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Youth threatened by funding cuts

“Stephen Harper is dividing the country”

JOHN THOMPSON

There will likely be fewer land trips for young Inuit around the Baffin region this year, due to funding cuts recently announced by the federal government.

These cuts were denounced on Friday, Oct. 6 in Iqaluit by about 25 employees from the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and the Inuit Heritage Trust, as well as other concerned Iqalummuit, who huddled against cold winds in front of the Government of Canada building on Friday, Oct. 6, holding placards with slogans like: “Suicide prevention - wasteful program?”

“He does not respect the agreement we made,” Meeka Kilabuk said of Prime Minister Steven Harper. “He does not respect our ways as Inuit.”

“It’s a shame,” said Sytukie Joamie, a director with QIA. “Steven Harper is not nation building ... he’s dividing the country.”

For the last three years, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association has tapped into a federal fund, called the Urban Multi-year Aboriginal Youth Program, to support land trips for youth in six communities around the Baffin region.

The funding is also used to support sewing programs in Iqaluit and Pangnirtung, which employ four or five women, who teach others, mostly young women, how to sew.

And last year the same fund was used to send young Inuit involved with the Baffin Regional Youth Council to Igloolik, for an annual general meeting.

Last year QIA received $439,092 from the fund. This year, that amount has been cut by $90,000.

With less money available now, QIA will have no choice but to cut back on these programs, said John MacDougall, director of social policy.

More worrying, he said, is the fact that QIA has not seen the first payment of this funding this fiscal year. He fears there may be more cuts to come, with more cuts expected to be announced in the next year.

“We’re wondering what’s around the corner,” he said.

Ericka Chemko, project manager for Inuit Heritage Trust, said her organization relied on another program to receive about $20,000 annually for a traveling archeological exhibit, which is presently in Manitoba.

IHT decided to apply for funding elsewhere this year, but Chemko said that after the funding cuts, they now have fewer options available.

In Nunavut, the group hit hardest by the recent round of federal cuts is the Nunavut Literacy Council, which used more than $250,000 in funding from the National Literacy Program.

Without that money, the organization now warns it may have to close its doors this spring.

During a telephone interview earlier this month, Nunavut’s education minister, Ed Picco, said that he and other education ministers from Canada’s provinces and territories have made a joint statement, expressing concern over the cuts to literacy programs.

“It’s a very big issue for us,” he said.

Picco said they’re asking for more information on what the federal government means when it says they plan to “re-invest” the expected $2 billion saved by the cuts over two years. “What does that mean?” Picco asked.

The Qulliit Status of Women Council did not receive funding from any of the cut programs this year, but it has in the past, said acting executive director Stephanie Williams.

If the cuts had come a year earlier, it’s likely that Qulliit would not have been able to tap into $100,000 in federal money to host a territorial symposium on violence against women, held in Iqaluit this January, she said.

“It’s like stepping backwards,” Williams said.

As well, the national organization Status of Women Canada has had $5 million cut from its administrative budget. And the federal government has said it will no longer support funding advocacy, lobbying or general research for women’s groups.

Qulliit is among many women’s groups across the country, under the Coalition of Provincial and Territorial Advisory Councils on the Status of Women, who plan to petition the government to reinstate funding for Status of Women Canada.

Protestors gather on the steps of Iqaluit's Government of Canada building to denounce the Tory government's recent funding cuts. (PHOTO BY JOHN THOMPSON)

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