Local sexual assault supports plea for fewer cuts in upcoming federal budget
Posted Oct 2, 2025 06:38:47 AM.
Last Updated Oct 2, 2025 11:42:02 AM.
A plea from sexual assault support services in Waterloo Region, and from women’s rights groups across the country: don’t cut off our financial support.
It comes as the Department for Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) potentially faces massive cuts in the upcoming federal budget on Nov. 4 — cuts to the tune of 80 per cent.
A department schedule issued months ago indicated that funding for multiple programs will soon run out. The schedule forecasts a drop from $407 million in 2025-26 to $76 million in 2027-28, and a cut to full-time department staff from 444 to 254.
The numbers are concerning for local support services, Sara Casselman is the Executive Director of the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region (SASC), said
“Gender-based violence is not an abstract issue in Waterloo Region. It is a crisis,” she explained. “Federal leadership and investment through WAGE are essential to sustaining multi-sector responses to this epidemic.”
In 2023, the Region of Waterloo declared gender-based violence an epidemic.
Casselman notes Waterloo Region is a key area in need of these supports.
She cites a 2019 study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives which ranked the tri-cities as the least safe urban centre in Canada for women.
She adds that Waterloo Region also has the third-highest rates of sex trafficking in the country.
The SASC of Waterloo Region has since penned a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney and Waterloo Region Members of Parliament calling for the upcoming budget to include “stable, multi-year funding that allows communities to plan and deliver coordinated services.”
The full letter and calls from the local group can be read here.
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