HALIFAX – Advocates and opposition parties say Nova Scotia’s new budget fails to adequately address the crisis of gender-based violence.
Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservatives introduced a $17.6-billion budget on Tuesday for the 2025-26 fiscal year, which made note of $100 million in previously announced funding for intimate-partner and gender-based violence.
Since October, six women in Nova Scotia have been killed by their male partners.
Carrie Low, a survivor of gender-based violence and an advocate, says she felt let down by the new budget because it doesn’t include new funding to prevent domestic abuse or support survivors.
Low says the government’s lack of meaningful action leaves survivors feeling as if their “lives don’t matter.”
Kristina Fifield, a trauma therapist who works with survivors of intimate-partner violence, says the budget fails to give victim advocacy groups core funding — money for administrative and operational costs.
Claudia Chender, leader of the official Opposition NDP, called today for long-term funding for these non-profits, and Liberal justice critic Iain Rankin said the lack of new money for intimate-partner violence is disappointing.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2025.
