It is a pleasure to be here. I would like to welcome everyone.
I thank you for giving me the opportunity to present our first nation priorities. I know we have a short time together, and I will try to keep my remarks brief.
Over the past 10 years, the AFN has consistently outlined critical funding needs for first nation communities; however, there has been very little investment to respond to these needs.
Members of the AFN executive have provided the committee with a number of specific recommendations for investment in 2014. These are investments in community, safety, infrastructure and emergency management, and reconciliation. We trust that these will be given due consideration.
This evening I wish to focus my presentation on first nation education, as I am the lead chairperson for the national file.
Seeking quality education for our children has long been a priority for first nation families, communities and leadership. Since 1972 the first nation leaders have been pursuing control over their own education.
I am sure members are well aware of the federal government's proposal for first nation education. This certainly contains and highlights attention to this critical area.
The current federal system, the status quo, has consistently graduated approximately one in every three first nation students from high school. Since 1996 this has resulted in more than 106,000 first nation youth leaving high school without a high school diploma. This is not a situation we can allow to continue. I believe we all agree that action is needed immediately on first nation education. In the interest of our children and our nations, we must get it right, and we must get it right now.
Results prove that first nation-led solutions far exceed the status quo. Results also demonstrate that all governments must work in true partnership with first nations to achieve these outcomes. Successes are beginning to be achieved in those areas where first nations have control over their education and their own solutions have been implemented.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach. There must be a full respect for regional diversity. I am most familiar, as I am from Nova Scotia, with the Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey Agreement. Since we have been collecting data, we have seen graduation rates of 87% and higher, which consistently far exceed the provincial rate. Children are leaving the system, from several schools, being fluent in Mi'kmaw reading and writing.
Like Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey, first nation education systems must foster hope and opportunity, respect first nation rights and be grounded in first nation cultures and languages. This is a vision that first nations have put forward under “First Nations Control of First Nations Education”, a vision to support our children and our nation into the future. To achieve this vision, we must have guaranteed stable, predictable and sustainable funding for first nation schools. We know that first nation children attending school in their communities receive less funding than if they were attending a provincial school.
Since 1996 federal funding in first nation education has been capped at 2% per year, despite a steady growth in both inflation and the first nation student population. Over the same period of time, provincial and territorial school systems have invested more than 4% per year, even though most systems have realized a significant decline in student enrolment.
Let's think about it. Why is it that the federal government sends funding capped at 2% growth for schools within its jurisdiction, yet transfers funding with rates of growth of between 4% and 6% to schools within provincial jurisdiction to do the very same thing, educate first nation students? This is unfair and unacceptable. Over time this has contributed to an ever-growing gap, leaving first nation schools and first nation students behind.
It is important to take a minute to describe what first nation means when we say there is a need for stable, predictable, and sustainable funding. Stable funding has long been a major issue of first nations who try to balance their education budgets.
In 2002 to 2012, more than half of the funding transferred to first nation schools was proposal based or discretionary. Receiving core funding through a stable funding schedule would allow first nations to engage in multi-year planning with their communities and education partners.
Predictable funding would be realized through the development of a new statutory first nation education funding formula. This formula would ensure that first nation schools are funded for the education components of new languages, cultures, and customs. It is critical that a new first nation education funding formula be developed jointly with first nations.
Sustainable funding speaks to the importance of annual escalators. A new first nation funding agreement and formula should include appropriate escalators that account for the change in education cost, inflation, population increase, socio-economic disparities, geographic considerations, and capital needs. These funding indices for education are generally accepted factors for the development of education funding mandated in provincial and other jurisdictions around the world.