e-4660 (Social affairs and equality)

The Government of Canada is committed to ending all forms of gender-based violence, including economic abuse. 

In 2017, the Government of Canada launched, It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence(Federal GBV Strategy). The Strategy is a whole of government approach to preventing and addressing gender-based violence. It aims to reduce gender-based violence, and improve health, social, and justice outcomes for victims and survivors. The Strategy is supported by investments of $800 million and $44 million ongoing since 2017.

Through the Gender-Based Violence Research Initiative, a joint initiative between Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), $695,772 over four years, starting in 2023-24, is being provided to support a research project entitled Economic Abuse in Canada: Assessing the Prevalence and Addressing the Needs of Intimate Partner Violence Survivors.

Building on the progress of the Federal GBV Strategy and recognizing the need for national action, in November 2022, Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women launched the National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.

This 10-year historic plan is a strategic Federal-Provincial-Territorial framework for national action to address the root causes and persistent gaps that remain in Canada to end all forms of gender-based violence, including economic abuse.

The National Action Plan aims to address the social and economic factors that contribute to gender based violence and improve the health, social and economic outcomes of those impacted by gender-based violence. It brings together the efforts of federal, provincial and territorial government and envisions a Canada free of gender-based violence and one that supports victims, survivors and their families, no matter where they live. To address the root causes of gender-based violence, it is organized into five pillars:

1. Supporting survivors and their families,
2. Prevention,
3. Responsive justice system,
4. Implementing Indigenous-led approaches, and
5. Social infrastructure and enabling environment.

These pillars are built on a Foundation, which focuses on three main components: leadership, coordination, and engagement; data, research and knowledge mobilization; and reporting and monitoring.

The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence recognizes that there must be coordinated and collaborative actions from federal, provincial, and territorial governments, each working within their respective jurisdictional authorities, in close partnership with victims/survivors, Indigenous partners, civil society, front-line service providers, municipalities, the private sector and researchers.

Pillar 5 of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence - Social infrastructure and enabling environment, focuses on the socio-economic factors that contribute to gender-based violence and includes opportunities for action for federal, provincial and territorial governments to address economic abuse, such promoting women’s economic security and independence.

Work under the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence is supported by an investment of $539.3 million over five years to enable provinces and territories to supplement and enhance services and supports within their jurisdictions to prevent gender-based violence and support survivors. Agreements with all thirteen provinces and territories have been signed and are available on Women and Gender Equality Canada’s website. Canadians are encouraged to visit the website to learn more about the agreements and provincial territorial plans for ending gender-based violence.

It is up to all of us and every single level of government to work together to truly end gender-based violence for good.