OFIFC: 2025 Pre-Budget Submission

Press Release

The Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC) represents the interests of 31-member Indigenous Friendship Centres across Ontario. Census 2021 statistics indicate that most Indigenous people across Canada reside in urban and rural communities. In Ontario, 88% of Indigenous people live off reserve in towns, cities, and rural areas and are only expected to grow.

Friendship Centres play a critical role in creating opportunities for urban Indigenous people to exercise their rights to access culturally relevant programs and services that meet their needs where they live. They have a proven and extensive track record in managing physical and social infrastructure and contributing to the modern reconciliation era as decolonial spaces where relationships between Indigenous communities and settlers are made real in cities and towns.

Budget 2025 presents a new opportunity for the provincial government to leverage the expertise of Friendship Centres to uphold commitments to urban Indigenous communities and make immediate impacts on economic reconciliation. With this aim, we respectfully advance the following recommendations for Budget 2025.

The OFIFC recommends the following Budget 2025 investments:

1. Invest $30 million in annualized funding to improve core capacities of Ontario Friendship Centres and fulfill the life-essential duties. The province must do more for reconciliation and ensure vital services are not at risk.

2. Invest $38 million into expanding Friendship Centre prevention services to help address the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the child protection system.

3. To ensure Friendship Centres across Ontario have capacity to provide culture-based wraparound services that address urban Indigenous homelessness, the OFIFC is calling for new investments of $2.5 million annually to help Friendship Centres address the homelessness and housing crisis in Ontario right now.

4. Ensure member Friendship Centres have the capacity to provide support to expand critical Indigenous justice programming. Specifically, $4 million in funding to support and expand the Indigenous Community Justice Program, $3.5 million in funding to support program sustainability and expansion of the Naawageeshiigoong: Indigenous Youth Wellness Program, and $2 million in funding to support program sustainability and expansion of the Kizhaay Anishinaabe Niin program.

5. Secure a commitment to prescribing the Original Peoples Learning Centre (OPLC) an Indigenous Institute for the purposes of receiving funding and to grant diplomas, certificates, and degrees upon the OPLC receiving full accreditation from IAESC; the provision of a 5-year funding agreement to support OPLC program development, accreditation, and other institutional development activities; and invest $900,000 to support learning technology system implementation.

Access OFIFC’s Full 2025 Pre-Budget Submission Here: “2025 Ontario Pre-Budget Submission Press Release“

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