Alberta organizations feel the beginning of federal budget cuts

Local Aboriginal organizations aren’t reeling from federal budget cuts – but that could be because they don’t have all the details.

“We don’t know yet. We have to go on faith right now,” said Lee Anne Ireland, executive director with the Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth in Calgary. “We apply (for funding) in September or October and often times we have to run the programs blind from April to August and then we know if we got the funding or not.”

If that funding doesn’t come through, she said, USAY will be left scrambling to cover costs, which could mean cutting programs that have yet to be delivered as well as cutting staff. Seventy per cent of USAY’s funding is federal dollars, some of which comes through the Urban Aboriginal Strategy, which was renewed in the budget.

“If we have to cut programs, it would be really bad,” said Ireland.  USAY offers between 15-20 programs. “If they were to cut our funding, it would negatively impact our agency and the youth that we serve. Aboriginal youth experience barriers to success in our communities and it would affect them potentially becoming healthy, sustainable adults, which is our mission.”

The budget brought down by the federal Progressive Conservatives in March saw programs slashed, including a 2.7 per cent cut to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. Aboriginal leaders said there was not enough money given to their primary concerns, such as education, family violence, and clean drinking water on reserves. In the weeks that followed, more specific cuts were announced. Those cuts included 2012-2013 becoming the final year of operation for the National Centre for First Nation Governance.

For the Aboriginal Leadership and Management Program at the Banff Centre the loss of the NCFNG means the loss of a valuable partner. Three years ago ALMP stepped into the area of research setting up four practise case studies on four wise-practise communities in Alberta and NCFNG was providing guidance, said program manager Anna Wowchuk.

“We’ve used them as faculty before, as experts in their field and we’ll really miss that kind of partnership,” she said. “Luckily our research ends in September, October, but several (of our projects) moving forward, it’ll have to (be) with private consultants.”

Wowchuk noted the ALMP will have to work with corporate partners in order to pick up that slack. It is corporate donors right now that pay tuition for participants to come to the Banff Centre in order to access programming.

However some of the organizations that turn to the ALMP for help are not so lucky as they depended on federal dollars in order to undertake projects.

“Some of our participants will put in funding for customized work that we do offer. They will put in for  grants themselves to look for government support,” said Wowchuk, who added that since the federal budget was brought down, a number of organizations that approached ALMP for work have had to pull back as their grants have been refused.

Wowchuk doesn’t expect loss of this type of work to impact her program staff, although it will mean a loss of income which will make it difficult to meet her budget.
Josie Auger, CEO of the Nechi Institute which is located in St. Albert, said she has been “keeping on top of the emails that have been coming” and as far as she can see, federal budget cuts do not impact her organization. However, she added, “I’m not sure if this includes post-secondary funding or not.”

Nechi Institute melds culture with health, providing specialized training to counsellors, health care workers, social workers, educators, community service agencies, government agencies, and other members of the helping professions.

Chief Rose Laboucan, of the Driftpile First Nation, said cuts in the federal budget will be felt.

“We’ve always worked within our means, but it’s getting harder to do that,” she said.