$12 million in new federal funding | Rural women have difficulties accessing services
The federal government has committed more than $12 million to fund projects that protect rural women from violence and improve economic security, says the minister responsible for women’s issues.
Rona Ambrose, federal public works minister and minister responsible for the status of women, said Ottawa will contribute to at least 48 projects that are operated by community groups.
Although she said support to enhance the economic and management skills of farm women is one of the government’s goals, none of the projects are specifically aimed at farm women.
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“I would say women usually are the ones that handle the finances on the farm and take care of the accounting, (so) even just training women, business development, helping women take those farm businesses from small to large, dealing with some of the interface with government programming, there’s a lot we can do to support farm women,” she said. “There are projects that do exactly that.”
By press time, Status of Women Canada had not responded to a request for clarification of programs aimed at farm women.
Support for women in rural and remote areas is the theme of Canada’s international women’s week, as it is in countries around the world. Ambrose attended a United Nations conference on the issue in late February.
She said the government is supporting community groups that understand rural women are facing special difficulties of isolation and access to services.
“When we talk about isolation from services, provision of services, being in remote areas, those challenges in themselves are something that we need to address,” she said.
“I think this is a great opportunity for us not only to look at the rural-urban divide, which I think is something everyone who lives in a rural area understands, but to recognize that the services that women in many urban areas need are not accessible to women in rural areas.”
She said rural women may feel the lack of program support “more acutely” than many urban women.
Funding recipients include a women’s shelter in Corner Brook, N.L., centres in Red Deer and Prince Albert, Sask., that offer services to women at risk, networks that help immigrant women in Alberta and a community association in Portage la Prairie, Man.
A British Columbia project “will develop a community response plan to make support services more accessible to women living in poverty who have also experienced violence,” the minister said.
Ambrose, who staged her announcement in the Canadian Agriculture Museum amid a display about hard-working honeybees who build and protect their hives, said more than three million Canadian women live in or near 5,000 rural and remote communities.
“Women in rural, remote and northern communities are key to Canada’s economic prosperity,” she said.
“There’s a lot of women’s organizations in rural and remote areas that need our support. We want those communities to remain dynamic. We want those communities to retain their vitality and if we don’t support people that are living in those areas, they won’t remain in those areas.”
Ambrose said the government message is that strong women make a strong Canada.
