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$200,000 grant from province to help keep Victoria Sexual Assault Centre open

The Victoria Sexual Assault Centre received an injection of provincial cash Friday to help keep its integrated sexual-assault clinic open for at least two more years. The B.C.
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Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA Mitzi Dean, parliamentary secretary for gender equity, announced a grant of $200,000 through the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General to help with the clinic’s operating costs over the next two years.

The Victoria Sexual Assault Centre received an injection of provincial cash Friday to help keep its integrated sexual-assault clinic open for at least two more years.

The B.C. government, however, stopped short of providing the permanent core funding that clinic supporters and municipal politicians have been demanding.

Esquimalt-Metchosin MLA Mitzi Dean, parliamentary secretary for gender equity, announced a grant of $200,000 through the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General to help with the clinic’s operating costs over the next two years.

“We know that when people work together, we end up with the best results for women, for children and for families,” Dean said. “And the clinic is a living, working, breathing, shining example of that in its 24-7 operations and how it benefits people when they come and when they need service.”

The centre will still need municipal grants and donations to remain operating. The clinic has an annual budget of about $204,000, but faces growing pressures as demand for the service increases.

The centre was already forced to scrap its crisis line last year in order to keep the clinic open.

Grace Lore, a spokeswoman for the centre, said the provincial grant comes close to securing the clinic’s budget for this year.

“It also puts us almost halfway there for next year,” she said. “What this means to us is the ability to ensure our doors stay open.”

Langford Coun. Denise Blackwell, whose municipality has given money to the centre, welcomed the provincial money, but urged Dean to keep pushing her government for ongoing funding.

“It’s wonderful that they’re giving some money to them, but I was surprised that it’s only bridge financing,” Blackwell said in an interview.

She told Dean at the announcement that “$200,000 is nice, but this is a service that needs to be funded annually, forever.”

Dean promised to keep working on the issue.

“I’m really proud of making sure that the clinic stays open, that we have that continuity,” she said. “Now we need to have a look at longer-term plans.”

The clinic, which is the first of its kind in western Canada, opened three years ago in partnership with the centre, Saanich and Victoria police departments, the RCMP, forensic nurse examiners, Island Health and the Victoria Child Abuse Prevention and Counselling Centre.

Survivors of sexual violence receive crisis support and undergo forensic medical exams and police interviews at a single location away from the chaos or often stark surroundings of a hospital emergency room or police station.

In addition to better supporting survivors, the service saves time and money by allowing investigators to complete their work more quickly, police and health officials say.

“The clinic enables police to return to duties up to 66 per cent faster due to reduced wait times, less travel time and support crisis workers,” Saanich Deputy Police Chief Scott Green said Friday.

He said that victim interviews and voluntary statements have increased by 400 per cent since the clinic opened in 2016.

“The Victoria Sexual Assault Centre, the police, the public and all communities in the [capital region] need this clinic,” he said. “It eliminates the requirement for sexual assault survivors, who have experienced traumatic situations, to have to sit in public waiting areas in emergency rooms in local hospitals.”

lkines@timescolonist.com