Although the 2021 federal budget  allocates $200 million for an endowment fund dedicated to supporting Black-led charities and organizations serving youth and social initiatives, major decisions about  the  actual running of the fund are yet to be made.

In an interview on the weekend, Ahmed Hussen, minister of  families, children  and social development, pointed out that the decisions  about who will run the fund, how it will be run, who’s going to be on the board and how it will be managed going forward have not yet been decided.

“The fund is being set up but its execution is another chapter that has to be decided,” Hussen told The Caribbean Camera.

He said in matters of this kind, ” the easiest thing to do is to make all the decisions in Ottawa but I do not want to do that.

 “I want to be back in conjunction and partnership with the Black community and so we will be consulting with leaders of the  community across the country about how they would like this fund to be set up.

“And obviously we will take their views into consideration.”

The  budget  also proposes to provide $100 million in 2021-22 to the Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiative.

“We are trying to spread the message in terms of  building capacity in the Black community and how to go about accessing other government funding,” he said

 “And that’s is why government set up the Initiative,” he  explained.

Hussen also said Canada will spend 87 million dollars to set up a program to help racialized Canadian groups, including Black community entrepreneurs,  to access government contracts.

He also spoke about the Government of Canada’s commitment to create a Canada-wide early learning and child care system.

” We are spending 30 billion dollars over the next five years to set up  such a system  that is affordable, delivers high quality child care and is inclusive of all people, including Black Canadians, and is accessible to everyone including children with disability.”