'Pretty devastating': Alberta charities cut language classes after Ottawa slashes funding
Social Sharing
Newcomers settling in Calgary face massive wait times to access free English classes, ranging up to a year, according to the Centre for Newcomers.
Now, due to federal funding cuts, the non-profit said those wait times could get even longer.
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has cut funding for some organizations offering Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) as Ottawa plans to start reducing immigration levels.
LINC classes are fully federally funded classes that help new arrivals learn to read, write, listen and speak in English.
Because of the funding change, the Centre for Newcomers has made cuts to its popular LINC classes — even though around 900 people are on a waitlist.
"I think it's pretty shocking news," said Charlie Wang, the interim CEO at the Centre for Newcomers. He spoke to CBC host Jenny Howe for this week's episode of This Is Calgary.
"Since the Afghan and then Ukrainian [crises], the waiting list for language programs has been fairly long," Wang said.
Bow Valley College, Maple Leaf Academy and Lethbridge Polytechnic have also announced they're scrapping their popular LINC classes.
Across the city, Immigrant Services Calgary says 6,199 new Calgarians were waiting for LINC classes as of April 2.
Language classes critical, say student, English teacher
Marite Rojas, who grew up in Bolivia, moved to Calgary just over two years ago. She waited for about a year before she got a spot in a LINC classroom.
"I [didn't] have a choice," she told Howe. "I tried to find another school where you had to pay, but if you don't work, [it's] expensive."
"If you cannot communicate with people … you are [isolated] for everything," she said. "You cannot go to the doctor and understand what the doctor said, you cannot open a bank account and read the contracts."
Rojas has passed some LINC classes but plans to continue studying English with the goal of eventually attending a post-secondary school.
Until the start of April, Maple Leaf Academy offered the classes for free, but the loss of government funding forced the school to shut down its LINC program.
"It's been pretty devastating. I'm at the school right now, but it's quite empty and there are fewer teachers, way fewer students," said Kevin Simpson, an instructor and e-learning specialist at Maple Leaf Academy in downtown Calgary.
Simpson said some former students arrived in Calgary planning to attend these classes, as part of their long-term plan for building a new life in Canada.
"You're teaching them, you're with them every day. You form relationships with people and then you give them this news and you can just see how much it affects them," he said.
"Language proficiency is pretty necessary for success in this society. And they are faced with a huge challenge that they, a month ago, didn't face."
In a statement, an IRCC spokesperson said funding to support newcomer settlement needs is up 4.2 per cent in 2024-25 from the previous fiscal year.
The funding available for supports, like LINC classes, depends on how many newcomers are expected to arrive in Canada.
"Since, according to the Immigration Levels Plan, fewer newcomers are expected in 2025-2027, available resources have been reduced to match this decrease, which has resulted in a reduction in service providers," the IRCC spokesperson said.
Next year, the annual number of newcomers issued permanent resident status will go from 500,000 to 395,000, then to 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027.
Calgary's Immigrant Education Society received an additional $450,000 in February to expand its free English classes programming — enough to accommodate five extra classes and an additional 125 students.
In an email, the non-profit said the funding is meant to bridge the gap created by the loss of other LINC programs in the city, but it "doesn't really make a dent considering the long wait times."
The Immigrant Education Society has around 2,500 new Calgarians on its waitlist. It can take upward of a year to access their classes, the charity said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Calgary Herald
9 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
UK says not involved in strikes on Iran, but supports outcome
Article content British military assets, including the key Indian Ocean airbase on Diego Garcia, have so far not played a role in President Donald Trump's attacks on key Iranian nuclear facilities, ministers said on Sunday. Still, UK officials said they received advance warning from Washington and Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave his tacit support, saying that Trump had 'taken action to alleviate' the threat of Tehran's weapons program. Article content Article content Article content Pressed during an appearance on the BBC whether the UK government thought the attacks were good, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, said their 'outcome' was. 'I wanted a different way to obtain this, but I cannot pretend to you that the prevention of Iran having a nuclear weapon is anything other than in the interests of this country,' said Reynolds, who was speaking for the government. Article content Article content Trump's strikes have put Starmer and other key US allies in a difficult position. While the British prime minister had urged to Trump to stick to the diplomatic path, he can little afford a public break with the UK's most important ally, especially while pursuing Washington's cooperation on trade and Ukrainian efforts to resist Russia's full-scale invasion. Article content Besides the immediate concerns about the showdown with Iran and its proxies engulfing more of the Middle East and disrupting energy markets, Starmer's Labour Party wants to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of his predecessor Tony Blair's support of the US invasion of Iraq more than two decades ago. Many in Labour blame that conflict with splitting the party and helping to usher in 14 years of Conservative government that only ended with Starmer's election last year. Article content Article content Participation in any further US strikes, such as allowing the Pentagon to launch bombers from British military facilities on Diego Garcia, would raise issues with echoes of the debate around Iraq. Such questions include whether the British government believed the threat posed by Iran's weapons of mass destruction poses a sufficient enough threat to allow an attack on under international law. Article content Although foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany held talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday, they were unable to persuade Tehran to make enough concessions to convince Trump not to go ahead. British officials including Starmer put the responsibility for the failure of diplomacy on Iran and urged Tehran to change tact. Article content 'Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat,' Starmer said in a statement. 'The situation in the Middle East remains volatile and stability in the region is a priority. We call on Iran to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis.'
Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
Mark Carney's minority government has an unexpected partner in the Conservatives — for now
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, left, and Liberal Leader Mark Carney talk following the English-language federal leaders' debate in Montreal on April 17, 2025. Christopher Katsarov The Canadia
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
New Texas law will require Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new law that will make the state the nation's largest to attempt to impose such a mandate. The bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, is expected to draw a legal challenge from critics who consider it an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. A similar law in Louisiana was blocked when a federal appeals court ruled Friday that it was unconstitutional. Arkansas also has a similar law that has been challenged in federal court. The Texas measure easily passed in the Republican-controlled state House and Senate in the legislative session that ended June 2. 'The focus of this bill is to look at what is historically important to our nation educationally and judicially,' Republican state representative Candy Noble, a co-sponsor of the bill, said when it passed the House. The Ten Commandments laws are among efforts, mainly in conservative-led states, to insert religion into public schools. Texas lawmakers also passed a bill that lets school districts provide students and staff a daily voluntary period of prayer or time to read a religious text during school hours. Texas' law requires public schools to post in classrooms a 16-by-20-inch (41-by-51-centimeter) poster or framed copy of a specific English version of the commandments, even though translations and interpretations vary across denominations, faiths and languages and may differ in homes and houses of worship. Supporters say the Ten Commandments are part of the foundation of the United States' judicial and educational systems and should be displayed. Opponents, including some Christian and other faith leaders, say the Ten Commandments and prayer measures infringe on others' religious freedom. A letter signed this year by dozens of Christian and Jewish faith leaders opposing the bill noted that Texas has thousands of students of other faiths who might have no connection to the Ten Commandments. Texas has nearly 6 million students in about 9,100 public schools. In 2005, Abbott, who was state attorney general at the time, successfully argued before the Supreme Court that Texas could keep a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of its Capitol. Louisiana's law has twice been ruled unconstitutional by federal courts, first by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles and then again by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also considers cases from Texas. State Attorney General Liz Murrell said she would appeal and pledged to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
