Halifax Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre gets $28.8 million from Ottawa for new build

HALIFAX — The federal government on Thursday announced an additional $28.8 million in funding to allow Halifax’s Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre to build a permanent new space in the city’s downtown.

The friendship centre offers more than 55 programs, including early childhood education, housing support, language training and harm reduction, and it is currently housed in a temporary location.

Pam Glode-Desrochers, the centre's executive director, said Thursday the proposed 70,000-square-foot building next to Citadel Hill will allow the friendship centre to ramp up programming that supports the growing population of urban Indigenous people in Halifax.

“The point is to build something that’s going to last,” Glode-Desrochers told reporters following the announcement.

The director said the new building will house the centre's existing programs, community gathering spaces and a new health clinic. She said they hope to eventually house a café and offer a “makerspace” where people can learn to make crafts and build.

“First and foremost, we’re going to make sure that language and culture is throughout the whole building,” Glode-Desrochers said. 

She said this project marks an “unparalleled turning point” towards reconciliation in the city.

The Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre supports more than 7,000 Indigenous people in Halifax and has moved three times since its 1972 opening.

The $28.8 million announced Thursday is on top of $4 million previously announced by Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version misspelled the last name of Pam Glode-Desrochers.