First, we have to offer Internet access at an affordable cost, because that is a major shortcoming.
For two years, all activities at the Centre-Femmes de Bellechasse, as at a majority of community organizations, have taken place via Zoom. So when the women we want to help don't have the $55 a month to pay for an Internet connection, it is difficult to contact them. They are very far away from us. When they leave a spousal violence situation and go to a shelter, it is often us who then go and get them. That is the method we have used for two years to go out and meet our clients. These women have told me multiple times that they had no money to pay for an Internet connection. So we referred them to an organization that could lend them a computer. That is how we have managed.
Internet access needs to be unlimited and capped at $20 per month. When you are receiving a social assistance cheque for about $800 per month, a charge of $55 to access the Internet is an enormous cost.
If they use their phone to access the Internet, that uses up all their mobile data, and at the end of the month they have no minutes left and they can't call anyone. That doesn't work. Something really has to be done about this.
As well, we really have to work hard on holding the perpetrators of violence accountable. There are some 180 recommendations in "Rebâtir la confiance"...