The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations is worried the Liberal government will drop its plans to inject $2.6 billion into First Nations education.
FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron says he’s been informed the government may not have the money. He says it has to do with less than expected cash in the Indigenous and Northern Affairs coffers as a result of the previous Conservative government misleading people on how much it had saved for First Nations education.
Regardless of how this shortfall has come about, Cameron says the government must honour its promise and it must deal with the critical shortfall in funding.
“There is the possibility because the previous Conservative government used the 1.7 billion that was supposed to be there to balance their budget,” he says.
“That still does not change the fact that the funding commitment that was promised to First Nations education systems across this country it has to be there, it must be there.”
Cameron says a promise is a promise.
Cameron will have to wait until next Tuesday to find out how the Liberals will respond to this.
According to the FSIN, the federal government provides about $6,500 a year in education funding for on-reserve students, while students in the provincial-run school system are funded at about $12,500 a year.
Those figures are disputed by the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs’ website, which says the average federal funding for First Nations students was more than $14,000 in 2013.
Cameron says that number is not right.
“In some cases, we have one of our schools where the funding is $4,500 per student per year,” he says. “Where they got their studies and findings, whatever they are, come to Saskatchewan and we will show you the numbers.”
The federal budget – the first one for the new Liberal government – will be delivered on Tuesday March 22.
It is expected to contain a deficit of about $20 billion, more than three times higher than what the Liberals initially predicted.