YWCA Ontario Submits Recommendations on Bill 173
On April 10, 2024. the Government of Ontario carried Bill 173: Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act through a second reading, bringing us one critical step closer to having the province recognize that gender-based violence is what advocates have long said and nearly 100 municipalities have affirmed with their own declarations: an epidemic.
The Ontario government requested that an in-depth review be undertaken by the Standing Committee on Justice Policy on Bill 173 and issues related to intimate partner violence, including its causes.
This committee is being led by Cambridge South Hespeler MPP Jess Dixon. YWCA Ontario, a coalition of the 10 YWCA member agencies in the province, was invited by MPP Dixon to participate in phase one of the review. This involved giving verbal testimony to the committee, followed up by a written submission outlining our recommendations for the province to take action on intimate partner violence (IPV) and gender-based violence (GBV).
The testimonies, given by experts working in fields that intersect with issues relating to intimate partner violence and gender-based violence, were meant to help the committee establish a clear understanding of the scope of IPV and GBV in Ontario, to map out existing services and service gaps, and to ultimately inform a report by the committee at the end of the review.
YWCA Ontario’s recommendations to the SCJP:
- Make predictable, stable and permanent investments in the gender-based violence support services sector
- End the gendered housing crisis
- Create conditions that enable women’s financial independence
- Invest in women’s employment and training programming
- Establish a fund for survivors of violence
- Address financial abuse
- Invest in prevention
- Ensure the Ontario action plan to end gender-based violence meaningfully addresses the GBV and IPV epidemic
Read the coalition’s full submission to the committee here. Thank you to our colleagues at YWCA Toronto, YWCA Cambridge, YWCA Hamilton, YWCA Kitchener-Waterloo, and others across Ontario, for leading us in this important advocacy work.