Canadian AIDS Society

National Day of Action: Still Time to Deliver

During the Canadian AIDS Society's Annual General Meeting, a resolution was proposed and carried to launch an ongoing process of campaigning for change in Canada's response to the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS. The first step of this campaign, which takes place between September 4th and 14th, is a Member of Parliament contact blitz where member agencies and PLWHIV/AIDS will contact and arrange meetings with MP's in their constituencies to discuss the issues related to PLWHIV/AIDS, their support, care, treatment and education and the problems caused by the Federal Governments' stall in rolling out national funding from the Federal Initiative. The goal of this MP blitz is to show a nation wide solidarity by approaching all MP's during the same time period, there by creating a sense of urgency around the issues. It is hoped that MP's will return to Parliament with a greater understanding of the struggle faced by those living with HIV/AIDS and be equipped with information that can be discussed in caucus and the House.

Support of people living with HIV/AIDS in Canada: Promises broken, lives threatened, August 2007 The Canadian government is mismanaging the Federal Initiative to address HIV/AIDS by failing to follow through on commitments made to people living with HIV, front-line community-based AIDS service organizations and the many persons at risk of the disease and in urgent need of prevention services.

Here are the facts: In June 2003, responding to evidence of an intransigent HIV/AIDS epidemic in Canada, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health recommended that Federal funding for domestic HIV/AIDS programs be more than doubled from the $42.2 million to $100 million/yr. The committee cited the urgent need for "stronger interventions for the at-risk sub-groups among youth, women, Aboriginals, immigrants and inmate populations".

The Government announced in May 2004 that federal HIV/AIDS funding would increase from $42.2 million to $84.4 million/yr by 2008/09, over $15 million short of the all-party recommendation of the Standing Committee. In late 2004, it unveiled the Federal Initiative to address HIV/AIDS in Canada, which was meant to "enhance national and front-line HIV/AIDS programs", support "evidence based" actions to meet the "specific needs of vulnerable populations", and all of that with attention to "legal, ethical and human rights dimensions of Canada's response to HIV/AIDS".

The reality of the Federal Initiative has been nothing like the promise. Under the FI, the government scrapped the funding mechanisms that effectively supported community based organizations and their services-life saving services that the government cannot provide without NGO's and announced a revamped set of funds to which NGO's could apply. But the announced timeline for the roll-out of the new funds has never been respected. The Specific Population Fund projects, which were meant to help NGO's reach the most vulnerable people affected by HIV, were originally meant to begin in 2004, then delayed to January 2007, but the decisions on who will receive those funds have still not been announced in July/07. The Knowledge Exchange Fund is similarly stuck in a bureaucratic process. The Local Demonstration Project Fund promised by the FI has never even invited proposals. Essential front-line activities are impossible to plan in these circumstances, as is innovation to meet a changing epidemic.

Under the AIDS Community Action Program, community based activities by front-line organizations, which are the only ones that can reach the people most affected by HIV/AIDS are experiencing a decline under the FI in spite of a higher overall level of funding. For every $1 spent in the Federal Government administering this program in 2003, $8.10 was spent on community level activities; by 2008/09, that figure will shrink to $6.20. The vast majority of front-line groups have experienced the "increased" federal funding as a cut in their budgets. But the federal bureaucracies in the FI agencies, especially the Public Health Agency and Correctional Services Canada, have benefited disproportionately.

We also cannot ignore the attitudes of the Canadian Public's outlook on HIV/AIDS. The 2003 EKOS HIV/AIDS-An Attitudinal Survey, demonstrates the stigma, discrimination and level of Canadian intolerance towards people living with HIV/AIDS.

  • Close to four in ten Canadians (39%) know or have known someone with HIV/AIDS, while 60% do not and have not in the past. Less than half of Canadians would feel somewhat or very comfortable if a close friend or relative was dating someone with HIV/AIDS. It would appear, therefore, that the comfort level declines as the contact becomes more direct and personal.
  • Almost half of Canadians (44%) believe that people with HIV/AIDS should not be allowed to serve the public in positions like dentists and cooks.
  • 31% of Canadians would be uncomfortable shopping at a small neighborhood grocery store if they found out that the owner had HIV/AIDS.
  • 43% of Canadians would be uncomfortable if their child was attending a school where one of the students was known to have HIV/AIDS.
The intentions of the Parliament and the Canadian people have been subverted by mismanagement of the FI, and the winner is HIV/AIDS. The chipping away of essential services to stop the epidemic in Canada is being paid for in lives.

Join the call to bring the Federal Initiative to Aliress HIV/AIDS back to its goal of strengthening community based action!

If you would like to be involved, please call or email our office 388-6220 or info@varcs.org.