Thank you again for being here.
In British Columbia, the friendship centres have been struggling with lots of cuts in the last few years to their operating budgets, transfers from the federal government. It's straining the friendship centres and their ability to operate, especially the youth programs. They were totally cut, no funding for youth at all in Port Alberni.
They've been calling for long-term, stable funding just to operate core services, never mind more services. The Province of B.C. made a historic move and for the first time started partially funding the friendship centres on top of the federal transfers to fill the gap, to take some pressure off the friendship centres.
Is this something you're hearing across the the country, around the cuts and around the need for long-term stable funding? What resources would you need to support our veterans and provide new programs?