OttawaIt’s been a staple in the community for more than six decades, but a lack of funding has left Planned Parenthood Ottawa at a crossroads. Staff laid off, services reduced until more funding available Anchal Sharma · CBC News · Posted: Nov 05, 2025 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesLyra Evans stepped in as executive director of Planned Parenthood Ottawa in September, as the the organization grapples with financial challenges. (Michel Aspirot/CBC )In a small downtown office, Lyra Evans offers a young woman an array of sexual health resources, from educational pamphlets about sexually transmitted infections to information on abortion access. It’s like any other drop-in day at Planned Parenthood Ottawa, where community members can access free materials or supplies including condoms and pregnancy tests — with one exception. Evans, the organization’s new executive director, is the only staff member here. “Of our six frontline staff, we’ve had to lay off all six,” she said.It was the first of many belt-tightening measures the organization has had to make in the midst of what she called a “cash crisis.”Planned Parenthood Ottawa’s 2024 annual report shows it overshot its budget by nearly $100,000 in the last fiscal year. That’s due to an increasing demand for services like in-school education workshops and support for people seeking gender-affirming care, combined with stagnating funding, Evans said. She said the charity, which has been operating in Ottawa since the 1960s, gets the majority of its funds through government and community grants, and that many have not been renewed this year. LISTEN | All in a Day with Alan Neal:7:06Planned Parenthood Ottawa launches new gender-affirming programPlanned Parenthood Ottawa has launched a new program called ‘Affirm’ which offers emotional and system navigation support for people seeking gender-affirming care in Ottawa. Their brand-new Gender Affirming Care Navigator shares what the program offers community members.According to Dr. Trevor Arnason, Ottawa Public Health (OPH)’s lead medical officer, some of that funding comes through OPH. During a board of health meeting in September, he told committee members the health agency gave Planned Parenthood Ottawa $79,000 in 2024 to support increased programming, up from $45,734 in 2023. That funding remained at $79,000 in 2025, he said.The organization does not receive any core funding, according to Evans, but she said it expects to receive more grants in February.Until then, she said the organization will offer fewer services with the help of volunteers, and she said, in the near future, she hopes to rehire some staff who have recently been laid off. Healthcare providers express concern At September’s OPH committee meeting, some doctors in Ottawa expressed concern over the potential loss of services offered by Planned Parenthood — services they deemed necessary.Dr. Sukhbir Singh, the head of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Newborn Care at The Ottawa Hospital told members the hospital relies on Planned Parenthood Ottawa as an educational partner in the community. “For family planning or reproductive health, we need (Planned Parenthood Ottawa),” he said. Dr. Lesley Spencer, who specializes in women’s health at the Rideau Valley Health Centre in Barrhaven did not attend that meeting, but shares Singh’s concern.Dr. Lesley Spencer has referred patients to Planned Parenthood Ottawa for years. (Mathieu Deroy/CBC)Spencer told CBC she often refers patients to Planned Parenthood Ottawa for services like pregnancy options counselling and after-abortion care. Without qualified staff to run those services, she fears some of her most vulnerable patients will have nowhere to turn. “I know that there are a couple of religion-based places that do sliding scale counselling, [but] not everybody’s comfortable going to a religious … counselling service,” she said. Ottawa charity not alone Frederique Chabot. who heads the national Planned Parenthood federation, said the financial problems plaguing Planned Parenthood Ottawa are part of a larger trend. The executive director of Action Canada, the national federation, said she’s heard from sexual health centres across the country that are fighting to keep their doors open, all while demand for their services is on the rise. “It’s devastating,” she said. “I think people sometimes don’t really understand the role that organizations like Planned Parenthood Ottawa play in a healthcare ecosystem.”The organization is calling for the federal government to put pressure on health ministries across the country to provide enough financial support to keep these organizations going, she said.In the short-term, Evans hopes the community will come to the charity’s aid. “If the community turned around and said … they want to live in a city with a Planned Parenthood, and we saw an influx of individual donations or monthly donors, then we would be able to look at keeping everything exactly the way it was a year ago.” ABOUT THE AUTHORAnchal Sharma is a CBC journalist based in Ottawa. Send her an email at anchal.sharma@cbc.ca
Planned Parenthood Ottawa faces uncertain future amid ‘cash crisis’
