Friendship centres want exemption from funding cuts

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The National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) wants an exemption from the federal government's funding cuts to Native programs.

Executive director Terry Doxtator said friendship centres across the country will not be able to offer the current level of service if government funding drops.

"The effects of cuts right across the board are layoffs, reduced services to communities and creating more reliance on volunteers," he said.

The federal government announced last month that funding for the Aboriginal Friendship Centre Program would be cut 10 per cent for the 1993/94 fiscal year, reducing NAFC revenues by almost $2 million next year.

The cuts will be made to core the program funding, Doxtator said. The proposed reduction comes in the wake of Finance Minister Don Mazankowski's "economic statement," the December mini-budget designed to stimulate economic growth.

The 99 Native friendship centres located across the country are funded by the Department of the Secretary of State through the Aboriginal Friendship Centre Program. The money provides for services such as food and lodgings, counselling and social work, employment and training and substance abuse programs.

Secretary of State Monique Landry said she sympathizes with NAFC's predicament, but more money is not available.

"I realize how important these centres are to the community," she said. "These people will have to try to do as much as they can with less."

Landry said her department suffered 10 per cent cuts in almost every area and no particular program could expect to be exempt.

But Doxtator still hopes to meet with her in mid-March to work out another arrangement.

"We are going to encourage her to change her mind," he said. "We want the exemption. Friendship centres are not going to take these cuts lying down."

Doxtator said NAFC representatives failed to reach an agreement with federal officials in January over how the funding cuts would be made. As a result, the department decided to apply the cuts equally between core and project funding, he said.

They wanted us to cut our own throats."

Every dollar of government funding "produces the ability" to get an additional $2.70 from other sources, Doxtator said.

"It reduces our ability to get more money from contracts from provincial and territorial governments and from fund-raising."

Friendship centres employ approximately 1,300 people and rely on at least twice

as many volunteers to stay in operation.