Women's shelters across Canada are losing nearly $150 million in federal funding

The more than 600 women's shelters across Canada will soon lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding they say has kept them afloat during the pandemic and is still desperately needed.

Since April 2020, Ottawa has provided $300 million in emergency pandemic funding to organizations that fight violence against women. Nearly half of that sum — about $145 million — went to fund women's shelters. On average, each shelter received nearly $130,000 extra a year under the pandemic program.

That funding stream is set to expire in September.

"This money is absolutely needed," said Frances Daly, the shelter director at Oshki Kizis Lodge, an Indigenous women's shelter in Ottawa. It received nearly $640,000 through the program.

"The funding that we've gotten during COVID has alleviated suffering. And the absence of it will mean that there will be suffering."

The funding came as women's shelters reported an uptick in demand for their services during the pandemic. Domestic violence flared during the pandemic due to a host of factors, including isolation restrictions that cut women off from regular support systems.

Shelters used the money to hire extra staff, pay for desperately-needed upgrades to their buildings and run programs like child care.

They also spent it on additional emergency supports for women and their children — helping them out with food and medication, transportation, or paying for emergency accommodation in hotels when shelter beds were full.

"We've been able to buy clothing for women who've had to flee and had nothing but flip flops and a pair of pajamas on when they got here," Daly said.

"We've filled in all these little gaps that come up that seem small, but are huge when people are facing them."

While pandemic restrictions have ended, the need for the extra money has not, said Erin Lee, executive director of Lanark County Interval House. It runs a women's shelter in the Ottawa Valley.

"It's certainly not over in terms of the incidents and the level of incidents that were exacerbated through COVID," Lee said. "The recovery for women in terms of healing, in terms of family law and navigating the system, is far from over.

"This support was invaluable to our communities, especially folks like us who are in a rural community."

The shelter used its extra $540,000 to pay for food hampers, establish a day program for kids experiencing domestic violence and hire a housing advocate, among other things.