Pincher Creek town council is considering ways to support the Pincher Creek Women’s Emergency Shelter Association after the organization warned a provincial funding reduction could force service cuts and leave more women and children without access to safe shelter.

During a June 8 presentation to town council, a delegation from the shelter asked municipal leaders to advocate to the provincial government for the restoration of funding removed under Alberta’s new Emergency Family Violence Services program.

Council has not yet made a decision, but Mayor Wayne Oliver said the matter is expected to return to council for discussion on how the municipality should proceed.

According to PCWESA, it is one of 13 rural Alberta shelters that received a five per cent cut to their operating funding under the new provincial program, announced May 19. The reduction translates to roughly $60,000 — money already allocated in the shelter’s budget before the cut was announced.

“This funding cut means job losses, people being turned away, not having access to safe supports,” executive director Lori Van Ee told Shootin’ the Breeze in a previous interview. “We are already underfunded and to receive a five per cent cut from our budget is huge.”

The cuts are set to take effect July 1, midway through the fiscal year for most shelters, after operating budgets were already approved and staffing commitments made.

Tanya Matthews, treasurer of PCWESA, told council the timing made the situation especially difficult, because the government controls exactly how shelter funds are allocated — meaning the shelter cannot simply shift money between categories to absorb the shortfall.

“The government dictates where the money goes within the shelter, so we can’t just move money around to pay bills and pay staff,” Matthews said.

The shelter serves a wide geographic area, providing emergency accommodation for up to 21 days for women and children fleeing domestic and gender-based violence. Its catchment area stretches from Claresholm and Fort Macleod through Brocket, Standoff, Cardston, Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass.

Between April 2025 and March 2026, PCWESA received 422 calls for assistance and provided shelter services to 118 women and children, the delegation told council. During the same period, 120 women were turned away due to complex needs the shelter was unable to accommodate.

Adding to the funding concerns is a new mandate from the province directing shelters to prioritize admission for individuals considered to be in “imminent danger.”

Matthews said the government has not provided a clear definition of the term, creating confusion for shelter staff trying to determine who qualifies for services.

The consequence of that ambiguity was demonstrated June 4, just days before the council presentation, when PCWESA was forced to turn away a local woman and her three children.

The family was facing homelessness but did not meet the government’s threshold for imminent danger, because they were not under immediate threat of physical harm from another person, council was told.

“If somebody’s now just facing homelessness, that’s simply not enough,” Matthews said. “The new mandate is aimed at domestic violence. It [applies to] people who are in the threat of actual physical violence, like they could be killed by an intimate partner.”

The federal government, she noted, defines homelessness itself as a severe risk to life and therefore a form of imminent danger — a standard that differs markedly from how the province is now applying the term.

The shelter’s outreach program, staffed by two employees, currently supports 25 women and 33 children, and served 38 women and 51 children over the past year.

Matthews said this program is critical for preventing crises before they escalate to the point where emergency shelter is required, and warned that cutting it would place additional pressure on policing, health care and social services.

The province’s cuts come one year after the government announced a 10-year strategy to address gender-based violence and provided PCWESA with a one-time funding enhancement of $35,000.

“We actually considered broadening our scope to take vulnerable men, and now this year that plan is completely off the list,” she said.

Province, advocacy group at odds

The Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters has taken the issue to the highest level of the provincial government.

In a May 27 letter to Premier Danielle Smith, ACWS executive director Catherine Champagne and board president Sandy Vander Ziel asked the government to delay implementing the $970,000 in total funding cuts provincewide until the 2027-28 fiscal year. The letter was co-signed by Van Ee and representatives of eight other affected shelters.

The letter warned that without sufficient time to identify alternative revenue sources, the result would be immediate job losses and reductions to core services for women and children seeking safety.

As of June 22, the shelter had not received a response from the premier’s office.

At the local level, Matthews said the impact could be visible on Pincher Creek’s streets. An encampment already exists along Christie Mines Road and women and children turned away from the shelter could end up there.

“We will see more homelessness, more deaths, more crime, more people slipping into addiction,” she said. “It will impact local residents — they might not think it’s their problem now, but it will impact them somewhere.”

Council weighs its options

While the shelter’s primary request was for political advocacy rather than direct financial assistance, the question of whether the town should also contribute money emerged during council discussion.

Mayor Oliver acknowledged the importance of the shelter’s outreach work, describing early intervention as a practical investment in preventing far larger problems down the road.

He suggested one possible path forward would be for each of the six municipalities served by the shelter — Claresholm, Fort Macleod, Cardston, the MD of Pincher Creek, Pincher Creek and Crowsnest Pass — to consider contributing $10,000.

“If each community contributed $10,000, that would take care of the deficit,” Oliver said.

Under the town’s process, any financial contribution would require a formal motion brought before council and passed by a majority vote.

“The town could possibly donate $10,000 if it’s put on the agenda and moved by motion,” he said. “I’m only one person speaking, and seven people have to vote on it.”

Oliver also clarified that a town contribution would not be conditional on other municipalities agreeing to chip in. Whether or not other communities choose to contribute, Pincher Creek council could still decide independently to offer support.

The matter is expected back before council as a request for a decision in the future. Oliver acknowledged timing matters, given the shelter is already mid fiscal year and the $60,000 gap is immediate.

PCWESA plans to make similar presentations to other affected municipalities in the coming weeks.

Beyond financial support, the shelter’s central ask is political: that councils across the region lobby their MLA to reverse the funding cuts, and that they carry the issue forward at the fall municipal convention, where it could be raised more formally with the province.

Matthews said the shelter hopes the town’s backing — whatever form it takes — will signal to other communities that Pincher Creek takes the issue seriously.

“We just wanted council to be aware of what’s happening,” she said. “We would appreciate any funding, of course, but our biggest thing is just making sure that the shelter stays afloat.”