After funding issues forced the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton (SACE) to lay off some staff and suspend intakes on services this month, the non-profit’s CEO says she is heartened that groups in the city have since donated over $100,000 to the organization in its time of need.
“It doesn’t get us out of the hole, but it goes a long way to demonstrating to us that yes, there are tons of people in our community who support the work that we’re doing,” Mary Jane James, the CEO of SACE, told Global News on Monday.
“The more we can demonstrate that need to our community, and most importantly to our government, the better off we’ll be.”
Earlier this month, James said that while operational funding of just over $2 million has been renewed by the provincial government, her organization will lose grant funding on March 31 that it had received from the provincial government a couple of years ago. That funding was given to SACE in 2023 and totalled $1.8 million over two years. It was meant to address a growing waitlist that had some people waiting for 18 months to access services.
On Monday, James was handed a cheque for $85,000. The donation came from seven auto dealerships via the CanadaOne Auto Group. And over the weekend, an event dubbed the Heavy Hockey Showdown took place at the Downtown Community Arena and raised about $28,000 for SACE.
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“We’re definitely going to put it towards our clinical team,” James said of the donations. “We already have a waitlist that’s sitting there of three to four months.
“We will reopen our intake process. We just had to catch our breath after last week and figure out the way forward.”
Anastasia Goddard, a marketing manager with CanadaOne Auto Group, told Global News that the way the auto dealerships banded together to help was “pretty incredible.”
“I think we all kind of have a personal story with it,” she said. “Everyone understanding how big of a deal this is and how much they need our help.”
The services impacted when SACE recently paused intakes included adult counselling, child and youth counselling, and some “core therapeutic groups.” James said SACE supports over 1,500 clients a year and offers vital services while not charging fees.
“We all know at least one person who has been impacted by sexual violence,” she said. “These people need the help. They deserve the help. When they don’t get the help and their trauma isn’t healed, they show up in other systems.”
James said the donations will make a “tremendous difference.”
“Community support like this is something that we don’t often get,” she said. “We’ve had so many people reach out to us, wanting to help in different ways: to write to our MLAs and our premier.
“But this coalition of the various car dealerships that work with CanadaOne Auto (Group), … we were blown away. … I think I actually shed a few tears when I saw the amount just continue to climb. I just don’t know how to express my gratitude.”
In an email sent to Global News last week, Daniel Verrier, the press secretary for Children and Family Services Minister Searle Turton, said while the grant requirements were met with the government’s “one-time $1.8 million grant in 2023 to address waitlists,” the province recognizes the role sexual assault centres have in supporting survivors.
“Budget 2025, if passed, invests more than $88 million for prevention of family and sexual violence, which includes $15.3 million, an increase of $1.5 million, for sexual assault centres across the province,” Verrier wrote.
“Alberta’s government continues to be on track to meet our mandate commitment to invest $10 million over four years for sexual assault centres. We will continue to work with sexual assault centres, child advocacy centres and sexual violence agencies to ensure this funding goes where it is needed most.”
–with files from Lisa MacGregor, Global News
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
