On-reserve shelters want safe communities

Alberta’s on-reserve shelters are waiting. Still. Waiting to hear back from the federal government on the 2011 report, Moving Forward! Planning for Self-Determination! — a report following up from the original “Johnston Report” commissioned by INAC (now AANDC).

Both reports detail the startling degree to which on-reserve shelters are lacking in funding — both compared to their off-reserve counterparts and when considering the statistical evidence that aboriginal families are plagued by much higher rates of family violence.

There have been a number of high-profile tragedies on Alberta’s First Nation reserves in the past few years. Many of these deaths have been caused directly by domestic violence. The most recent murder took place in Hobbema on New Years’ Eve: It is alleged a 34-yearold man was stabbed to death by his partner.

New collaborative programming with police, Victim Services and First Nation leadership is desperately required to tackle this problem, says Jan Reimer, Provincial Coordinator at ACWS. “Although there is a serious need for elevated service and program delivery in these communities, it comes with a cost. And these shelters’ ability to deliver even basic core services is being seriously compromised right now — never mind if there are cuts coming this year.”

In 2010, INAC (now AANDC) warned some Alberta on-reserve shelter directors funding cuts would likely be coming in two years’ time. Alberta on-reserve shelters have not received a funding increase since 2009 and are under-funded by $2.2 million annually.

“We are past the point of being disappointed. Past troubled, past tired, past stressed. Now we’re just angry,” said Nora-Lee Rear, executive director with Eagle’s Nest Stoney Family Shelter in Morley.

“We’re not sure what else we can do,” says Sandra G. Ermineskin, director of Hobbema’s Ermineskin Women’s Shelter Society. “How many more people need to die on our reserve before our shelters are treated equitably?”

Article 125(a) of the Beijing Platform for Action (1989), of which Canada is a signatory, requires well-funded shelters and relief support for girls and women subjected to violence. In addition, the agreement between Canada and Alberta requires that on-reserve citizens receive comparable services to those offered to all Alberta citizens living off-reserve. Moreover, Canada supports the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.