Opinion – Bill’s Right On Blog: “FNCFNEA Good Agreement with Minimal Change”

BFFs

Everyone has an opinion on the recently announced, First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act (FNCFNEA) formally known as First Nations Education Act, and here is mine.

Let’s begin with The Indian Act, which was implemented without our consent. Sometimes I think we forget that fact of history.

At least with this First Nations Control of First Nations Education AFN can say to have met with the government. In December 2013 a resolution was passed (Resolution 21/2013) by the Chiefs-in-Assembly putting the conditions they wanted met by federal government in writing these included:

1. First Nations jurisdiction and respect for Treaty and rights

2. Statutory guarantee of funding

3. Funding to support first nations education systems that are grounded in indigenous languages and cultures

4. Mechanisms to ensure reciprocal accountability and no unilateral oversight.

5. Ongoing meaningful dialogue and co-development

What does this mean and how did the federal government include parts of it into the new First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act? This act states:

1. Fully respect First Nations Jurisdiction in a way that is consistent with Treaties as well agreeing to jointly develop regulations and supportive structures.

2. This new funding will be invested and enshrined in statute for FN education and predictable annual increases to keep pace with the cost of FN education.

3. This agreement will stabilize funding for school operations and by recognizing FN control give FN’s the ability to pursue indigenous language and culture programs.

4. This agreement also includes mutual accountability as the principle controllers are FN’s, this autonomy will come without federal oversight.

5. This agreement will ensure FN’s and the government will work together to continue to develop this framework for the success of FN students and schools.

The biggest change I like (although I can agree it still isn’t enough) is the education cap is lifted from 2% up to 4.5%.

The federal government also agreed to invest $160 million over 4 years to implement this new legislation as well as $500 million over 7 years in aboriginal education infrastructure (keep in mind there are some 515 First Nation schools across Canada).

The core funding that the federal government is promising is 1.252 billion over three years.

Other points that need to be considered include the minimum education standards need to be consistent with provincial standards (we do that anyway), a new role for FN Education Administrators similar to provincial school boards. The federal government doesn’t have a national educational oversight plan and has left that to each of the provinces for their own education plans (Saskatchewan’s plan is different from Ontario’s plan for their provincial citizens). FN’s being federal responsibilities are left in a limbo state where the feds have no educational infrastructure but all the infrastructure is in place provincially already. Easiest and most cost effective way to ensure accountability is to tie it to the provinces. But this FNCFNE Act does ensure our jurisdiction, funding, support for culture and language and mutual accountability, creating a federal level of education for us to work with while in the confines of the provincial means.

In total the additional funding promised is to the tune of $1.9 Billion dollars to improve aboriginal funding across Canada. Of course this money is subject to Election timing and Stephen Harper knows there are two times you make big changes in the political world – just after an election when you get an majority and promises during election times. You do this because these are the meat and potatoes of politics. Mid-terms are about balanced budgets and a steady hand to show you’re a good steward for the country and end terms are re-visioning times.

Overall, this is a good agreement with minimal change that will affect our FN’s, we have an agreement that respects our jurisdiction, predictable funding formulas, additional funds for school operations, mutual accountability not unilateral oversight and the promise to work together to continue to improve education outcomes.

It isn’t everything but it’s an improvement, I think the ball is in our court now and it’s ours to drop.

By Bill Stevenson, Bill’s “Right On” Blog!

Disclaimer: The views represented here are that of Bill Stevenson only and do not reflect RezX as a company or magazine. This is his own blog to write about a variety of issues from his own perspective.