Speaker, yesterday this Conservative government said they will support Bill 173, which calls for this government to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic across Ontario. Of course, once an epidemic is declared, we would expect resources to flow.

Naming IPV an epidemic is an excellent first step and validates the lived experiences—the trauma—of countless survivors, their families, and the service providers, frankly, who have been working understaffed and underpaid, under this government, for years to support survivors. It will help honour those who are no longer here. I want to know when the government plans to do this.

My question is to the Premier.

Survivors can’t wait any longer for your committees, your public hearings, your consultations. They have been consulted. The experts have been heard. They shouldn’t have to recount the worst moments of their life.

It’s one word: “epidemic.”

Will this government declare and push through, fast-track, Bill 173 for survivors and declare intimate partner violence an epidemic today?

Interjections.

The year is 2024 and intimate partner violence, gender-based violence and violence against women is still an epidemic. It is still a public health issue, yet the Conservatives refuse to declare this formally across Ontario in this Legislature. Intimate partner violence and femicide is on the rise. And 68 of the 86 recommendations from the Renfrew inquest fall under provincial jurisdiction and many could easily be implemented by this government. Yet, despite our calls, this government refuses to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.

I stand here again demanding that the Conservative government declare it an epidemic. It is an epidemic that disproportionately impacts women and girls, trans and non-binary people, women with disabilities, Black women, Indigenous women, women experiencing homelessness, underhoused women and immigrant, refugee and non-status women. Violence is socially and economically debilitating. Survivors have spoken and it’s time they listened.

This week, on February 21 and 22, Skills for Change, from my St. Paul’s community, will host our third annual Together Against Violence Symposium, where hundreds of us will gather to talk about solutions to gender-based violence.

Speaker, for over 40 years, they have been doing this work in our community, but I stand here today to say that our community leaders cannot do this alone. The first step to solving a problem is naming it. I beg of this government to name intimate partner violence, name gender-based violence and name violence against women what it is, and that, Speaker, is an epidemic.