Winnipeg program offering English language skills to newcomers has federal funding cut
'We're a lifeline and not only that but we're a community,' says Cindy Giesbrecht
A Winnipeg program that helps newcomers improve their English skills is on the verge of closing down.
The federal government is pulling its funding for the Enhanced Skills for Employment program, which operates out of Canadian Mennonite University by Feb. 1, 2025 — and possibly sooner — according to its executive director.
Louise Giesbrecht, executive director of the program, says she received a letter last week informing her that the federal funding, which is provided through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, will be shut off.
"We were absolutely shocked and when we informed our students, the response was devastating.... We're a lifeline and not only that but we're a community," Giesbrecht said Monday.
The program looks after about 1,000 students per year and is designed for people who are trying to better their English language skills, whether through speaking, reading, writing or listening classes.
Most students take between six and nine months to complete all courses, Giesbrecht said.
Many of them currently work in entry-level jobs, but have aspirations of using the education they came to Canada with to move into the jobs they want — working as accountants, doctors and information technology specialists.
"Gathering here at our school doesn't just provide all of the professional pieces that are needed for language development. It develops community, something that is essential for each of them," Giesbrecht said.
She told one of the students, a doctor who is working in the service industry, about the impending funding cuts and she was emotional.
"She cried. She put her head down and wept," Giesbrecht said.
The federal government, through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, provides the employment program with about $650,000 annually, which is 80 per cent of its funding.
A small amount of funding for eligible immigrants is also provided through the Manitoba government.
There are funding grants the employment program can apply for through Manitoba Settlement Support Services but the maximum amount that can be allotted is $450,000, and many other organizations are seeking a piece of that funding pie, Giesbrecht said.
Emotional impact
Giesbrecht estimates there's about 500 individuals on the waiting list and worries about the psychological impact shutting the program will have on them, as well as the current crop of students.
"You lose the will to go on. Your motivation decreases and it impacts just your whole sense of who you are," Giesbrecht said.
"Where are they supposed to go if all of those funds are being reduced dramatically or being closed?"
Giesbrecht says the letter from the government stated resources are needed for more vulnerable newcomers with fewer English skills, but cutting funding for programs like hers to achieve this is "incredibly short-sighted."
"They're going to languish in lower-level jobs. And you know, we haven't paid for their education, somebody else did. So here we have this gift of people who are highly-educated in skills that we need. But we're not giving them an opportunity or we are letting them languish," she said.
Giesbrecht said the program is "fighting for our life for our students."
The Official Opposition opened question period Monday asking the government about the impending federal funding cuts.
Provincial labour and immigration minister Malaya Marcelino is aware of the letter Enhanced Skills for Employment received from the federal government.
Her department passed along grant funding options the program can look at, but said the cuts will have a negative effect in Manitoba.
"Any reduced monies from the federal government to immigration programs, language programs has a very negative effect on newcomers and especially their ability to get jobs in their fields of study to acquire higher language skills needed for work and employment," Marcelino said.
"So anything like that is always just a pretty detrimental blow to newcomers in general."
WATCH | English-language school at risk of closing after feds pull funding:
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With files from Ian Froese