Feds commit $1.23M to local Indigenous groups to support youth sport programs

Ottawa is providing money to three local organizations to help get Indigenous kids and teens into sports.

Three local Indigenous sports groups are receiving more than $1 million through a federal government funding initiative.

Adam van Koeverden, Canada’s secretary of state (sport), announced in Edmonton on Monday that Ottawa is giving $1.23 million to the Indigenous Sport Council of Alberta, the Creating Hope Society and Tribal Chiefs Ventures Incorporated to support their programs. All three organizations work with Indigenous youth to get them involved in sports and physical activity.

“Meeting with community groups today here at this amazing facility, it was reinforced to me and reemphasized how far these investments really go in the community,” van Koeverden, a four-time Olympic swimmer and gold-medallist, said Monday at the Edmonton Soccer Dome, site of the announcement.

“They keep programs going, they make sure that they’re year-round, they get the money right back into the community at facilities like this, (but) most importantly, it supports young people, their goals, their dreams, their development.”

The funding comes through the Sport for Social Development in Indigenous Communities program, which sees Ottawa giving $22.8 million to Indigenous groups across the country for programming from 2026-28.

Shannon Dunfield, the chair of the Indigenous Sports Council of Alberta, says the funding will help more people access its programs.

“One of the things we always hear is sport saves lives,” she told media on Monday. When I think about Indigenous youth, and even when I think about myself when I was growing up and how sport had an impact on my life and kept me from spaces that weren’t healthy, I think how important it is for all Indigenous youth to have those opportunities."

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Brandon Lynch