Human Resources committee  We would agree. That's why the focus at this point is on K-to-12 education, and helping communities increase that rate of graduation because without early development of skills, if you can't graduate from high school, then it's difficult to take advantage of other opportunities.

Human Resources committee  Parents certainly need to be involved in education. It is a critical factor in success. We certainly think the more a community and parents are involved in the well-being and the proper education of their kids, the more successful their children will be.

Human Resources committee  Certainly. Thank you. In addition to what we've heard about funding, we've heard from various reports, from people like Michael Mendelson, John Richards, and certainly the Auditor General, that there's also the question of whether the right systems and structures are in place to

Human Resources committee  I don't have those figures. We can look at that.

Human Resources committee  I don't have those figures. I'm not even sure we track that. Those are the choices of individual students. We do know that K-to-12 and post-secondary education unlocks all sorts of opportunities. It widens choices for individuals to pursue their careers and to either return to

Human Resources committee  There is certainly a question on the structure of the funding as well. When we're talking about the per capita, what we're talking about is the full envelope of all money that goes to K-to-12 on-reserve education. The per capita amount is when you divide that up by the number of

Human Resources committee  One of the fundamental principles in the approaches going forward is first nations control over first nations education, because really, to that point we think communities are best placed to determine what the needs of their students are. What we are proposing is not what you'd s

Human Resources committee  There are some very successful examples in parts of the country. For example, in Nova Scotia where they have a self-government agreement, the Mi'kmaq have a graduation rate that actually exceeds that of the non-aboriginal population in the province. They've been doing a fantastic

Human Resources committee  Yes. In fact, we've heard it talked about in terms of whether we want to fund an education system based on a 20th century education model, or whether there is a new approach that better meets the needs of first nations students, and what it would take to fund that. We're very muc

Human Resources committee  Certainly. The discussions started way back in 1972, with the release of “Indian Control of Indian Education”. It built on the good work of the Senate committee and the report; it's built on recommendations from the Auditor General. Back in December 2012 there was an initial disc

Human Resources committee  I think we can definitely say yes. At a 38% graduation rate, that's a lot of missed opportunities for students to be able to participate, to choose the paths that they want to follow. A grade 12 graduation is one of those initial steps to unlocking those opportunities and keys fo

Human Resources committee  In fact, if you look at it per capita, there is no funding gap.

Human Resources committee  When you take all of the funding provided for K-to-12 education and you compare it to all of the funding for K-to-12 education in the provinces, it compares at least as favourably as the money going in per student. The problem is the per capita amount doesn't tell you the whole s

Human Resources committee  Just the per capita figure does not explain what's going on, but when you just take the per capita figure, we compare at least favourably per student.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. In budget 2012, the government committed to working with willing partners to introduce a first nations education act that would explore mechanisms to ensure stable—