The Nova Scotia government has announced $23.7 million to help transition houses amid a spate of intimate-partner violence in the province.
Premier Tim Houston says the new funding is the direct result of a meeting he attended in January with a coalition of women’s support groups.
The bulk of the funding, which was not included in last month’s provincial budget, provides $17.9 million over four years to stabilize operations at 10 transition houses that offer temporary shelter for women and children fleeing violence.
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The remaining $5.8 million is existing money shifted from various government departments.
Ann de Ste Croix, of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia, says the funding will allow her organization to plan more longer-term solutions to address domestic abuse.
She says that last year transition houses provided support to about 3,500 women and children from across Nova Scotia.
Since Oct. 18, seven women and one man have been killed in incidents of intimate-partner violence in Nova Scotia. In five of the seven homicides, the perpetrator then killed himself.
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