A Saanich councillor wants the provincial government to provide permanent ongoing financial support to the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre.

In a report going to council next week, Coun. Ned Taylor notes that the sexual-assault centre was forced to shut down its crisis line last year due to a lack of money.

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Now, the centre is appealing for municipal grants and donations to keep its sexual-assault clinic open.

“Right now, the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre isn’t receiving adequate funding, or any ongoing funding from the provincial government,” Taylor said in an interview.

Saanich council recently approved a $35,000 grant for the centre, but Taylor argues that it’s the provincial government’s responsibility to pay for health services.

“Although I was supportive of a $35,000 grant for this organization to help them continue their services, at the end of the day, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect municipalities to be funding health-care services.”

The sexual-assault centre opened B.C.’s first integrated clinic three years ago in partnership with the Saanich and Victoria police departments, the RCMP, forensic nurse examiners, Island Health and the Victoria Child Abuse Prevention and Counselling Centre.

Grace Lore, who appeared before Saanich council last month on the sexual-assault centre’s behalf, said the clinic allows survivors to receive crisis support and undergo forensic exams and police interviews at a single location.

“Since opening, demand for our services has increased 124 per cent,” she told councillors.

The centre, however, receives no predictable core funding for the clinic and largely relies on grants and fundraising. “It’s simply not sustainable to find $204,000 every year to keep this clinic open for the critical services that it provides,” Lore said.

“But, in the meantime, while we try to move to that core funding, we are facing the reality that we need to find this $204,000 to keep the clinic open.”

Taylor wants Saanich Mayor Fred Haynes to write to the province requesting continuous funding for the centre. He also wants Haynes to get the Capital Regional District board and every municipality in the region to write similar letters to the province.

“Right now, this organization is doing an incredible amount of work to support victims of sexual assault across the entire region, from Sooke to Sidney to downtown Victoria to Saanich, and they’ve not receiving any continuous ongoing provincial funding,” Taylor said. “So I think that needs to change.”

He already has the support of fellow councillors Colin Plant and Zac de Vries.

Other councillors voiced similar concerns when they approved the centre’s grant last month.

“This is downloading from the province,” Coun. Karen Harper said. “This is a service that should be funded by the province.”

Harper said Saanich’s grant should be viewed as a “helping hand” to get the centre through a rough spot. “But I would expect the province to come through with some funding on this.”

Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA Mitzi Dean, parliamentary secretary for gender equity, has been looking into the issue. She was unavailable for comment.

lkines@timescolonist.com