N.B. 2SLGBTQ+ groups anxious over Ottawa’s silence on expiring funds

You can also see our two little mascots, Seamus and Gladys, which are the seagull and the pigeon. Very important when we're talking about St. John for there to be a seagull and a pigeon. My name is Hadil Ibrahim. We're here at the Chroma office in St. John and I'm the executive director of Chroma. So here we do three things. We do education for allies and people who want to better serve and support queer people. We do system navigation for queer people who are trying to figure out how to access services that are safe and effective. And we also do community connection events, so a supper club, a games night, just things to help people build a protective community. In October, about 45 queer-serving organizations from all over the country met in Ottawa for a day of action. And the goal was to meet with as many MPs and Senators as possible and impart the message that we need a renewed 2SLGBTQI plus action plan. Women and Gender Equality Canada is the federal body responsible for the action plan. It told CBC News it's reviewing the program and will share information about next steps at the appropriate time. But with the plan expiring in less than six months, younger advocacy organizations worry about the future. All of the organizations that benefited from this funding are now seeing this looming cliff of this end of this plan and the end of the funding in March. And right now we have no idea if the plan is going to get renewed, how much it's going to get renewed for, and what support there's going to be for organizations that basically were able to come up from the ground with the help of the original plan. There's been a huge anxiety for a long time. Yeah, we're really just, I mean, we're doing what we can and we're hoping for the best. And we're actually the only rights defense or advocacy organization for Francoqueer communities in Atlantic Canada. Altera Kaddi also traveled to Ottawa in October to lobby politicians for a renewed action plan. The group launched in 2023 as a direct result of the first round of funding. It shows you the direct impact of what the federal funding that looks into the right places, which means marginalized communities, can do. We launched Al Darakati and we couldn't have had this organization representing Franco-Queers in rural areas if it wasn't for that. for that.