[BCMA] DHCP cancellation notice and call to Advocacy

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

*apologies if you have received this message in duplicate*

Dear AABC members and heritage colleagues,

As you may have heard earlier this week, the Archives Association of BC
(AABC) and many other organizations were informed by Leslie Weir, Librarian
and Archivist of Canada, of significant funding reductions to Library and
Archives Canada (LAC). As part of the federal government’s 2025 Budget and
the Comprehensive Expenditure Review, LAC is required to implement a 15%
budget reduction over the next three fiscal years.

As a result of these cuts, LAC has confirmed the permanent cancellation of
the Documentary Heritage Communities Program (DHCP), in addition to further
reductions to Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP).

The termination of DHCP will eliminate approximately $1.35 million per year
in funding that supported community-based documentary heritage
organizations across the country. To speak directly, the AABC is currently
benefiting from this in the funding for our Indigenous Co-Trainer
position.  Over the past decade, the program invested around $15–16 million
in more than 400 projects. This helped organizations preserve, describe,
and share Canada’s documentary heritage, specifically in under-resourced
and emerging archival environments. This loss will have immediate and a far
reaching impact for the preservation and accessibility of many archival
communities and non-profits that relied on this funding.

The elimination of the DHCP continues a troubling pattern but sad reality
of declining federal support for archival development. The earlier
cancellation of the National Archival Development Program (NADP) in 2012
removed another longstanding funding option for archives, with the DHCP
being a program introduced to address that gap.

These decisions reduce the capacity of community-based organizations to
safeguard Canada’s documentary heritage, conduct outreach, and promote the
growth of fledgling archives. Sustained investment is essential to ensuring
that diverse histories are preserved and accessible to the public. If we do
not invest in the present to preserve our past, what can we hope for in the
future?

The AABC is currently drafting a letter from the Executive to the
Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Identity and Culture, as are many
organizations in the archival field. This is where we, the archival
community can come together to assure our voices are heard. Please see the
resources below shared by the Archives Society of Alberta in conjunction
with the Call to Action Package that the Association of Canadian Archivists
released.

*Suggested Actions*

- Write to the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and your MP about
why archives need a grant program. You can include in your letters protest
to the discontinuation of the DHCP program and reductions to ATIP. Letters
can be on behalf of your institution and on behalf of you as an individual.

- Invite your MP to your archives and if you receive a positive response,
spread awareness of what your archives does and how lack of grant funding
harms the archival program.

- Call your MP. Call the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture. Prepare
a message about how the lack of funding impacts your archives. This method
is the most effective, especially if many of us are calling. If you feel
uncomfortable, call during off-hours and leave a voicemail with your
prepared message.

Contact Information:

Hon. Marc Miller, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture

Marc.Miller at parl.gc.ca

House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0A6

Telephone: 613-995-6403
Find your MP contact information here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en


*Messaging *

Elements you can include in your messaging are the following:

1) Discuss a grant project your archives received either from NADP or DHCP
and how meaningful the grant was to you.

2) Archives bring the unique story of Canadians to life. Archives are
essential for Canadian identity and underfunding Canadian archival
institutions results in a lack of understanding our culture's uniqueness.

3) Remember to discuss something positive that you have accomplished and
how more funding can result in more amazing things. Do not lead the
conversation with negatives. Think about how your archives can make your MP
look good.

4) Archives provide a vital public service that assist Canadians in
building and sharing knowledge of their past and present.

5) Archives are a trusted source of information. In an era of
misinformation, AI and fake news, it is vital to resource reliable
information.

We also recommend that you look at the Call to Action Package that the
Association of Canadian Archivists released. The package includes messaging
templates.



Thank you,

Ross Gamble
President, 2026-2027
email: aabc.president at aabc.ca

~~~~

Lisa Glandt, MAS
Education and Advisory Services (EAS) Coordinator
Archives Association of British Columbia
email: aabc.advisor at aabc.ca
website: aabc.ca

I respectfully acknowledge that I work on the unceded, traditional and
ancestral territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh
(Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20260206/beea9edb/attachment.htm>