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From Wawataynews.ca  

M E M O R A N D U M

Funding Update

Wawatay received full confirmation of funding on Monday, August 9, 2010.  Unfortunately, Wawatay laid off 9 employees in order to ensure that the organization remains fully self-sustainable and operational until it receives its first payment from the funder as part of its responsibility to minimize spending and risk.  Wawatay urgently requires the funding to flow immediately to resume full communications services to its membership. During the interim, all main services (WRN, Wawatay News, Wawatay News Online) will be continuing, but with reduced programming and content due to the current situation.

With the risk management plan in place, Wawatay will continue to operate with as little risk and disruption as possible thus ensuring that the organization meets its mandate of preserving, maintaining and enhancing indigenous languages and cultures of Northern Ontario.

Background

Wawatay Native Communications Society receives annual funding from the Northern Aboriginal Broadcasting Program (formerly known as the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program) through the Department of Canadian Heritage.  Currently, this program has undergone internal changes in staffing and policies and procedures that have resulted in major delays for funding approvals.  The Department staff has stated that the funding proposal (submitted before the deadline at the end of January 2010) for fiscal year April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011 was in the assessment stage and could not provide any timelines when approval would take place.  

Operating 4 months into the fiscal year and delivering broadcast programs without any financial resources from Canadian Heritage, Wawatay had to implement a risk management plan to continue to provide its services to First Nations communities and to meet project deliverables.

We Need Your Support!

Political Support:
We need First Nation leadership to support Wawatay by encouraging politicians to contact the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, James Moore, to urge his office to expedite payments for Northern Aboriginal Broadcasting Program project recipients;

Contact your community leadership to encourage them to support Wawatay through the purchase of an Annual Membership; and/or

Write or contact your Member of Parliament.  You can find his/her contact information at www.parl.gc.ca.

Meegwetch.

Download the full memo

News Release from the office of Marilyn Wood

Wawatay needs assured funding - Effort is on to ensure the Aboriginal broadcast system survives budget cuts

Marilyn Wood, the liberal candidate for the federal Timmins-James Bay riding, is joining the effort to ensure continued funding for Wawatay Native Communications. Wood has issued a news release expressing concern that the federal government is slashing funding for non-profit organizations such as Wawatay.

"Wawatay Native Communications (WCNS) was left with zero funding for four months without any explanation. Just as its line of credit was running out and notices were being given to some its staff, and only after we started making inquiries last week, did word come that funding was likely," said Marilyn Wood. "This is no way to treat such a valuable organization and we want a written assurance from the Minister on when funds are forthcoming and that this will not be repeated."

WNCS serves 60,000 first nation people in 49 Communities across Northern Ontario with radio, web, newspaper and translation services and has received funding from the Northern Aboriginal Broadcasting Program for several years. It has operated for 36 years. Wawatay has a broadcast facility located in Timmins that serves Northeastern Ontario.

The Friends of Wawatay will be part of a wider national Northern Aboriginal Communications Support Group. As northern Ontario Liberal candidates worked to obtain the funding desperately needed for Wawatay, their Liberal MP colleagues discovered that several other organizations in the program across the country are in the same situation.

Members of the public are invited to join the group by sending their letters of support for Wawatay to marilyn@marilynwood.ca, and MPs will be raising the issue when parliament resumes in September. The group already sent a public letter to Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Minister Moore on Monday, urging him to intervene in Wawatay's case.

"Wawatay is an extraordinary resource for First Nations in Northern Ontario", said MP Todd Russell, "and by delaying its funding, what the Conservatives were really trying to do is to silence the voice of the Aboriginal people". Mr. Russell is the Liberal Party`s Critic for Aboriginal Affairs.

"The Wawatay funding crisis is unfortunately just the latest example of poor, backhanded treatment of valuable non-profit organizations by the Harper government", said MP Pablo Rodriguez, Critic for Canadian Heritage. "Since the Conservatives took power, non-profit organizations are constantly facing difficult financial situations. The Harper government simply has no vision when it comes to culture", he added.

MP Gerard Kennedy added that "this is another example of how the North is being consistently overlooked and forgotten about by the Harper government." Mr. Kennedy is the Critic for Infrastructure, Cities and Communities and he recently visited Timmins and did a segment on Wawatay radio.