Friendship centres face budget cuts

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Five friendship centres could close down this year as organizers of the community-based organizations absorb deep cuts expected in the next federal budget, friendship centre officials say.

"We can't sustain these cuts. A lot of friendship centres will have to close," said Chris Corrigan, a policy analyst with the National Association of Friendship Centres in Ottawa.

"I'm not going to predict the decline of friendship centres, but it is going to be a real struggle."

Although official numbers are not yet available, national leaders of the friendship centre movement expect $2 million will be carved out of their budget this year. The cuts follow a 10-per cent reduction in the Secretary or State budget, which funds 105 centres across the country.

The current cuts - if as deep as expected - will kill off construction funding at five centres, which could lead to their closure, Corrigan said. Special programs, like access for disabled people and substance abuse programs, might not last the year.

Cutbacks will also expose the centre's core-funding if further budget reductions occur in 1994, Corrigan said.

The cuts follow spending reduction plans announced by federal Finance Minister Don Mazankowski in his so-called "economic statement," a mini-budget presented in December. The plan calls for further reductions in 1994. But those might not be implemented if the Conservative government is defeated in the next election.

"When you look at a 10 per cent cut, it means one position for a centre," national association president Laverna McMasters said.

"It really is hypocritical. Here's the year (International Year of the Indigenous People) when we are supposed to support people, and the government is cutting."

McMasters said her organization has started a campaign to have the centre exempted from the Secretary of State cuts but has had no indication whether the department will consider the proposal.

Native broadcasters, meanwhile, are looking forward to another difficult year

as they prepare for similar cuts to the 10-year-old Native Broadcast Access Program.

Budgets for Native radio and television stations were slashed by 16 per cent in 1990, when funding for newspapers was eliminated altogether. Despite the set back, broadcasters have been able to develop the Aboriginal Radio Network, which pools programming from seven regional networks. TVNC, a Native television network, also began broadcasting its signal last year.

The 1990 reductions slowed the growth of Native broadcasting and further losses could spell its end, said Brenda Chambers, head of Northern Native Broadcasting, Yukon, in a media release.

"A further 10-per-cent cut will jeopardize all we have worked for and may mean our efforts have merely amounted to a temporary stay of execution."