This week, Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS) attended the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) conference in Victoria to push forward five urgent actions needed to end femicide in British Columbia. In meetings with mayors, councillors, provincial ministers, and senior staff across key ministries, BWSS presented its five emergency asks:
- Mandate Municipal Gender-Based Violence Task Force – Every city must convene survivor-centred task forces to coordinate safety across policing, housing, and justice.
- Stabilize Frontline Services – Provide a 15% emergency funding increase so community-based victim services, Stopping the Violence (STV) outreach, and transition house workers can meet demand.
- Standardize Risk Assessment – Make intimate partner violence risk assessment tools mandatory across police, Crown, child protection, and other systems, with oversight and enforcement.
- Launch a Province-Wide Prevention Campaign – Use government communications infrastructure to educate the public and prevent violence.
- Appoint a Gender-Based Violence Lead – Establish a provincial lead in the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General to coordinate across ministries and municipalities.
“We came out of UBCM encouraged,” said Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director of BWSS. “Municipal leaders across the province are picking up this work and are taking action in their communities. The opportunity now is for every level of government to act – not with declarations, but with the coordinated, resourced interventions that will save lives.
BWSS also raised the pressing issue of the cost of doing nothing: “We estimate the cost of inaction on intimate partner violence at $11,000 per person, per year,” said MacDougall. “That figure reflects Justice Canada’s national estimate of $7.4 billion annually, spread across policing, health care, housing, and justice. When applied locally and accounting for BC’s emergency shelter costs, court delays, and the pressure on municipal services, the true cost is likely even higher. Cities are already paying this price, and they are paying it reactively, inefficiently, and without a coordinated plan.”
BWSS emphasized that these measures are not optional, but necessary. Thirty-six women and girls have been killed in the past thirteen months in BC alone, a devastating pattern with no coordinated emergency response.
In the weeks and months ahead, BWSS will continue working alongside municipalities, provincial ministries, federal departments, and community organizations to advance these urgent actions and demand governments move from words to action before more lives are lost.
