Women's Equality Minister's "Hands Are Tied": June 2003

BC Coalition of Women's Centres

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Media Advisory
For Immediate release
June 23, 2003

Women's Equality Minister's "Hands Are Tied"

The BC Coalition of Women's Centres met with Minister Lynn Stephens, Friday
June 20th to discuss preventing the closure of the 37 Women's Centres across
the province. The Minister made it clear to the delegation that her hands
are tied and that she has no power within her own party.

Lynn Stephens says that "Women's Centres are not as important as transition
houses" and "A lot of the difficulty seems to be that they (women's centres)
do not want to lose the feminist-based service delivery model. They don't
want to move to the more main stream service delivery model, so there are
problems." At the same time the Minister dares to accuse the Coalition of
wanting to remain with the status-quo.

Without provincial core funding Centres will have no options but to close.
The province provides 1.7 million dollars in core funding to 37 Centres each
year - or just $47,174 per Centre- and has for nearly 12 years.

The Minister further suggested that Women's Centres amalgamate with other
organizations in communities, namely Family Centres. This suggestion
clearly demonstrates the Minister's lack of understanding about what women's
centres do and how we do it.

In fact, Minister Stephens has not read the discussion paper, The Herstory,
Risk and Survival of BC Women's Centres, which the Coalition had prepared on
the options for Women's Centres. Further, the Minister was clearly
unprepared to show any commitment.

In the meeting the BC Coalition of Women's Centres demanded a meeting with
Premier Campbell. Minister of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services,
George Abbott has refused to meet with the Coalition. As a Minister of
State, Stephens is a token Cabinet Minister.

The BC Coalition of Women's Centres also reminded the Minster that her
legacy in this province will not be that of a champion of women's rights,
but rather as the women's minister who violated women's rights. Stephens
will be remembered as the Minister who not only lost the stand-alone
Ministry of Women's Equality, but also the Minister who abolished core
funding to Women's Centres.

The next step for the Coalition is to meet with Premier Campbell.

If you have questions/comments for BCCWC, please e-mail us at bcwomen@telus.net For other contact information, please go to our Information Page

BC Coalition of Women's Centres • British Columbia, Canada
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This page last updated: June 23, 2003
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