July 2, 2025

Hon. Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario
premier@ontario.ca

Hon. Sylvia Jones
Deputy Premier and Minister of Health
sylvia.jones@ontario.ca

Hon. Michael Parsa
Minister of Children, Community and Social Services
MinisterMCCSS@ontario.ca

Dear Premier Ford, Ministers Jones and Parsa:

Re: Preventing Intimate Partner and Gender-Based Violence

We urge the Government of Ontario to immediately revive and pass Bill 173, An Act respecting intimate partner violence, to formally recognize intimate partner violence as an epidemic and strengthen provincial efforts to prevent violence and support survivors.

This request follows a decision passed at the June 18, 2025 meeting of the Board of Health for Haliburton Kawartha Northumberland Peterborough Health Unit, who considered and endorsed the enclosed correspondence from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) Board of Health regarding the need to advance local and provincial action preventing and reducing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)/Gender-Based Violence (GBV) through legislative action.

We recognize that you are well aware of the seriousness of IPV, which is associated with significant negative impacts on social functioning, mental health, and physical health for both survivors and their children. Your commitment is evident through the measures you have already implemented to address this critical issue such as through, the 2024 decision to ask the Standing Committee on Justice Policy to conduct an in-depth study with respect to IPV, the Ontario-STANDS: Standing Together Against gender-based violence Now through Decisive actions, prevention, empowerment and Supports and Ontario’s strategy to respond to the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls; Pathways to Safety. A declaration of an epidemic would support these existing efforts by providing ongoing sustainable legislative backing.

As a local public health agency, we are engaged in the work of IPV/GBV and family violence by addressing healthy child growth and development in accordance with the Ontario Public Health Standards: Healthy Growth and Development and Substance Use and Injury Prevention standards along with the Health Equity foundational standard. Locally, IPV/GBV was declared an epidemic by the City of Peterborough (November 27, 2023), the City of Kawartha Lakes (June 25, 2024) and Haliburton County Council (December 11, 2024). A recent Peterborough City and County Public Perceptions and Paths to Prevention Survey, conducted by Trent University in partnership with the Peterborough Domestic Abuse Network (PDAN), asked 199 participants whether they agreed with labeling domestic violence (IPV) as an epidemic. An overwhelming 95% either strongly or somewhat agreed.1 This powerful consensus signals that communities in the region we serve are not only aware of the severity of IPV but are also ready for decisive action. Ending GBV requires our provincial government's commitment. Reviving Bill 173 would legislate provincial recognition of IPV as a public health crisis throughout Ontario.

I trust you will consider our efforts, along with WECHU and the advocacy of others, who continue to voice their support to invest in and implement a meaningful and sustained provincial response to IPV and GBV which are complex issues intersecting multiple provincial priorities.

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Deputy Mayor Ron Black
Chair, Board of Health

/ag

Enclosure: WECHU Resolution, December 2024

cc: Local MPPs
Ontario Boards of Health
Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa)

¹ Ambury, B. (2025). Understanding the domestic violence epidemic: Public perceptions and paths to prevention in Peterborough City and County (Community-Based Research Project, Trent University). Peterborough Domestic Abuse Network.