A representative from a North Bay sexual violence support centre says it's really hard to plan ahead when the provincial government flip-flops on funding.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Children and Women's Issues backtracked on proposed cuts, announcing a $2 million annual commitment to the 42 facilities under the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.

One day prior, a different ministry announced it would not be renewing $1 million in funding it had provided to the centres in 2019.

The centres received word directly from Ontario's Attorney General Doug Downey last Thursday that the province would not be renewing the additional funding.

Currently, Ontario's rape crisis centres receive $14.8 million annually from the Ministry of the Attorney General.

Cameron Ghent, from Amelia Rising Sexual Violence Support Centre in North Bay, said with or without government funding, the centre will always be there.

"We've always found ways to provide whatever kind of support we can to survivors, with little to no funding or when we've seen increases in funding," Ghent said.

"We are still going to do what we can to make sure they can access services as soon as possible and to try to meet that demand in the best way that we can."

Amelia Rising received $18,000 as its share of the funding last year, which went to hiring a part-time counsellor, Ghent said.

"Every bit of funding makes a difference, not knowing right up until the kind of last minute is also really challenging," Ghent said. "It's hard to know whether you can fund a position, you're kind of just waiting to hear, which is where we've been at for awhile."

Not a 'black and white' issue

Julie Demarchi, executive director of Timmins and Area Women in Crisis, said the issue of how that money will be distributed isn't black and white.

"The funding that they're taking back was really an investment in the sexual assault centers with a key purpose of reducing the wait list crisis," she said.

"The funding that we're receiving….my understanding is that we will only see $1 million of that, but it is very specific to human trafficking."

And those funds come with different guidelines in how the money is spent, Demarchi said.

"The bottom line is that the investment in human trafficking is appreciated because that's work that we've been doing for a very, very long time and...we had no funding."

"[But] you'll find when you connect with a sexual assault centre is the amount of work that they do is beyond comprehension, sometimes for the very little money that they get."

"It really is a crisis," she said.