Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the committee for the opportunity to speak this morning.
My name is Jean Bota. I'm a Red Deer County councillor. For anyone not familiar with Alberta, Red Deer is halfway between Edmonton and Calgary. In addition to being a councillor, I also sit on the Red Deer/Lacombe rural crime watch as a director, and I chair the Alberta Community Crime Prevention Association, which is a provincial board with representation from around the province.
Today I speak to you about the challenges faced by women in rural communities from the perspective of rural crime and the fallout I am personally seeing for many women.
I have seen a lot of fear: trauma fear, fear of criminal harassment when perpetrators have been released from prison or are out on bail, and fear of reprisal after being robbed or violated more than once. I've seen psychological fear, being a distance from an RCMP detachment, and I've seen a greater, very deep fear of disconnect to the community and feeling unsupported.
Our victim services units that work with the RCMP detachments tell us that domestic violence is of course on the increase, and with COVID this is really an issue right now, especially in the indigenous and Métis settlement communities. Many perpetrators also move out to the small rural areas in order not to be detected due to lack of communication between law enforcement and agencies. Again, transportation and isolation are the biggest barriers for the abused and, in a lot of cases, their children. Then there's the physical abuse, the psychological abuse and a lot of elder abuse—older people being taken advantage of in the rural areas.
Again, supports for rural women, such as shelter, counselling, day care and infrastructure for transportation and education, are not as they should be. Many times there is no family or even friend to support them, and agencies do not have the wherewithal or the money to provide extra for these people.
Funding and capacity in rural areas for women's shelters—including trained staff to accommodate and provide programs for the women and children—are a problem. The Internet connection, as noted previously, and the means to access online counselling or meetings, especially during COVID restrictions, are also a big issue. You don't have to go very far into rural areas to have very poor Internet.
One thing I am very concerned about and I'm seeing a lot of issues with is opioids, the increase in drugs and overdoses within rural communities. To me this is a two-edged sword. The opioids are driving the rural crime by way of gangs and gang activity, and on the other hand the opioid crisis continues to take its toll on a lot of residents, with Alberta being no different.
Again, it's the result of isolation, long distances from emergency services and limited access to support, resources and education. The opioid crisis has had a heavy toll on rural and first nations communities. There is a stigma and many times discrimination for the treatment of the addiction in the communities and the addicted. The women in these communities, whether they are doctors, grandmothers, mothers or just community connectors, are ringing the alarm bell.
It's important. Thank you.