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Communities protest loss of healing programs
Aboriginal Healing Foundation's funding runs out March 31

Emily Ridlington
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, March 18, 2010

NUNAVUT - Three communities in the Baffin region held demonstrations March 15 to protest the federal government's decision to dissolve the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, which provides funding for community-based healing initiatives addressing the legacy of residential schools.

NNSL photo/graphic

A bird's eye view of the demonstration outside the Pujualussait Centre in Pangnirtung. Approximately 250 community members held hands and circled the centre to support the centre whose funding from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation will be cut March 31 because the federal government has not renewed the foundation's funding. - photo courtesy of David Kilabuk

"Should this funding not go on, I think this is a sad day for Inuit and aboriginal people across Canada," said Elisapi Aningmiuk, program co-ordinator of Iqaluit's Tukisigiarvik Centre.

The Tukisigiarvik Centre, the Ilisaqsivik Society in Clyde River and the Pujualussait Centre in Pangnirtung all receive multi-year funding from the AHF to run programs. Funding from the AHF will run out March 31.

Aningmiuk told those who came to show their support at the demonstration that she is hoping the centre will not have to close. Since its opening in 2003, the centre has helped individuals learn language and cultural skills lost during the time residential schools were in operation.

Anyone 60 years old or younger has been affected by the residential school system, she said, and many inviduals have told her how important the centre's programs are. The centre employs five full-time staff and 40 to 45 people annually on a part-time basis to help deliver some of the programs.

The centre has received its core funding from the AHF for the last six years. The GN pays for the building. The funds from the AHF are used to pay for the utilities, staff salaries and for programs.

Amingmiuk said that after March 31, the centre will remain open but with reduced programming. She said they will try to secure funding from other sources.

The AHF was established on March 31, 1998 as part of the federal government's response to the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The federal government provided the foundation with $350 million to spend over 11 years. In 2005, Ottawa committed an additional $40 million. In 2007, the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement provided another $125 million to extend the foundation's mandate by five years, however the foundation had commitments to healing programs totalling $41 million a year. That meant the money was only enough to extend its programs by three years, from March 2007 to March 2010.

In its 2009 annual report, the foundation's board of directors urged the government to make sure some kind of healing programs are in place in communities while the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission conducts its hearings over the next few years, which is likely to increase the need for healing support.

The head office of the AHF in Ottawa will remain open until September 2012, said AHF’s director of communications Wayne Spear. He said at that point only two or three staff will be working in the office disposing of assets and shutting down the corporation. Despite the funding cuts, 11 AHF-funded healing centres across Canada will remain in operation until March 31, 2012. None of the centres are located in Nunavut.

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA) helped to organize the demonstrations in the three communities. It is encouraging people to sign a petition and to contact Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq to voice their concerns.

"We have been playing wait and see for the last three or four weeks and we have waited long enough," said QIA president Okalik Eeegeesiak.

She said cutting programs such as those funded by the AHF does not help Canada and that the government is taking a step backwards.

At the demonstration in Pangnirtung, 250 members of the community came to show their support, according to Madeleine Qumuatuq, a resident who helped to organize the demonstration at the Pujualussait Centre. They included students and elders who braved a blizzard to attend.

She said all of the funding for the centre comes from the AHF and the money is used to cover operational costs, maintenance and upkeep of the building, which is loaned to the centre by the hamlet, and to run the healing programs. Qumuatuq said the centre will have to close at the end of the month and that staff are starting to write their final reports.

Approximately 250 people, or one quarter of Clyde River’s population, turned out to the demonstration at the Ilisaqsivik Society building. The society has had a presence in the community for the last 13 years. In addition to losing the programs and services at the society, the loss of AHF funding will have a huge economic impact on the community, executive director Jakob Gearheard said.

Gearheard said the society currently employs five full-time staff and five part-time staff. In addition, 15 to 20 seasonal workers are hired for things such as land-based healing programs. In 2009, the society received one quarter of their annual operating budget from AHF. If the federal government does not extend the healing foundation's mandate, he said he will have to start laying off seasonal workers.

Instead of spending his time planning programs, Gearheard is submitting an average of two proposals a week to secure funding for the society from other sources. He stressed the society is not going to give up just because the AHF won’t be there.

"We're not going to disappear I hope and we will continue to fight for funding," he said.

The funding from the AHF is multi-year unlike other types of funding. Gearheard said it gives communities the chance to find their own healing path and that it allows the community "the freedom to design their own healing journey."

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