Former Calgary Flames player turned author, Theo Fleury, says he is shocked at the province’s lack of support for treatment centre to help sexually-abused children.

Edmonton-based organization, Little Warriors, said they had been told by the Government of Alberta that there was no money available for the Be Brave Ranch project.

However, Fleury says the government needs to deal with the reality of child sexual abuse.

“There are 8 million survivors of child sexual abuse in this country,” he told CTV News.

“It boggles my mind why the government refuses to address this or even comment on it.”

Little Warriors founder, Glori Meldrum said she too was surprised at the government’s reaction.

“Priorities need to be our kids.  Provincial funding already goes to centres for rehabilitating sex offenders, but what about the kids,” she asked.

Fleury took to Twitter to express his disappointment.

For Fleury the issue is personal.

“It took me 27 years to come to grips with my own abuse and to go public and share it with everybody.”

He is even planning a fundraiser called Victor Walk.

Meldrum said she intended to move forward with the project.

“I'm happy and Little Warriors is happy to do the work to get this done but we need help,” she explained.

“The public has been there. We're going to need them more now because we're going to be short that amount of money.

“We're going to have to raise the money on our own to be able to do this.”

The government told media that the project was still being considered by Alberta Culture.

“The application for the Little Warriors ranch remains open with alberta [sic] Culture,” Spokesperson John Tuckwell wrote in an e-mail.

“Some additional information has been requested of Little Warriors before the application can be processed,” the e-mail explained.

Regardless of what the government decided, Fleury says he will continue his mission.

“We will continue to advocate. We will continue to fight for people who haven’t found their voice yet, and we will continue to fight for those kids that are being abused today.”

With files from Amanda Anderson