The government will always be there to protect women and their children escaping violence. We back up that work with investments. Supports to victims of violence have increased by $6.5 million in this year’s budget over last year, and we have flowed $6 million to support initiatives and supports in rural and remote communities.

We invested $18.5 million over three years to enhance the Transitional and Housing Support Program to help victims of domestic violence and survivors of human trafficking find and maintain housing and help transition to independence, and those were on top of approximately $240 million we invested for victims of violence and $10.2 million for violence prevention initiatives.

Just two weeks ago, we negotiated with the federal government to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence that will see an additional $162 million invested over four years in Ontario. Our government has and will continue to increase investments across the board to end violence against women, and we are going to keep doing whatever it takes to protect women.