We've released a new report to follow up on the recommendations made by the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry (MWCI) in 2012. It focuses on the provincial government's progress in response to 21 of the MWCI's original 63 recommendations, plus the two urgent measures.
Government has achieved important results in some areas. For example, it established a compensation fund for the children of the missing women, enacted the new Missing Persons Act, and provides ongoing funding to WISH, an organization that provides services to women involved in sex work.
Other actions are still underway, like improving transportation along Highway 16 and developing provincial standards for bias-free policing.
We found government has not enhanced ongoing support for family members of those who are missing, and those who are looking to heal from the loss of a family member. Government also hasn't developed a provincial protocol to help women involved in sex work, who have an outstanding warrant, feel more comfortable reporting violence.
Our report makes only one recommendation: that government resume reporting publicly on its progress, as it stopped doing so in 2014. Because so many families and communities are affected by these tragedies, we feel that government still needs to share its progress with the public.
We also found four areas that have impacted government's progress on the recommendations: funding, stakeholder engagement, reporting, and the lack of a champion to drive change. For example, the lack of public reporting made it more difficult for stakeholders to work together to implement the recommendations. Other obstacles, like a lack of sustainable funding for certain programs, have also stalled improvements.
Watch our short audio/visual summary of this report.
