NDP critic for Women and Gender Equality Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre) released the following statement in response to news that the Liberal government has spent only 5 per cent of a $724.1 million fund to address violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people:
“It is completely unacceptable that the Liberal government is withholding the funding they promised for the Violence Prevention Strategy they announced in fall 2020. I am particularly concerned that not a single dollar of the $420 million portion controlled by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has been released. This means that not a single new transitional home or shelter has been built since funding was allocated.
People are fed up with the lack of urgency in addressing what the Prime Minister has recognized as an ongoing genocide of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. This delay is costing lives. We should not have to beg for our safety and human rights to be taken seriously.
The Liberal government must lay out a clear plan for how these funds will be spent in a timely way. Survivors, families and communities have waited for justice for far too long.
We need immediate action, not more excuses.”