Evidence of meeting #139 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Associate Executive Director, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre
What we're using in our system is something called Maplewood. We're collecting all kinds of data. We're collecting data—
Associate Executive Director, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre
We're sharing some of it. We're basically looking at data on literacy rates, numeracy rates and the age-grade correlation, and we're also tracking the completion rates of our students and also their transitions, where they are transitioning to once they complete high school.
We do have an annual report that's available on our website. Some of our statistical data is available on our website, so it's publicly available, but we also have some more detailed data that's available to those participating first nations, which gives them a bit more detail in terms of their specific schools.
Our accountability is not just to the federal government, which funds us, but also to the first nations that are part of our school system. So we want to make sure that we have the right data, that we're collecting the right data. We're also doing presentations nationally and internationally in terms of the statistical data from our school system. We'll continue to do that over the next few years, sharing our information.
Assistant Director, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre
With regard to the clinical database, the clinical area of special education, for the first time, with Jordan's principle funding and the high-cost special education funding, from two different departments, leveraging that funding has allowed us to create a database, so for all first nation children with special needs now, all of their information from the various clinical specialties is in one database that can be accessed and shared among the service providers.
That's the first time in Canada.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Yes, you have a model that needs to be shared, as I've said at this table. Manitoba and B.C. and parts of Nova Scotia seem to be well ahead of the rest.
Mr. Odjick, it's interesting. We really haven't talked about the teachers' grid, although your funding has stalled. What is the discrepancy between the Quebec teaching federations and your institution?
Director General, Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council
From my tribal council, we don't really deal with teachers. It depends on each community. They look after that themselves. That would be a better question for the First Nations Education Council of Quebec, the FNEC.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Is that an issue? I see retention is an issue. There are reasons for retention issues and I'm trying to understand yours. It's not all money, I know.
Director General, Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council
From my expertise, it's more along the lines of professional development, not necessarily with teaching but assisting the communities with more management and administrative-type positions.
As far as I know, for teachers, it has been hard for them to stay competitive, and it depends on the community. One of my communities, Long Point, is a semi-isolated community. They have a hard time recruiting and retaining teachers because of a number of challenges, but now they have a new school and they're able to build some new teaching residences. Because of those kinds of issues, it was hard for them to get teachers.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
What kinds of teachers are you getting? Are you getting indigenous teachers or those from other parts of Canada coming into your area for a year or two and then leaving?
Director General, Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council
For us, it depends. A community that's semi-isolated is less likely to have first nation teachers because they don't go to post-secondary as often, but for a community like mine, which is an hour and a half from Ottawa, I think it's 90% indigenous and community members who are teachers.
NDP
Georgina Jolibois NDP Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Good morning, and thank you very much for coming. I learned a lot from you.
I have a question for the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre. The presentation that you provided is very thoughtful and fruitful, and it helps, I think. As MP Waugh said, Manitoba and B.C. are leading the way in many aspects, so thank you for doing the work that you're doing. Professional development and training for those who work with children on reserve, as we know, is a very important thing for all first nations across Canada.
What sorts of barriers do you experience with access to technology? Then I do have another question. Is educating the youth in areas like science and technology feasible in every community?
Associate Executive Director, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre
Thank you for those two questions. One is about the barriers to technology. Connectivity is an issue for many of our northern and isolated first nations. We are working with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs to try to come up with a strategy to better address connectivity in those northern first nations.
We have the Wapaskwa Virtual Collegiate, which offers high school courses for many of our first nations students, but ongoing connectivity is still a challenge in our remote and isolated communities in terms of being able to fully access the high school courses we have available. We have tried to address this issue, and we hope that with the support of government and the first nations leadership we can come up with a solution to increase connectivity for all first nations in Manitoba.
As to your question concerning science-related fields of study, we have one of the most successful first nations science fairs in Canada. Manitoba has an annual science fair. We have a lot of young children coming in from Manitoba first nations communities, and they present a lot of different science projects that combine our knowledge as traditional people with mainstream scientific knowledge. The students who are taking part in these science fairs have done well nationally also. They have received prizes at the national level for their science projects. They are really innovative. These students are interested in pursuing science-related careers in the future, so we hope to see more medical doctors, more dentists, more researchers and other science professionals coming out of our first nations communities in Manitoba.
Our annual science fair is something we started when we set up our organization. It has always been a priority for us to make sure the students are aware of the potential for a science-related career.
NDP
Georgina Jolibois NDP Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
In your schools, do you have elder programs, and what does that look like?
Associate Executive Director, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre
For us, knowledge of the elders is one of the most important things that our students need to learn for identity. In a lot of our communities they have what they call “land-based programs” where the elders and knowledge-keepers from the community help teach the essential knowledge and skills of our people. That helps our people better connect to the land and to the teachings of our ancestors. The elders play a very integral part, not just in land-based education but also in transmitting our traditional knowledge through our languages.
We have five languages in Manitoba. Our elders are fluent in our languages. They come in to help teach our languages to many of our students in our schools.
NDP
Georgina Jolibois NDP Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
That's fantastic.
In the 10 schools you are talking about, for students who come from the north to the urban centres, I'm curious about the support system they have when they move. Do you have any knowledge about that?
Associate Executive Director, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre
Sorry, the students...?
Associate Executive Director, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre
What we have is something we call a private home placement program. We have counsellors who work with individual students. We have tutors available for students, and we also make sure that the homes in which we place our students are supportive and they are encouraged to do well in school. We also have a Facebook group for students so they can communicate with each other for peer support.
We try to make sure the students are well supported in completing their high school education. We know they leave their communities at a very young age. In some cases, they are only 14 or 15 years of age. They are forced to leave their parents, their families, their communities, and it is a real challenge for these students to transition to an urban environment, but we have counselling as well as peer supports for the students.
We're hoping we'll achieve more success with our new model of working with the private home placement students in Manitoba.
NDP
Georgina Jolibois NDP Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Mr. Odjick, on staff retention, I hear that across Canada, particularly coming from Saskatchewan. I know that you had your presentation...language and culture. How can we make a connection when we look at staff retention?
Director General, Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council
With language and culture, what we've done.... We've put a lot of energy into preserving our language. It is a challenge for us. You wouldn't think that the dialects would be that different, but between seven or eight communities, the dialects are very different. We have an app coming out soon that's a picture dictionary. They'll be able to use that. That will be free.
In our schools, they do incorporate a lot of language and culture. In the communities, outside the schools, it's less so. It's hard to incorporate that, other than giving them cultural weeks so they can go and practise traditional activities, but it's hard to incorporate the language and culture in the day-to-day things. As I said, everyone is so busy and wearing so many different hats that it's hard to have time to do that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal MaryAnn Mihychuk
Thank you.
That uses up all your time, MP Jolibois.
Now we move to MP Dan Vandal.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Thank you.
First of all, thanks very much to all of you for being here. It's very much appreciated, as are the excellent presentations.
I want to clarify something. The people from Manitoba are part of the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, but can you clarify your relationship with the Manitoba first nations school board? Can somebody begin by clarifying that?
Associate Executive Director, Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre
I can do that. The Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre provides services to 50-plus first nations. In addition, in the past few years we've worked on establishing the Manitoba First Nations School System, which is an arm of the MFNERC. It's one of our sections. I supervise the directors of that particular arm of our organization. They have a separate office, but they still report to our board of directors and also to the senior administration in our organization.