Thank you.
Atheihai, Christopher Sheppard, uvanga.
Good afternoon, committee. My name is Christopher Sheppard. I'm the president of the National Association of Friendship Centres. I want to recognize that I am joining you today from Saskatoon, which is Treaty 6 and the homeland of the Métis. I'm joined by Jocelyn Formsma, who is our executive director of the national association. We thank you today for the opportunity to appear before you.
The indigenous population in Canada is young, growing and largely urban-based. Our network is an indigenous self-determined response to the symptoms of urbanization experienced by indigenous people in Canada. Nationally, approximately 61% of all indigenous people are living in urban settings.
Friendship centres are known within urban indigenous communities for creating much-needed support structures that are not available anywhere else. There are extensive culturally relevant supports programs and services, and we create safer and welcoming spaces for indigenous people in urban settings. These services span a range of areas, including health, housing, education, recreation, language, justice, employment, economic development, culture and community wellness. As a result, indigenous people build their socio-economic status and feel a greater connection to the urban indigenous communities that they call home and reside in or visit.
Friendship centres also do outreach and partnership development with the broader public, community organizations, municipalities and governments to foster better understanding of indigenous history and circumstances. This work fosters greater anti-racist understanding and acceptance of indigenous people in urban settings.
How we're presenting our work today is around the budget that was just presented and some of the peripheral COVID-19 pieces that we've seen in the past. We're pleased with some of the commitments made for first nations, Inuit and Métis people; however, the 2021 federal budget falls short with respect to urban indigenous people, communities and organizations.
While we recognize the historic investment in indigenous communities, we believe the federal government missed an opportunity to announce investments specifically for urban indigenous people. The 2021 budget was tabled as the country navigates out of over a year of uncertainty and worry, in which indigenous communities have been disproportionately affected.
The NAFC actively sought a response from the federal government that factors in the unique challenges indigenous people face in urban areas.
This year's budget included the expansion of aboriginal head start, the indigenous community support fund and indigenous early learning, as well as funding for anti-racism initiatives, health navigators and Jordan's principle workers. While we are encouraged to see the investments for indigenous communities and organizations in expanding aboriginal head start, employment and training, and justice, we're disappointed that there were few specific investments for urban indigenous people. As the largest network serving the largest percentage of indigenous people in Canada, we were hoping for some recognition of the importance of this community and their critical work.
The Government of Canada has adopted a distinctions-based approach to its federal policy-making and decision-making. “Distinctions-based” means the three federally recognized indigenous groupings in Canada: first nations, Métis and Inuit. While commendable, and the distinctions-based approach was intended to remedy the previous pan-indigenous, pan-aboriginal or one-size-fits-all approach to indigenous policy-making and decision-making, our experience has been that it also excludes urban-based and two-spirit LGBTQ+ people.
We advocate for urban service delivery. There needs to be an inclusive and balanced approach that also ensures that diversities are recognized and that the diverse needs of urban indigenous community members and 2SLGBTQ+ community members are met.
We welcome the budget's inclusion of the community services recovery fund and the continuation of the indigenous community support fund and the investment readiness program. These funds will be essential to building resilience in our network and among many other indigenous and non-indigenous charitable and non-profit service providers and social enterprises on the front lines of the pandemic and beyond.
The friendship centre movement stands ready to engage and to remain a strong national partner with the federal government to ensure urban indigenous people have access to every benefit for indigenous people announced in the 2021 budget.
While there is no direct mention of friendship centres and little mention of urban indigenous, there are numerous areas outlined in the budget proposals for which funds have been announced.
These include work regarding anti-violence and MMIWG, addressing anti-indigenous racism in health care, indigenous-led health care, children's programming, youth engagement, food security, social finance, access to justice, consultations on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, infrastructure, and housing and homelessness. The NAFC will continue its work to ensure that the largest and fastest-growing demographic of indigenous people in Canada, urban indigenous people, will benefit from every opportunity presented in the budget.
We thank you for your time and consideration. As always, we really look forward to your questions.