Finance committee  If you start building that dam, I'll help you build your workforce. That's what we do. We find out where the projects are in the long term. With the training that we do we train for specific jobs. We're not only doing the training; we're also providing them with counselling, appr

Finance committee  As I mentioned, you're looking at three different pillars on that. One is the hard to house. That just needs to be a facility so that they have a roof over their head, a place to go home to every night. Another part of it is for seniors and persons with disabilities. They can't a

Finance committee  We recognize that housing is the primary issue. We deliver programs pertaining to employment. One of the biggest issues we found, and it's a barrier for our students, is that they are homeless or they're couch surfing. We have predators in the community who target them, and so t

Finance committee  Right now we receive core funding from INAC, which is currently being held up. An increase in that funding would be significant. My local centre receives $137,000 per year, which is not enough to cover the staff, infrastructure costs, or anything beyond that, so what we do is app

Finance committee  It's interesting that you mention that. I actually was on a staycation in B.C. for 15 years, so I'm aware of many of the programs that are there. We have brought up the aboriginal BEST program. We haven't put it on yet, but we are working directly with them to set that up within

Finance committee  Absolutely. We deal with suicide on a regular basis. We're there for our clients, so we can satellite out from our other friendship centres straight across the north. As I said, we address all seven pillars of the anti-poverty strategy. We know our clients. We're the front-line

Finance committee  Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you on behalf of the Northwest Territories/Nunavut Council of Friendship Centres. The challenge posed for solutions can be summed up very easily. The friendship centre movement addresses all challenges with solutions, delivers programs