Because of the advocacy of the Northwestern Ontario Women’s Centre, the Thunder Bay committee to end woman abuse and the Naadmaagewin Indigenous Domestic Violence Committee, on September 25 Thunder Bay’s city council declared gender-based intimate partner violence an epidemic.

The rates of gender-based violence and sexual assault in northwestern Ontario are amongst the highest in the province, but in small, northern communities, vast distances and sparse populations make it extremely difficult for women to access support. It’s not possible to escape if there are no shelters where you live. And when funding is based on population numbers and not the geographic realities of the north, it’s guaranteed women will have nowhere safe to go.

The court system is also failing survivors. Because of court backlogs, plea bargains are pushed, women are silenced and perpetrators are released. Femicide, the killing of children: These still shock, yet they are only the extreme end of the everyday coercive control that keeps people living with abuse.

We need the Conservative government to listen to survivors, provide sustainable funding, fix the court system and act on all the recommendations of the Renfrew inquest, beginning with the first recommendation: Declare gender-based violence as the epidemic it is.

Meegwetch. Marsi. Merci. Thank you.

Tomorrow, we celebrate International Women’s Day and work towards a gender-equal world. I’m a proud member of a caucus that has 21 female members and eight female ministers.

Sadly, as we celebrate our victories, we still live in a world where inequity and gender-based violence occur. Human trafficking and intimate partner violence are realities in our community, and unfortunately these happen silently too close to home.

After October 7, we were shell-shocked by the brutality of the attack on Israel, an attack that used premeditated rape and sexual mutilation as weapons of war. These acts were made more painful because their existence was widely denied and that denial was defeating and deafening. These women’s voices were silenced. Their stories were not believed.

Our government has zero tolerance for violence against women and children in all its forms, and we stand with the victims of violence. That’s why, this year, we invested nearly $247 million to support victims and almost $29 million in violence prevention initiatives. Our province is investing an overall $1.4 billion over the next three years to end gender-based violence and support victims.

Last year, we invested $5.5 million in the Women’s Economic Security Program to expand and increase training opportunities for low-income women to equip them with the skills, knowledge and experience to increase their financial security.

Our government supports women. We believe in women. We listen to women. Thank you.