'Pretty devastating': Alberta charities cut language classes after Ottawa slashes funding
CBC
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.
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.
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