An Aboriginal group that assists First Nations with governance issues has seen its funding cut.

Earlier this week, the National Centre for First Nations Governance announced it had lost its annual funding from Ottawa.

The organization says it only has enough money to last until March of next year.

The loss comes on the heels of an announcement by the Native Women’s Association of Canada that its health funding has also been axed.

The National Aboriginal Health Organization recently learned it had lost all of its funding and will shut down its operations in June.

The First Nations Statistical Institute also had its funding slashed this year and will go out of business next year.

NDP Aboriginal Affairs Critic Linda Duncan says she is not sure why the Senate even bothers to listen to Aboriginal residents give testimony at committee hearings when it seems to be falling on deaf ears:

“And they’ve provided absolutely phenomenal expertise and testimony to supposedly advise the Senate.  And it makes you wonder what is the point of anybody even bothering to testify to that institution.”

Duncan adds the government seems to be balancing its finances on the backs of Canada’s poor.