2026 Pre-Budget Submission Partnering with Friendship Centres to empower urban Indigenous Peoples to build a strong, resilient and inclusive Canada Written submission to the Department of Finance Canada Recommendation: $25 million over five years as an additional targeted investment to build cross-government delivery partnerships through the Friendship Centre network. September 8, 2026 *FORMAL SUBMISSION*
Partnering with Friendship Centres to empower urban Indigenous Peoples to build a strong, resilient and inclusive Canada
Executive summary Friendship Centres are national service-delivery infrastructure. They are Indigenous-owned and operated community hubs that turn public investments into practical outcomes: people housed, workers trained, families supported, evacuees received, survivors protected and communities connected to culturally grounded services. The National Association of Friendship Centres represent 125 active Friendship Centres and seven Provincial/Territorial Associations. Friendship Centres support nearly one million Indigenous people each year through more than 3000 programs, with over 4,300 staff and 12,000 volunteers. The Government of Canada’s March 2026 commitment of $168 million over five years for Urban Programming for Indigenous Peoples provides welcome stability and builds on $27.5 million in annual funding. The investment protects the operating foundation of the movement; it does not, by itself, finance the targeted expansion required to deliver new cross-government priorities. NAFC therefore recommends that Budget 2026 provide $25 million over five years, beginning in 202627, as an additional targeted investment. The envelope would enable co-designed federal partnerships in five areas: housing and community infrastructure; employment and skills; gender-based violence; emergency management; and Indigenous-led AI and data capacity. Recommendations: 1. Targeted partnership investment. Provide NAFC with $25 million over five years ($5 million annually) to design, launch, coordinate and evaluate cross-government delivery partnerships through the Friendship Centre network. 2. Housing and community infrastructure. Create a dedicated Friendship Centre pathway within Build Canada Homes, the Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy and the Build Communities Strong Fund to support shovel-ready projects. 3. Employment and skills. Establish NAFC as a national delivery partner under Team Canada Strong and the Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund, including funding for wraparound supports that help participants enter, complete and retain training and employment. 4. Gender-based violence. Provide multi-year funding for culturally grounded prevention, safety planning, survivor support and navigation for Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people in urban communities. 5. Emergency management. Add NAFC as an eligible partner in the Humanitarian Workforce Program and establish a standing mechanism to resource Friendship Centres that receive and support Indigenous evacuees, including those displaced from their home reserve communities. 6. AI and data. Create a formal partnership with the federal AI and digital innovation portfolio to modernize service delivery, strengthen cybersecurity and data capacity, and uphold Indigenous data sovereignty. Why this matters for Budget 2026 Canada’s Indigenous population is young, growing and increasingly urban. The 2021 Census counted more than 1.8 million Indigenous Peoples, including 801,045 living in large urban centres; 65.1% of Indigenous Peoples were of working age. 1
National Association of Friendship Centres’ Formal Submission to the Department of Finance Budget 2026 pre-budget consultation
That demographic reality makes Friendship Centres directly relevant to the government’s stated Budget 2026 objectives of economic growth, affordability, workforce development, sovereignty and resilience. Friendship Centres do more than refer clients to programs. They provide the practical supports - childcare, transportation, housing navigation, food, culture, trauma-informed care and community connection - that determine whether a person can begin training, keep a job, remain safely housed or recover from crisis. NAFC is also a proven national intermediary. It can translate federal priorities into local delivery while maintaining national accountability, strong data standards and community control. That combination of scale and trust is difficult to reproduce through one-off project calls. The fiscal proposal Budget 2026 should provide NAFC with $25 million over five years, beginning in 2026-27. The proposed profile is simple and predictable: Fiscal period 2026-27 to 2030-31
Annual investment $5 million per year
Five-year total $25 million
The $25 million envelope is approximately 15% of the recent five-year UPIP renewal. It is an additional targeted investment in new priority partnerships. It would fund national program design, local readiness and pilots, coordination, shared tools, training, data and evaluation. Capital construction, major housing projects and other large-scale program or project costs would continue to flow through the responsible departmental programs. This distinction makes the proposal fiscally disciplined while allowing Friendship Centres to unlock and improve the impact of existing federal investments. Priority 1 - Housing and community infrastructure The federal government has committed close to $1.7 billion through Build Canada Homes for urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing providers, while up to $300 million remains available through Indigenous Services Canada for urgent projects in the current pipeline. The Build Communities Strong Fund’s Local Impact Stream also recognizes Indigenous-led not-for-profit organizations as eligible applicants and, in regional delivery, allocates 10% of the stream budget to Indigenous community infrastructure. Friendship Centres should have a clear, dedicated pathway into these investments. Many centres operate from aging or inadequate facilities while also delivering housing navigation, transitional supports, shelters, youth services, training and culturally safe gathering space. A housing-only lens can therefore miss the community infrastructure that makes a housing investment work. Budget 2026 Direction • Name Friendship Centres as eligible partners across Build Canada Homes and Build Communities Strong Fund delivery. • Maintain at least a 10% Indigenous allocation within direct-delivery community infrastructure envelopes and create a transparent Friendship Centre access pathway within that allocation. 2
Partnering with Friendship Centres to empower urban Indigenous Peoples to build a strong, resilient and inclusive Canada
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Recognize NAFC as a standing collaborator and national interlocutor in Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy implementation, including the identification and advancement of shovel-ready projects. Fund pre-development and project-readiness work so that smaller and northern Friendship Centres are not excluded simply because they lack engineering, design, financialmodelling or application capacity.
Priority 2 - Employment and skills Team Canada Strong is intended to recruit, train and hire 80,000 to 100,000 new Red Seal trades workers over five years, backed by major Government of Canada investment. The Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund is designed to grow proven workforce models and build talent pipelines through partnerships among employers, training providers and post-secondary institutions. Friendship Centres are natural delivery partners. They reach people who may not enter or complete mainstream training because of housing instability, transportation barriers, caregiving responsibilities, trauma or a lack of culturally safe support. The network can also connect national workforce priorities to the needs of local employers and major projects. Budget 2026 Direction • Direct Employment and Social Development Canada to establish an NAFC delivery partnership under Team Canada Strong and the Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund. • Support pilots that combine occupational training with childcare, transportation, housing navigation, cultural support, employment readiness, job placement and retention services. • Enable NAFC to aggregate employer and regional partnerships so that smaller Friendship Centres can participate in major-project and skilled-trades opportunities. • Use shared outcome measures developed with NAFC, including enrolment, completion, certification, placement, retention and participant well-being. Priority 3 - Gender-based violence Friendship Centres are often the first trusted point of contact for Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people experiencing or fleeing violence. They provide culturally grounded support while connecting people to housing, income, health, justice and safety services. Short-term project funding does not match the continuous nature of this work. Budget 2026 Direction • Provide multi-year funding, delivered with Women and Gender Equality Canada and Indigenous Services Canada, for Friendship Centre-based prevention, safety planning, survivor support and navigation. • Align funded activities with the National Action Plan on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People while allowing communities to design responses around local realities. • Make housing stabilization, transportation, childcare, cultural supports and service navigation eligible costs so that funding addresses the barriers survivors actually face. Priority 4 - Emergency management and community resilience The federal Humanitarian Workforce Program has been renewed at $108 million over three years. It currently funds five national non-governmental organizations to maintain scalable civilian response capacity. 3
National Association of Friendship Centres’ Formal Submission to the Department of Finance Budget 2026 pre-budget consultation
Friendship Centres are already part of Canada’s emergency response reality. At least 30 centres across Canada have recently provided frontline support after fires or floods, including reception intake, food, clothing, navigation, temporary shelter and culturally safe services. Yet Indigenous evacuees who arrive in urban communities can fall between on-reserve federal programs, provincial systems and municipal response structures. Local centres may provide essential support without a reliable or pre-existing funding path. Budget 2026 Direction • Make NAFC eligible for the Humanitarian Workforce Program as a national Indigenous response partner, with capacity-building and deployment funding comparable in purpose to existing humanitarian partners. • Create a standing reimbursement and rapid-advance mechanism for Friendship Centres supporting Indigenous evacuees and other people displaced by wildfires, floods or severe weather. • Fund training, logistics, communications, equipment, national coordination and culturally grounded psycho-social support through the proposed five-year NAFC envelope. Priority 5 - Indigenous-led AI and data capacity Canada’s 2026 AI for All strategy identifies public trust, shared prosperity, improved public services, skills and partnerships as central pillars, and states that implementation depends on collaboration with Indigenous partners. Friendship Centres need the capacity to use digital tools safely and effectively while preserving Indigenous control over data. The NAFC’s existing Bridging Across Canada data platform and national data strategy provide a foundation, but modernization requires sustained investment in governance, cybersecurity, workforce capability, interoperability and responsible AI adoption. Budget 2026 Direction • Establish NAFC as a formal Indigenous partner in implementing AI for All in community service settings. • Fund a co-designed modernization program covering data governance, cybersecurity, digital service pathways, staff training, responsible AI pilots and outcome measurement. • Make Indigenous data sovereignty, privacy and transparency conditions of every funded initiative. • Use the Friendship Centre network as a practical test case for inclusive AI that improves public-facing services without replacing human, culturally grounded relationships. Conclusion The recent UPIP renewal stabilizes a national network that Canada already relies on. Budget 2026 should take the next step: use that network as a delivery partner for the government’s economic, housing, safety, resilience and innovation priorities. A $25 million, five-year targeted investment is modest relative to the scale of the opportunity. It would help federal programs reach communities faster, prepare more projects, connect more Indigenous people to training and work, strengthen supports for survivors and evacuees, and ensure that digital modernization proceeds with Indigenous leadership and trust. Friendship Centres are ready to partner. NAFC recommends that Budget 2026 provide the enabling investment and the cross-government mandate required to turn that readiness into measurable results. 4