Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre receives federal funding to help build new facility

The federal government has given the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre nearly $5 million to build a new facility in Halifax.

The Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre was forced to relocate from its home on Gottingen Street to a temporary site on Brunswick Street where the funding announcement was made Thursday.

But the goal is to build a new facility at 1940 Gottingen St., the site of the former Red Cross Building.

The Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre has been actively looking for a new location to build a culturally safe space that would allow the organization to continue to provide its Indigenous support programming.

“You think you are on the right path and then something happens and the funding is no longer available or it’s for something else,” said Pamela Glode-Desrochers, executive director with the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre.

“We are so thankful for this first confirmed step in securing a safe and secure place for our urban Indigenous community.”

The federal funding is looked at as a first step in the process of building the new facility, which does not yet have a budget total, but could be anywhere between $35 to $65 million says Glode-Desrocher.

The next step for the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre is to work with the city of Halifax to secure the Gottingen Street property through a land transfer agreement with the city.

“The city has made some promises to us and I don’t think they are going to break those promises,” says Glode-Desrocher.

Halifax MP Andy Fillmore says the funding announcement is just a start and it’s important to build a place where Indigenous people can come together and celebrate their culture and history and access support programs.

“We now have enough to leverage further funding, so this is a big lever today, so that we can go forward and find the rest of the funding,” said Fillmore.

Glode-Desrocher says the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre is growing and they’ve been able to expand their services and support 7,000 Indigenous people a year.

“We went from 8 programs when I took over as ED [executive director] and that was about 13 or 14 years ago, and now we’re at 55 programs,” she said.

The Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre has relocated three times since it opened in 1972.

The centre now has a three year lease at a temporary space on Brunswick Street as their Gottingen location was deemed unsafe.

“The building was leaking, there was electrical issues and water running through the electrical,” said Glode-Desrocher.

Clearly there is more funding necessary but this is a starting point, said Glode-Desrocher, noting that she’s looking to leverage support and funding from all three levels of government.

“I think it’s going to be a real team project at all levels of government, to help us actually finish this project,” says Glode-Desrocher.