Lac La Biche centre desperate for funds

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Lac La Biche, Alta.

Help may be in the wings for a financially strapped friendship centre in northern Alberta which is on the verge of closing its doors.

William Landstrom, president of the Lac La Biche Native Friendship Centre, is optimistic about getting much needed funding from Alberta Municipal Affairs despite the fact that

friendship centres are a federal responsibility.

At press time, Landstrom planned to meet Sept.. 8 with Dennis Surrendi, assistant deputy minister of the improvement districts and Native services' division.

Since summer, the Lac La Biche centre has been operating on skeleton hours, because of the cash crunch.

"We just have enough to pay for rent and for the telephone until we get some funding."

Landstrom said it looks encouraging that the province might jump in and fund his centre for at least a year. The centre needs $88,000 to operate its community action centre.

"It sounds good," said Landstrom hopefully, after preliminary talks with Surrendi.

"He (Surrendi) figures a friendship centre is a good thing."

Landstrom said the centre's board had earlier applied to the Secretary of State for $90,000 to hire a director, a secretary, a referral worker and a program co-ordinator.

But there hasn't been any movement from the federal government on that application.

Volunteers and board members are discouraged, Landstrom said.

"The board members are kind of starting to slip away. They've volunteered so many hours. They figure it's not going to come about. They've kind of given up," he said.

Landstrom said the Lac La Biche centre will hang on as long as possible operating with minimal funding.

"We'll stick it out as long as we can keep going. But if nothing comes about, we'll shut the place down. That's the only thing we can do," he said.

Officials have taken money out of their own pockets to keep the centre operating, he said.

Landstrom, who was elected its president in April, noted it took 10 years to get a friendship centre in Lac La Biche and after operating for just three years, it's come close to

folding.

An $8,000 grant this summer from Alberta Native Services' bailed the organization out, allowing it to pay five months of unpaid rent on the office and other bills, he said.

The Lac La Biche centre is one of several in the province whose future has been in limbo since March 1988 when the federal government placed funding for new and

developing centres on hold, according to Karen Collins, co-ordinator of the Alberta Native Friendship Centres' Association.

Volunteers at other friendship centres around the province are also getting discouraged and feel burned out, according to Collins who is also president of the National

Association of Friendship Centres.

The secretary of state, which funds friendship centres, is still reviewing the program. A study prepared for the department tabbed 'Criteria for Location of Native Friendship

Centres' is currently being reviewed by the Alberta Native Friendship Centres' Association.

Friendship centres across the country, which are all in the same financial straits, have conducted a letter writing campaign to drum up support.

They've also garnered the backing of MPs and MLAs wherever they're located, said Collins.

The board will meet this month to review what steps to take next, she said.