‘It just hurts my heart’: Edmonton sexual assault centre laments funding loss while province denies cut

The Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton says it is pausing services after losing a provincial funding grant. CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski has the story.

The Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE) is looking for answers from the province on what they call funding cuts, alleging a grant they received in 2023 isn’t being renewed.

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Effective Monday, the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton paused intakes for some of its services, citing a lack of funding.

SACE says, in 2023, it received a $1.8 million grant over two years, which was given after “lots of back and forth negotiations.”

They expected that one time funding grant to be renewed, and SACE CEO Mary Jane James equated its loss to a funding cut.

James said there’s currently a three to four month waitlist for clients and had had to lay off staff last week.

“This is the worst time in my 18 year history with SACE, seeing our staff cry, cry with their clients, cry for their clients,” James told CTV News Edmonton.

“We’re all devastated. Nobody wanted this to happen.”

Affected services include adult counselling, child and youth counselling and core therapeutic groups including: ASHA, Men’s Group, SASS, Sitting in Solidarity, refleQT, Skills for Change, and Who I Am Now.

SOLACE (Space Of Learning And Cultural Equity) and Wîwîp’son Healing from Sexual Trauma Circle for Indigenous Women are still running.

The province denied an interview on Monday, but provided a statement denying decreasing funding to SACE.

“SACE received a one-time $1.8 million grant in 2023 to address waitlists and that work was complete, and the grant requirements were met. Any indication that this is a cut is false,” said Daniel Verrier, press secretary of the Minister of Children and Family Services.

James says SACE had an 18 month wait list, the longest in Alberta, and was told by the province to decrease it as a requirement of the $1.8 million grant.

She says SACE was “too successful” by bringing it down to three months by hiring more psychologists, social workers and client care -professionals, who have now started to be laid off.

“We just do a really good job, the sexual assault centres with very little money.”

Impacts to clients

To date, there are 94 people who have been put back on the waiting list in addition to those already on it, according to SACE.

“It just hurts my heart … our phones (have) been ringing off the wall and they’re getting this message that we cannot take any more new intakes until we get centered,” James said.

The centre says it saw almost 1,100 intakes over a one year period, with 15 sessions budgeted per client.

“Sometimes it goes higher. There (can be) court involved with that, court accompaniment, assistance with reporting to the police if in fact they want to go that route,” James said.

“It’s all encompassing, what we do. And we do it at no fee and we’re the only agency in the greater Edmonton area that does that.”

James is worried for her clients but plans to persevere during hard times.

“We’re going to fight on, I promise you that,” she said. ” And I promise the clients that we are going to get through this somehow, some way once we get our feet back on the ground.”

The Saffron Centre, which also helps people impacted by sexual violence, says the SACE pause has already impacted operations and it fears waitlists will grow amid shrinking service availability.

The province says SACE receives nearly $2.1 million in operational funding from the children and family services ministry and that funding hasn’t decreased.

“Alberta’s government continues to be on track to meet our mandate commitment to invest $10 million over 4 years for sexual assault centres,” Verrier said.

“We will continue to work with sexual assault centres, child advocacy centres and sexual violence agencies to ensure this funding goes where it is needed most.”

SACE says only $1.5 million has been distributed so far.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Chelan Skulski