Funding cut to women’s centre ‘is not OK’, supporters say

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This article was published 26/05/2017 (3085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

About 100 supporters turned out for a rally Friday to protest provincial funding cuts to North Point Douglas Women’s Centre. With drums and prayers, supporters called on the province to restore $120,000 in Neighbourhood Alive! program funding.

“To have to stand here and have to say ‘this is not OK’ is amazing,” said the centre’s executive director Tara Zajac. “This cut means we will no longer be able to offer counselling, no advocacy for anyone who comes to us with problems with CFS or whatever.”

The program cuts also put an end to the centre’s drop-in program, which provides support for basic needs to over 100 people a day, including access to phone and computer services, laundry, used clothing, coffee and snacks.

“This (cut) is affecting many organizations… this feels like an attack on the inner city of Winnipeg,” Zajac told the crowd.

North Point Douglas is among the poorest neighbourhoods in Winnipeg.

Minutes before the rally got underway, the province issued a notice that it is replacing the cuts with $7.5 million in new programs across Manitoba.

In the case of the centre, the new funding will bring nearly $260,000 to North Point Douglas over the next three years.

But executives with the centre said the new funding probably won’t save the eight jobs that will be lost through the existing cuts.

“The new money we are receiving is through the United Way and it is earmarked to enhance existing services,” the executive director said in an interview.

Where that leaves the centre after one third of their existing services are cut, nobody knows.

The rally drew opposition politicians, including NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine, Liberal interim leader Judy Klassen and some of the candidates vying for the Point Douglas seat in the June 13 byelection: the NDP’s Bernadette Smith, Green candidate Sabrina Koehn Binesi and Liberal John Cacayuran. Councillor Ross Eadie was also in attendance.

They backed the centre’s demand that the province reverse funding cuts and called on the premier to meet with centre officials within a month.

Fontaine — who has had some heated exchanges with Pallister over the cuts this week — said she offered to bake the Premier his favourite treats and drive him to the meeting.

One community organizer noted that a communication gap with the province is as much to blame for igniting grassroots as the funding cuts themselves.

“How it was rolled out, that’s the problem,” said Bear Clan co-founder Mitch Bourbonniere. “Where’s the communication? Where there’s no communication, there’s confusion. Everybody here is just scared, that’s all.”

In December, the Conservative government announced reviews into the two programs — Community Places and Neighbourhood Alive! — that non-profit organizations rely on to get teens off the streets, assist families with food and support homeless people.

Some non-profits responded to the funding instability by announcing pre-emptive staff layoffs or reorganizing remaining funding to save services.

Then in March, the provincial government announced $7.5 million in new funding through Manitoba Education and Training (Healthy Child) to support 24 neighbourhood family centres throughout the city.

This funding is designed to leverage matching donations over a six-year period through the United Way Winnipeg’s For Every Family initiative.

That new funding is expected to bring North Point Douglas Women’s Centre $257,590 over the next three years.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca