Election takes friendship centre off critical list

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/04/2017 (3135 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Indian and Metis Friendship Centre appears to have pulled itself back from the brink of collapse with the election of a new governing board.

The Manitoba Association of Friendship Centres reacted positively to the development the day after elections turned out the old board and brought in nine new community members.

MAC pulled the centre’s funding, some $370,000 a year in federal and provincial money, over issues related to the organization’s stability and its ability to deliver programs and services and then released a private letter to its board rebuking it’s service.

“In a community of (more than 72,000) urban indigenous people, Winnipeg deserves better from its friendship centre and we are dismayed by the current situation,” MAC president Muriel Parker wrote, scolding the board’s president in her Dec. 31 letter, released prior to the call for elections.

Friendship centres provide culturally appropriate programs and services to indigenous clients in Canada’s urban centres, many of whom have recently relocated from First Nations.

Years of high staff turnover and tension on successive boards all but crippled the centre, leading to allegations of mismanagement.

“I realize they have elected an new board which I’m extremely pleased about,” Parker said Wednesday.

“ I don’t know who the new board members are; they haven’t sent me a list of the names yet, but none of the previous board members were elected, which is what we were hoping for. We wanted a fresh start and our funders wanted a whole new board.”

The new board — temporary — members will set up a formal annual general assembly in June to elect a permanent panel.

The nine new board members have 30 days to submit criminal-record and child-abuse record checks to MAC before their appointments can be confirmed.

The board was expected to hold its first meeting Wednesday night to discuss arrangements to meet with MAC.

The Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg selected an impartial community leader to supervise the election Tuesday. Doors opened at 6 p.m. and there were 96 registered friendship centre members plus dozens of other community residents who packed the Dufferin Avenue building.

Winnipeg has the highest per capita population of indigenous residents of any city in Canada. The Friendship Centre is the oldest in Canada, and it celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca