A national organization that represents over 100 service hubs for Indigenous people in urban centres says it doesn’t know how much federal funding it will receive next fiscal year.
“That’s scary for me, for friendship centres across Canada,” said Pamela Glode-Desrochers, president for the National Association of Friendship Centres as well as the executive director for Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre in Halifax.
“It’s all core social service programs that we’re doing and without it, that infrastructure, if that disappears tomorrow, we have community members who are going to be lost.”
Core funding for both the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) and Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres has been provided through the Urban Programming for Indigenous Peoples (UPIP) program since 2017.
The program is set to end in March 2026.
Glode-Desrochers said though funding is expected to continue, NAFC does not know what the program will look like.
“The uncertainty and not knowing the next steps is probably what’s really raising some alarms for friendship centres on the ground,” said Glode-Desrochers.
The 2021 Census reported over 60 per cent of Indigenous people in Canada were living in urban centres.
Friendship centres provide programming and services for Indigenous people in cities and towns. According to NAFC, friendship centres provide services that reach over 1 million urban Indigenous clients every year.
Glode-Desrochers said friendship centres become a home away from home for their clients.
“We’re their extended family. That’s where they’re going to come and see their aunties; that’s where they’re going to come and see an elder,” Glode-Desrochers said.
“It is a core infrastructure piece that we need to be investing in and not cutting back.”
Around 90 per cent of NAFC’s funding is through the federal government, which it then distributes to provincial friendship centre associations.
Celeste Hayward, executive director of B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, said not knowing the details on what’s to come has made it difficult to plan.
“We’re doing housing, we’re doing homelessness, employment and training is a big piece of what we’re doing, and we’re doing adult education. We’re doing justice programs. We’re doing end of life care,” said Hayward.
“No planning can start yet.”
The 2025 Federal Budget shows zeros in columns of the UPIP program after the end of the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
A statement by Eric Head, spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada, said there will be money for friendship centres next fiscal year.
“It is important to note that while funding from Budget 2024 will be exhausted, the program will not expire but, instead, will move to a new model of distribution for the ongoing annual program funding of $27.5 million,” said Head in the statement.
The statement added that the National Association of Friendship Centres and Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres will be the sole recipients of the $27.5 million program.
Budget 2024 promised $60 million over two years, starting in 2024-25, to support friendship centres. According to the federal government, UPIP provided over $70 million in 2024-25 to the network of 120 friendship centres across the country.
