Federal budget falls short, says Indigenous language advocate
A provincial cultural organization says it expects Indigenous-language revitalization programs will have to be cut after funding commitments in this spring’s federal budget fell short of expectations.
Carla Lewis, chair of the Brentwood Bay-based First Peoples’ Cultural Council, said funding for language programs could be cut in half based on what Ottawa has budgeted for this year.
“There will definitely be less programming at the community level, jobs and projects will have to get scaled back or completely stop,” said Lewis. “This could have quite a significant effect.”
The federal government has committed $225 million over the next five years for the “vibrancy of Indigenous cultures and languages,” with $45 million per year going to Canadian Heritage for Indigenous language and cultural programs.
Lewis said that $45 million will be split between the provinces, and B.C. is likely to get less than half of it based on a funding formula.
Last year, the First Peoples’ Cultural Council received $40.3 million in federal funding, a figure the organization said is still about $29 million short of what is needed.
“If our main funder cuts [its contribution] in half, we’re potentially looking at a lot of the grants out to communities having to be cut back,” she said.
That means postponing, scaling back or cancelling community-level programming and cutting jobs for teachers, researchers and program coordinators, she said.
In a statement to the Times Colonist, Canadian Heritage noted it had worked over the past year with Indigenous groups to implement new funding models meant to give more control to Indigenous groups.
“This is consistent with the Indigenous Languages Act, which states that Indigenous peoples are best positioned to lead the reclamation, revitalization, maintenance and strengthening their languages,” the department said.
The statement did not address suggestions the budget has been trimmed, but pointed out Ottawa has directed $840.1 million since 2019 to support the communitybased efforts of First Nations, Inuit and Métis to reclaim, revitalize, maintain and strengthen their languages.
Lewis said the group is frustrated, as previous funding levels had allowed it to scale up, not just doing one-off classes, but starting to address all aspects of revitalizing and sustaining a language.
“Being able to get fluency at a big level back in our communities again is such a challenge, and now we have to cut back.”
In the past five years, since the Indigenous Languages Act was introduced and funding for languages increased significantly, B.C. has seen a 20 per cent increase in the numbers of people learning their language, Lewis said.
The work is difficult, as in some communities, there are only a handful — often only one or two — speakers left, she added. “The amount of work that’s required to get a language from one or two speakers back to fluency is tremendous, it’s generational work.”
According to the First Peoples’ Cultural Council — a First Nations-led provincial Crown corporation whose mandate is to help First Nations revitalize their languages, arts and culture — B.C. has the greatest diversity of First Nations languages in Canada.
There are 36 languages and more than 95 dialects across B.C.’s 204 First Nations. Half of all Indigenous languages in the country originate in B.C.
Lewis said languages are vitally important to First Nations, as they “hold our culture, history and ways of being.”
“We can’t over-emphasize the urgency of the situation and we can’t wait another five years to get the funding needed to breathe life into our languages that were stolen from us,” she said. “We need long-term, sustainable funding now.”