With one-time funding from the provincial government set to end in March, Peel Region’s designated sexual assault crisis centre is in a bind.

Hope 24/7, which specializes in psychotherapy services for those over 12 years old who have experienced sexual, interpersonal or intimate partner violence, will likely lose a therapist if the Ford government doesn’t intervene.

With a wait-list of around 90 people or a close to two-year wait for service, Hope 24/7 CEO Laura Zilney said losing a clinician could worsen a caseload that already sees people turned away from the Brampton-based crisis centre.

“It’s very distressing to know that we’re going to have this situation that’s going to come to a head at some point and it’s desperate,” she said.

And the longer someone waits for treatment, Zilney said, the more challenging the recovery.

“There’s suicide attempts, self-harming, there’s other sexual assaults that occur so then when we finally get them in it’s a much more complex case to deal with,” she said.

Funding that Hope 24/7 used to hire the clinician was from a $1 million investment announced on Feb. 26, 2019 by the Ministry of the Attorney General, which oversees the province’s licensed sexual assault crisis centres.

According to a release from the ministry, the money was a one-time investment, “despite a difficult fiscal outlook” left by the previous government.

The $1 million was split between Ontario’s 42 sexual assault crisis centres, and Hope 24/7 got $52,000, Zilney said, enough for a four-day-a-week clinician.

Brian Gray, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General, did not comment directly on questions about whether the Ontario government would renew its 2019 $1 million investment, or how sexual assault crisis centres would address their wait-lists with less funding.

In an email, Gray said victim service organizations in Ontario “do important and valuable work in their communities.”

“Our government remains committed to supporting victims and their families through victim services programs and is working to make it easier for victims of crime and their families and witnesses to get the help they need when and where they need it,” he said.

In 2018, the previous Liberal government pledged up to $84.2 million over three years to boost the number of people served through sexual assault crisis centres, emergency shelters and legal supports. The funds were part of the Kathleen Wynne government’s $242-million gender-based strategy, aimed at boosting supports for survivors of sexual assault.

The money promised by the Liberals wasn’t delivered before the start of the 2018 election, and the succeeding Ford government did not follow through on the funding boost.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie wrote a letter to then attorney general Caroline Mulroney asking for Hope 24/7’s funding to be restored to the Liberal’s pledge. With the Liberal boost, the Peel sexual assault centre would have received over $584,000, but dropped to around $511,000 including the Ford government’s one-time funding.

Nicole Pietsch of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres, a network organization for the province’s sexual assault centres, said the funding the former government had pledged “would have made a huge difference” to sexual violence-related organizations.

Pietsch said that movements like #MeToo and Time’s Up have encouraged more people who have had experiences of sexual assault to come forward, and “it can be really disheartening” to be put on a waiting list after coming forward.

“It’s really timely that if at the moment that many of these survivors finally wish to share their stories and knock on the door of their community sexual assault centre, they shouldn’t have to wait on a waiting list,” Pietsch said.

According to numbers from Statistics Canada, reports of sexual assaults in Ontario have been steadily increasing since 2016, when there were 7,434 incidents. In 2017, reports spiked 18 per cent to 8,782, and up to 10,634 in 2018, an increase of 21 per cent over the previous year.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In Brampton and Mississauga, an October 2019 police report said that between January and Aug. 31 in 2019, there were 663 reports of sexual assault to Peel Region police, with 37 classified as unfounded, or determined not to have occurred. The previous year saw 971 sexual assaults reported to Peel police, down 11.9 per cent from 1,102 in 2017. Peel police deemed 75 of the sexual assault reports unfounded in 2017, and cited 48 such incidents in 2018.

Those statistics represent sexual assaults reported to police, but unreported incidents of sexual violence are likely higher.

Individuals in Brampton, Mississauga or Caledon in crisis following a sexual assault can call 1-800-810-0180 for 24-hour assistance.

Steve Cornwell is a reporter with the Mississauga News and Brampton Guardian. Reach him via email: scornwell@metroland.com

Read more about: