Indian Affairs Pressed About On-Reserve Schooling

Indian Affairs Pressed About On-Reserve Schooling

Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 15:21

 

 

Canadian Senators are on a fact-finding tour of First Nations schools in Canada.

 

During a meeting last night, the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Affairs announced it has launched a study of primary and secondary students living on reserves.

 

Committee chair Gerry St. Germaine says he personally is tired of hearing businesspeople tell him they want to hire Aboriginal workers, but can’t find ones who are qualified.

 

The top-ranking bureaucrat at Indian Affairs’ education wing was on the hot seat at last night’s meeting.

 

Conservative Senator Nancy-Green Raine asked Kathleen Keenan how First Nations students are supposed to succeed with a two per cent cap on annual federal funding increases in place.

 

Keenan said the government would first have to know how much money was going to students on each First Nation before it could answer that question fairly.

 

Keenan added that comparisons to how students are funded on-reserve as opposed to off-reserve can sometimes be incomplete.

 

She said typical analysis often doesn’t include all the funding envelopes that are available to First Nations schools.

 

Keenan also said there are no simple answers, but commended the Senators for at least starting the conversation with their study of on-reserve schools.