On May 20, Alberta's Ministry of Children and Family Services announced a new "needs-based" funding model for shelters serving women and children facing domestic abuse, effective July 1. The model aims to "address service demand and capacity concerns," but more than a dozen rural shelters will see funding cuts. Critics argue this is unjust and counterproductive.
Rural domestic violence rates higher
The Alberta Council of Women's Shelters 2023-2024 report shows shelters turned away 31,248 people—an unprecedented number. According to Statistics Canada, demand is higher in rural communities, where intimate partner violence rates are nearly twice those in urban centres. Factors include social norms discouraging disclosure, lower confidentiality, geographic isolation, and firearm use rates double those of urban areas. Funding cuts will not address this growing need.
Rising case complexities in rural shelters
Waypoints Community Services Association in Fort McMurray, one shelter facing cuts, illustrates the challenge. Fort McMurray is among Alberta's fastest-growing communities, with a cost of living 11 per cent higher than the provincial average. The 2021 census reported 40 per cent of Wood Buffalo residents identify as visible minorities. Rural shelters support families with intersecting risk factors: racialization, immigration vulnerabilities, discrimination, distrust of authorities, lack of culturally sensitive services, language barriers, and transportation challenges.
In many newcomer families, abusive partners reinforce racialized women's helplessness by sharing misconceptions about shelters. Combined with fears of losing children or deportation, these dynamics hinder seeking help. Shelters need more investment to hire diverse staff and offer culturally and linguistically appropriate trauma-informed services.
Newcomer surge in rural Alberta
These complexities are not unique to Wood Buffalo. Rural Alberta has seen a surge in international migration since 2021, with an estimated 15 per cent of newcomers settling in rural communities. While Alberta encourages rural growth through immigration initiatives, it has simultaneously weakened rural service providers' capacity to meet rising needs.
The ministry's approach fails to consider that challenges like poverty, housing affordability, mental health, child care, resettlement, and employment are interconnected. Women's homelessness is directly linked to abuse; in rural Alberta, women are nearly three times more likely to experience housing insecurity than men. Rural women's shelters function as a "catch-all" for communities, supporting victim-survivors, coordinating services, and filling systemic gaps.
Call for transparency and reconsideration
We urge the Alberta government to reconsider these funding cuts and acknowledge the growing complexity of cases faced by rural shelters. The government must make its funding formula public and respond transparently to concerns raised by the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters. In May 2025, the province unveiled a 10-year gender-based violence strategy, yet these cuts directly contradict its aims.
Rural women's safety depends on adequately funded shelters, culturally appropriate supports, and structural investment reducing barriers like affordable housing, transportation, and access to services. Alberta cannot claim to address gender-based violence while weakening the services that keep women and children safe.
Wendy Aujla is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Athabasca University. Olesya Kochkina is a PhD student at the University of Alberta.
