what we currently have in the province.”
She noted there are a number of organizations and facilities that are working right now that have services that are ready to be offered.
Eyre said the goal would be “which facilities can offer services right away and a broad geographical reach, as broad a geographical reach across the province as possible. I think that's the goal.”
The response from Eyre of a budget commitment seemed to take the New Democrats by surprise, after they posed the question to the minister during Question Period about whether there would be operational funding for second stage shelters. The Opposition also made it known they wondered why it had taken this long.
“We’re really happy to hear this news,” was the reaction from Opposition critic Nicole Sarauer afterwards in the media scrum. “You know, this is something that we along with those who provide this service and been calling for from this government for years. It's taken a while, but this is a really positive step forward.”
As for what the opposition wants to see from the province in the budget, Sarauer said they wanted to see sustainable, multi-year funding.
Sarauer added that “we want to ensure that those who are providing this service are directly consulted on how this money should be rolled out. We don't think that this should be dictated to by the government. We want to see actual meaningful consultation with those who are already providing this service.”
