Tories Defend Aboriginal Languages Initiative

Tories Defend Aboriginal Languages Initiative

Friday, April 13, 2007 at 14:59

A federal minister says she is confident enough money has been earmarked for the preservation and promotion of Aboriginal languages.

Yesterday, Ottawa announced it is giving the Gabriel Dumont Institute $125,000 to help it teach classes on the Michif language.

The money will be used for children’s books, the development of teachers’ programming and long-term language systems.

The funding is coming out of the government’s Aboriginal Languages Initiative, which provides $5 million annually for programming.

Last year, Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda erased an older plan by the previous Liberal government to spend $172 million over 10 years on Native language programming.

However, Skelton says she’s confident there is enough money in the new formula to get the same results.

Skelton adds the government intends to get the funding announced yesterday to G.D.I. as soon as possible.