Funding cuts impacting Alberta Heritage
By Lethbridge Herald on March 25, 2026.
Editor,
I am writing in my capacity as the President of the Lethbridge Centre of the Archaeological Society of Alberta, one of the six ASA centres in the province. The recent provincial budget brought with it devastating news for Alberta Heritage. Three of the Provincial Heritage Organizations, including my society, the Archaeological Society of Alberta, as well as the Historical Society of Alberta, and the Alberta Genealogical Society, were all stripped of their funding in its entirety. The amount of money that each organization receives from the government is inconsequential to the provincial budget as a whole. The Archaeological Society, for example, receives $29,000 a year to run all of its operations and programming across all six of its centres, of which the ASA Lethbridge Centre is one. This small amount of money is leveraged quite successfully to mobilize volunteers throughout the province, and provide heritage programming that benefits all Albertans through multiple sectors.
There are obvious benefits for the educational and post-secondary sectors, but archaeological heritage is exceptionally important for Alberta tourism. And the ethical treatment of antiquities and heritage sites has been important for encouraging investment in our energy and resource sectors.
The small amount of money we receive from the provincial government allows us to support Alberta’s heritage in a number of ways. We offer a free lecture series, giving Albertans the opportunity to hear directly from archaeologists. We visit schools, supporting Alberta teachers through engaging activities and providing free resources (like a workbook written by members of the Lethbridge Centre) to deliver curriculum involving local heritage. Our Lethbridge Centre supports Alberta tourism by hosting archaeological events throughout southwestern Alberta, and we participate in local events, such as Word on the Street, Day on the Creek, and recently, Family Day activities at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. We provide scholarship funds for post-secondary students, and help the government deliver work integrated learning programs, giving students valuable job experience. We work with local people who have collections of archaeological materials found on their farms, teaching them about these collections and helping them identify and document artifacts. We have a long-standing and frequently updated book, Record in Stone: Familiar Projectile Points from Alberta, that provides experts and non-experts with important information about Alberta’s cultural resources.
All of these activities and many others not mentioned here, are threatened by these cuts. Last year, ASA members devoted (at least) 7,696 volunteer hours to our province. Thousands of Albertans attended our events and accessed our resources. The elimination of funds to the Provincial Heritage Organizations sends a message to Albertans that this government does not care about or value our province’s heritage. Despite the government’s messaging that they want to mobilize volunteers, these cuts prove otherwise. We hope that our local MLAs will be able to convince the Minister of Arts, Culture and Status of Women, Tanya Fir, to reinstate the minimal funding of our organization and the other two Provincial Heritage Organizations whose funding was also cut, a modest investment that delivers significant returns.
Rachel Lindemann,
Lethbridge
8-7
Any excuse these Reformers can find to make people’s lives miserable is what you will get while they help the rich become a lot richer. We are gradually seeing more and more health care costs being forced on the public while more funds are being paid to the private education system.