B.C. Liberals ignoring northern women, NDP says

Rural and northern B.C. women were ignored when the provincial government unveiled its latest efforts to live up to recommendations from the Missing Women's Inquiry, the Opposition NDP charged this week.

In a statement, North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice took the B.C. Liberals to task for failing to introduce a shuttle bus service along Highway 16 West, or the Highway of Tears, calling it one of the most urgent recommendations from the inquiry.

"Yet again, the B.C. Liberals missed an opportunity to take action and give women and girls along Highway 16 real options besides hitchhiking," Rice said.

Rice also asserted that none of the $845,000 in one-time funding announced on Thursday to support inquiry recommendations was directly aimed at ending disappearances along the Highway of Tears.

Similarly, the NDP said none of the domestic violence units announced by the government are in rural communities.

"It could be argued that women in small, northern, and rural communities are even more in need of action on domestic violence than those in urban centres where there are more supports and services," said NDP women's critic Maurine Karagianis.

"While it's good to see enhanced action on domestic violence in the Lower Mainland, the Capital Region and other urban centres, women in northern and rural communities shouldn't be left standing on the side of the highway by the B.C. Liberals."

But on Friday, the governing Liberals announced $305,000 in funding from the civil forfeiture program for six Prince George-based groups for crime prevention programs.

Of that total, Prince George-Valemount Liberal MLA Shirley Bond said $100,000 is going to Carrier Sekani Family Services for prevention of violence against women programs along Highway 16.

Other recipients include the Prince George New Hope Society, which is also receiving $100,000, Prince George and District Elizabeth Fry Society, which is receiving $25,000, and Two Rivers Crime Prevention Society/Prince George Community Policing, School District 57, the College of New Caledonia and the B.C. Teachers Federation each receiving $20,000.

"There is a very specific link in this grant program to the Missing Women's Inquiry recommendations and also to the challenges that vulnerable women are facing in the north," Bond said.

According to an update the provincial government issued in November on steps it's taking in answer to the inquiry, the Transportation Ministry is "planning targeted consultations to identify and promote safe transportation options" along Highway 16.

Bond said she understands that work is continuing with three ministers working together on options "that would be meaningful but also deliverable."

"It's a pretty long stretch of highway and we need to make sure that we're being responsible but finding some innovative options," Bond said.

Although the city is not home to a domestic violence unit, an integrated case assessment team was established in 2013 that involves police-based victims services and a battery of social workers. Over 2013, it had 22 referrals of high-risk victims and assisted these clients with various methods to keep them safe.

"The team was created precisely to deal with the domestic violence issue," Bond said.

Although the inquiry, headed by Wally Oppal, was primarily about how police handled the Robert Pickton murders, hearings were held in communities along Highway 16 West, also known as the Highway of Tears.