Executive director of Medicine Hat's Sexual Assault Response Committee (SARC) comments on changes to the Victims of Crime Fund. (CHAT News photo)

By Alex McCuaig

Budget - Victims of Crime

Financial benefit program for victims of violent crime being cut by the province

Feb 28, 2020 | 4:44 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – A financial program set up to assist victims of violent crime recover from physical and psychological injuries is being cut by the Alberta government, according to Budget 2020.

But the executive director of Medicine Hat’s Sexual Assault Response Committee (SARC) says the financial benefit program was something that was of great benefit for victims trying to recover.

Christina Johnson said the loss of the program is, “worrisome because we’ve seen that when financial benefits are allocated to victims, we’ve seen it change their lives.”

The Victims of Crime Fund has been supporting a range of community- and police-based services across the province for more than two decades and is fully financed by a 30 per cent surcharge on fines issued by police or imposed by the court – not by provincial taxes. But the fund has also been available to individual victims of violent crimes to help deal with physical and psychological injuries as well as reimbursement for funerals and supplemental benefits to those who have suffered brain injuries.

But according to Thursday’s budget, those direct financial benefits which amounted to more than $16 million dollars in 2015 – according to the last publicly available Alberta Justice report on the fund – will be replaced with a service-based program with the provincial boards overseeing the fund being eliminated.

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Alberta Justice has not responded to requests for comment as to what the replacement programing will be.

Johnson said SARC along with city police and its victims assistance staff run the Victims Navigation Program, also funded in part by the provincial Victims of Crime Fund, which helps those eligible access the financial benefit program.

She added that while additional support for service-based programing for victims is welcome, she reiterated the positive effect financial benefit program had on the recovery of those impact by violent crime.

“Sometimes it really offsets the costs and changes their lives,” said Johnson of the financial benefit program’s effect on victims.

It is not clear if any new support dollars were provided by the fund in 2019 with a number of agencies stating applications were not being accepted by the provincial government.

Earlier this month, members of the Medicine Hat Senior Citizens Advisory Committee reported the provincial government had placed a moratorium on the multi-million dollar fund last year. The committee was seeking funding to help hire an elder abuse coordinator for the city to deal with an increase in the form of domestic violence.

Provincial justice officials would not provide comment on the moratorium.

A 2016 Alberta auditor general report on the fund reported that, “the fund is growing at a rate faster than payments to victims are being made,” and recommended better management of it.

What, if any, actions have been taken by Alberta Justice since that report was issued more than four years ago is unclear.

Budget 2019 forecast a reduction of the fund’s expenditures from $43 million to $28 million by 2021. Budget 2020 has reversed that with the provincial government now forecasting $70 million in expenditures by 2021.