In May 2025, Alberta unveiled its most comprehensive and ambitious plan to combat gender-based violence (GBV), called Building on Our Strengths: Alberta’s 10-year Strategy to End Gender-Based Violence. This strategy is heralded as one of the most extensive in Canada, aiming to transform the province into a place where every Albertan can live free from violence stemming from gender-based discrimination and harm. The multifaceted approach includes prevention, survivor support, Indigenous-led solutions, and addressing root causes such as financial dependency and systemic inequities.
However, expert analysis and community stakeholders have raised serious concerns that despite this bold vision, several existing government policies are undercutting the strategy’s effectiveness. Particularly troubling are funding cuts to critical services, inadequate housing solutions for survivors, and fragmented support systems that fail to meet the complex and evolving needs of victims of gender-based violence.
The Framework and Vision of Alberta’s Gender-Based Violence Strategy
Alberta’s strategy was developed through extensive consultation with over 500 individuals and organizations across the province, including survivors, Indigenous leaders, academics, and front-line community workers. As Minister Tanya Fir emphasized,
“Men and boys are key partners in our work to end gender-based violence and this funding strengthens programs that build safer communities for everyone”
(Tanya Fir).
This statement reflects the inclusive vision of the strategy, aiming to engage all community members in prevention and culture change.
The strategy covers more than 100 concrete initiatives, targeting multiple dimensions of GBV—from physical and sexual assault to broader issues such as financial abuse, cyberbullying, coercive control, and intimate partner violence. It highlights five strategic priorities: increasing public awareness, preventing violence before it begins, supporting Indigenous-led approaches, empowering women economically, and providing timely survivor support.
A cornerstone of the initiative is coordinated service delivery, including emergency assistance, culturally relevant counseling (notably for Indigenous Peoples), and improved integration of family violence and criminal justice systems. Alberta has earmarked nearly $20 million in the 2025 budget to kickstart the strategy, with overall related government spending exceeding $188 million annually.
Funding Cuts and Policy Contradictions Undermining the Strategy’s Promises
Despite the strategy’s ambitious scope, critics argue that existing government policies are hampering its execution. Key concerns focus on funding cuts and insufficient support infrastructure critical to survivors’ safety and well-being.
University of Alberta sociology PhD student Andrea DeKeseredy, along with Dr. Wendy Aujla and Ping Lam Ip, jointly noted,
“Reduced funding translates into significant cuts in essential student services […]. Access to safe, stable, and affordable long-term housing is critical for women leaving violent situations, but the strategy falls short in ensuring this”
(Andrea DeKeseredy, Wendy Aujla, Ping Lam Ip).
This underscores a vital contradiction: while the strategy talks about empowering women through improved opportunities and support, broader funding reductions in mental health, childcare, and food security services have left some survivors more vulnerable.
The connection between housing and safety is especially salient. The strategy briefly mentions collaboration with the Canada Housing Benefit program but lacks a firm commitment to comprehensive, systemic solutions that guarantee long-term housing stability for survivors. Housing insecurity worsened by rising rent and weak tenant protections jeopardizes women and gender-diverse people fleeing violence, potentially forcing them into unsafe situations or homelessness.
This gap in policy coherence risks undermining survivor recovery, access to employment and education, and overall social reintegration—factors critical for breaking the cycle of violence.
Prevention and Community Engagement Efforts
One of the strategy’s promising elements is its prevention focus, particularly programs targeting men and boys to foster healthy relationships, emotional well-being, and challenge harmful gender norms. In July 2025, the government invested $720,000 in grants for community-led prevention initiatives, reflecting a broader understanding that ending GBV requires holistic community transformation, not just reactive support.
Minister Tanya Fir remarked,
“I am grateful to the front-line workers leading that change and helping to break the cycle of violence today”
(Tanya Fir).
This sentiment acknowledges the vital grassroots work happening in communities across Alberta and the importance of sustained partnership and investment.
Survivor Support: Progress and Persistent Challenges
The strategy aims to improve support services by making them timely, culturally relevant, and responsive to the diverse needs of survivors and their families. Immediate actions include modernizing women’s emergency shelters, enhancing mental health supports, and expanding integrated care models that reduce bureaucratic barriers.
However, political opposition voices such as Julia Hayter, NDP critic for women’s issues, argue the response arrived too late for many victims. She stated,
“This strategy arrives too late for individuals escaping violence who face barriers to funded shelter accommodations”
(Julia Hayter).
This critique highlights ongoing gaps in shelter availability, funding adequacy, and access equity for marginalized populations.
Further medium- and long-term goals include increasing coordination between family and criminal courts, exploring expedited governmental services for survivors, and developing a specific prevention plan for sexual violence by 2028. Yet, the strategy’s success depends heavily on consistent funding and policy alignment, which remain uncertain due to contradictory government budgeting decisions.
Indigenous-Led Solutions and Inclusion
Recognizing the disproportionate impact of GBV on Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit+ people, the strategy commits to support Indigenous-led programs and integrate Indigenous ways of knowing and healing into prevention and intervention.
Plans include expanding economic security programs, implementing tailored crisis and long-term support services across Indigenous communities, and advancing elder abuse responses. These efforts respond to calls for culturally informed approaches and community empowerment that directly address historic and ongoing systemic injustices.
The Broader Structural Context and Political Realities
While the strategy presents a coherent vision and a multi-sector partnership approach, its effectiveness risks being diluted by broader austerity trends in provincial governance. The cuts to student mental health, childcare supports, and food programs reflect a dissonance between stated policy goals and resource allocations.
This tension mirrors wider debates about social policy priorities in Alberta, where economic conservatism sometimes conflicts with investments needed for social justice and public safety.
As such, the strategy faces an uphill battle not only in coordinating services but in securing the political and financial commitment necessary to transform Alberta into a safer province free from gender-based violence.
Road to Effective Implementation Requires Policy Alignment and Sustained Commitment
Alberta’s 10-year Gender-Based Violence Strategy represents an important and potentially transformative framework to address one of the province’s most pressing public safety and social justice issues. Its comprehensive scope, inclusive consultation process, and emphasis on prevention, Indigenous leadership, and survivor-centered care are commendable.
However, without coherent support from government policies—including adequate funding for essential services, stable housing, and integrated support systems—its goals risk being compromised. The warnings by experts such as Andrea DeKeseredy and voices like Julia Hayter emphasize the lived realities of survivors who need immediate and long-term safety guarantees and resources.
True progress will require bridging the gap between ambitious strategy documents and the on-the-ground realities faced by vulnerable Albertans. Prioritizing survivor-centered policies, reversing harmful funding cuts, and ensuring stable housing and support networks must become urgent policy imperatives.
