'Throwing money at Band-Aids': Advocates tell N.S. government to do more on gender-based violence

Meghan Hansford says gender-based violence is a societal disease akin to cancer, and officials are focusing on treatments, but the smarter approach would be to turn their gaze to prevention.

"We need to prevent the cancer from happening, before the crisis and before it's too late," she said Tuesday at Province House.

Hansford, who has a PhD in family violence intervention and prevention, was among a panel of advocates and experts on gender-based violence invited to speak at the legislature's health committee about the issue.

The panel reiterated many of the same concerns they've been highlighting in recent months as Nova Scotia has witnessed a spate of homicides related to intimate partner violence. Among the asks the panellists made to the government are increased core funding for shelters, more second-stage housing and greater access to mental health supports.

The province recently dedicated some additional funding to transition houses, but Hansford said she's still not seeing enough resources directed to prevention.

"We have started to have some interesting conversation, but that is where I see the littlest amount of work and action," she said.

Hansford added that preventive measures — such as education for the general public and for professionals in health care and justice who can intervene when they see early warning signs — have the biggest impact.

She said focusing on crisis response is "throwing money at Band-Aids."

Josie McKinney, acting executive director of Nova Scotia's Status of Women Office, said there are conversations happening in government about how to increase prevention efforts.

"The other thing the province is looking at is how to turn every response into an opportunity to prevent," she said in an interview following the committee meeting.

"While we do want to get ahead of something, once something happens, how are we showing up to prevent it from happening again?"

Hansford and others at the meeting expressed some skepticism about the effect of their advocacy on an issue that is long-standing and getting worse.

"Conversations are great and a good starting point, but we've also been having these conversations for decades," she said. 

Hansford pointed to an abundance of evidence and recommendations that have come out of Nova Scotia's mass casualty commission and the Desmond fatality inquiry, as well as the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

"The conversations need to move into action, into concrete action. And there were a few suggestions around this today and we need to keep that momentum moving forward," she added.

Ann de Ste Croix, executive director of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia, echoed that sentiment.

When she came into her role a few years ago, de Ste Croix said, she took cues from her predecessors.

"I am saying the same thing that they've been saying for decades," she told the committee.

"As has been shared many times before, we need long-term investment, we need collaboration, we need a shared commitment to transforming the systems that survivors rely on."