Paris Councillor supports Intimate Partner Violence Act during second debate at Queen’s Park this week

By Casandra Turnbull

Paris Councillors Lukas Oakley was at Queen’s Park on Wednesday evening in support of Bill 173, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Act.

Led by the NDP, the private member’s bill calls for the Provincial government to declare IPV an epidemic and implement the recommendations of the Renfrew Report. In a rare change of stance, the Progressive Conservatives announced this week, just prior to the second debate on the topic, that they will support the bill, which received standing ovation from all MPP, regardless of political party status.

Following Wednesday’s second debate in the House of Commons, the bill was referred to committee to undergo further studies It remains to be seen if the PC Government will follow through with its promise to support the bill further and adopt recommendations from the Renfrew Report.

The Renfrew Report was released in 2022 following the inquest into the deaths of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam In total, 86 recommendations for change were made, speaking to oversight and accountability, system approaches, collaboration and communication, funding, education and training, measures addressing perpetrators of intimate partner violence, intervention and safety

The province’s declaration of support comes after cities, municipalities and social service agencies across the province have declared the epidemic and urged the province to follow suit. County of Brant councillors announced the epidemic locally on November 27th , 2023, in a motion led by

Councillor Jennifer Kyle.

In a social media post the day before travelling to Toronto, Oakley stated, “I will continue that work tomorrow evening as I will have the opportunity to advocate to MPPs at Queen's Park on this important file. I hope that this is just the first step, as we discussed at council last month, our wraparound services are dramatically underfunded by our province and in the long term, property tax is not a viable route to fund these services.”

During Brant County budget negotiations this year, critical social service program funding was deferred to the joint County/City Joint Services Committee for consideration in 2025. This sudden cut in funding left many social service programs in peril. Oakley stated it was critical that communities took leadership stances to support the programs and non-profit agencies in the community who are working to combat the ripple effects of this epidemic. He recommended that the county utilize reserve and surplus funds to fulfill the requests from the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant, Victim Services of Brant,

Willowbridge Community Services, and Nova Vita Brant this year only as the Joint Services Committee finds more permanent funding solutions moving forward In a 5-4 vote last month, councillors committed to $266,177 in one-time emergency funding split between the four organizations.

According to Statistics Canada (2019), Brantford has the highest rate in Ontario, and the 4th highest rate in Canada for victims of police-reported intimate partner violence, according to information provided by Nova Vita Int 20222023 Nova Vita volunteers answered 3,227 crisis and support calls. There are 115 people on the waitlist at the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant, with more than one-third of them residing in the county, said Joanna Brant of the Sexual Assault Centre of Brant.

There’s been a 625% increase of clients under 18 (in Brantford and Brant County combined) in the last five years who qualified for gender-based violence services and have been wait listed for vital counselling services at Willowbridge Community Services.

Don’t forget to head downtown Paris today to get your Maple Syrup, pancakes and entertainment fill!