School funding woes
While the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement guaranteed the Crees adequate funding for their schools and post-secondary education funds, the rest of the province’s reserves find themselves much worse off.
This was why the Algonquin community of Kitigan Zibi staked out the highway that runs through their community on August 20 to protest the inequalities in Canada when it comes to funding education on and off reserves.
“The funding we receive to operate our community school first of all is inadequate to be able to deliver quality services at all levels. We have been at least trying to stay at the same level as the rest of the province of Quebec but we are not being given the resources to do so,” said Kitigan Zibi’s Chief Gilbert Whiteduck.
Prior to his role as the community’s chief, Whiteduck spent 33 years working in education as a teacher, school director and a principal.
The Kitigan Zibi reserve runs its own community school but because the school is funded through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, like all reserve schools, the community is given upwards of 20% less per student than the provincial standard. At that, when it comes to post-secondary education, those from reserves are given less funding than Canadians not from reserves as there is a 2% cap on post-secondary education funds in regards to growth that has existed for 20 years.
In light of the provincial educational reform that was passed in 2008, all Quebec schools now require new provincial materials, however INAC-run schools are at more of a loss as they cannot afford all of the necessary materials.
Beyond the updates, Whiteduck said the lack of funding significantly cuts into the services they can offer to students with special needs and funds for First Nations language instruction.
“What this means for us at a community level is that we have to pay our teachers less than those in the provincial system in order to spread our dollars a bit further. This also means we have no funding for libraries, technology, after-school programs and all of these other things that exist in high schools within the regular school systems in Quebec,” said Whiteduck.
Though some students may manage to make it through secondary schools on their reserves, once they do, Whiteduck said there is virtually no funding for them to go on to vocational training. With no means for a post-secondary education, many high-school grads find themselves trapped in the poverty cycle, unable to obtain gainful employment.
“We are being expected to produce the same results, but that is not going to happen. We in the community here have done well, we have done okay, we have graduates who go on to post-secondary institutions but we are still challenged. The bottom line is that it is still unacceptable in 2009 that our children get less than other Canadians in regards to quality education,” said Whiteduck.
Because reserve schools are funded so poorly, Whiteduck also theorized that it is plausible that under-funding these schools may be a pressure tactic to get Natives to go to provincial schools which get more funding.
In Kitigan Zibi, this was the case until the community built its own school in 1978 but their students did not fare very well within the provincial system.
“Few people used to graduate even from the provincial system and INAC was investing literally millions. When you live on a reserve and attend a provincial school, the federal government has to pay a tuition fee which is presently around $6000+ per student. Very often the kid would get kicked out in November, but the school would still get paid the full amount,” said Whiteduck.
Still when students attend schools on reserve, INAC will pay only $4200 per student whereas the provincial norm is $6200.
Whiteduck and his community members, along with National Grand Chief Shawn Atleo, conducted not only a protest on August 20, they also did a traffic slowdown to hand out over 1000 pamphlets and educate those driving by about the issues.
According to Whiteduck, having Atleo on site had a number of positive impacts particularly that the community now feels as though Atleo is on the same page with the community in terms of education.
“Atleo is a very eloquent speaker. When he spoke he encouraged the community to continue because he will support First Nations people who are trying to advance the education cause in a good way,” said Whiteduck.
Despite the protest, the community, along with every other reservation school across the country, has not seen any action as a result of the protest. Whiteduck and his community members have previously protested on Parliament Hill, in front of provincial and federal INAC buildings and gone before the Aboriginal Standing Committee in Ottawa.
Fourteen members from the Aboriginal Standing Committee even visited Kitigan Zibi in the spring and though the community has contacted the minister in charge since, no action has been made.
Whiteduck also intends to put education back on the agenda when the province’s chiefs meet in Quebec City with the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador on September 8.
He was not hopeful however that the issue would garner much focus as there are so many more immediate concerns for reserves at the present time dealing with land and natural resources. Whiteduck and his community are also looking at other means of drawing attention to the issue within the government and going before the Standing Committee again in the hopes that the situation will improve.
“I was a school director and a principal in the mid-’70s, we are all very frustrated and we are wondering what kind of actions we are going to have to take to garner the kind of attention we need. The problem is that we don’t always have the spin doctors to work with the media. Whenever we say one thing, we see the minister releasing a communiqué saying that we are getting a lot of money, look at the deal we just signed, isn’t it great?” said Whiteduck.