Put on by the Regional Association of West Quebecers (RAWQ), the classes had been offered to hundreds of residents of the Outaouais for free for the past three years. The multiple sessions were offered each year, with classes at multiple skill levels being offered in Shawville, Aylmer and Wakefield. The local classes had . . .

roughly 40 students per session, with roughly 200 at any given time across the whole region.

Program coordinator Jeanne Nivischiuk said that the program had been funded through a recently modified grant program called the FARR. The RAWQ initially applied for funding in 2018, and were approved for a two year extension.

“Every year we submitted an application to grow our grant, that’s what led to the initial two year extension,” she explained. “Fall 2019 we applied to grow the program, we were denied then.”

Overall, the three-year program was funded $168,000 through the FARR.

“The priorities of course change, the provincial governments change and those things…. have a very big impact on local programs,” Nivischiuk said. “While we might be able to receive funding from FRR in the future, they told us that since we had been funded for a language program that we would not necessarily be funded again for a language program.”

Valerie Twolan-Graham resides in Bristol and said she was surprised that such a popular program had been discontinued so abruptly. She had initially been on a waitlist before getting into an introductory class.

“There was some discussion when people started to ask how they would register for the next level and there was some discussion about some delays with funding and we got the email this week that the courses are finishing this week,” she said in a phone interview on March 16. “I had my last one last evening. The email just came out, I believe on Monday morning we got it. I know in my class … we were all so disappointed to find out that we wouldn’t be continuing as a class, because our understanding was that we were going to be able to continue as a group of participants to the next level. Then suddenly you just find out there’s nothing.”

Nivischiuk also acknowledged that the classes had been popular and said that she was hopeful that they would continue later this year.

“We are currently looking at other funding avenues so that we can continue the program because we know how important it’s been,” she said. “[It’s] enormously popular and we know how important it is to [the] English-speaking community here in the Outaouais.”

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