Who’s responsible for native education?
Federal and Provincial governments point fingers at each other; students left wondering if they will be able to complete degrees
The federal and Ontario government, in a show of how dysfunctional our country can be, are fighting over which is responsible for funding native post-secondary education institutes.
Specifically, they are arguing over funding to the First Nations Technical Institute. FNTI is located on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Belleville in Ontario and offers apprenticeship, college diploma, and university degree programs to the native community. The college diplomas are issued by one of five Ontario colleges, and the undergraduate degrees are offered by one of four Ontario universities. In effect, FNTI functions as a satellite campus on the reserve. They even offer a Masters degree in partnership with Ryerson University.
Recently, the federal government cut funding to the institution.
The federal government takes the position that it is “education funding.” The constitution says education is a provincial jurisdiction therefore the province should be footing the bill for the operation of post-secondary institutions.
The provincial government takes a different position and says that post-secondary institutions on native reserves fall under the federal ministry dealing with native issues. The constitution says native affairs is a federal jurisdiction therefore the federal government should be footing the bill.
While the two levels of government squabble, students are left wondering what will happen at the end of the current academic term.
The institution has enough funds to end the present school year and without either level of government stepping forward to replace the cut funds, the institution will be forced to dramatically cut programs. Tuesday, the institution issued lay-off notices to staff. The institute, in a statement, said they hope to find government funding prior to the end of the term and that the issuance of layoff notices was done today to make the notice requirements under the law if they are unable to secure funding.
The institution is trying to get the federal government to restore the funds and is lobbying the province to increase its funding. The Ontario government only gives the institute one-fifth the per-student funding of the colleges and universities.
John Milloy, Ontario’s Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities says the problem lays with the federal government. The current crisis would not exist if the federal government was not cutting funding. “I’m having a little trouble with the federal government which cuts funding to the institute and then somehow blames the province,” said Milloy.
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An Open Letter to Minister Strahl
February 7, 2008
The Honourable Chuck Strahl
Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Minister,
Like many students at First Nations Technical Institute (FNTI), I am surprised and saddened by your government’s refusal to support Aboriginal education by ensuring FNTI receives long-term, sustained funding to operate. The motto of FNTI is “Sharing and Learning”. I want to share FNTI’s story with you, and I hope you learn that this is a success story worth supporting.
The First Nations Technical Institute was created in 1985 through a partnership between FNTI Board of Directors and the provincial and federal governments. Since that time, over 2,000 Aboriginal students have graduated from their diploma, certificate and degree programs. With its focus on Aboriginal learners, FNTI has provided programming for today’s needs, from public administration to environmental programs to medical technician programs.
FNTI is unique among indigenous post-secondary institutions in Ontario. It partners with many other post-secondary institutions, including St. Lawrence College, Canadore College, Ryerson University, Trent University, Queen’s University, Humber College and Loyalist College to provide accredited programming, as required by the federal government’s Indian Studies Support Program.
Unfortunately, while these partnerships provide the ability to grant degrees or diplomas they do not provide funding anywhere near what other post-secondary institutions receive from governments. The tuition revenue from these programs flows back to the post-secondary institutions granting the degrees or diplomas even though it is FNTI that provided the instruction and services to meet the requirements of the program. There is no legislation that gives indigenous-controlled institutions the right to tuition money from these programs. For FNTI, that means only 26 percent of its funding comes from tuition.
Federal funding does not close the gap. In fact, federal funding for FNTI only provides one-quarter of the funding that other students in Ontario receive from the federal government for their education, throwing the whole concept of provincial comparability out the window.
FNTI has provided quality education for years with much less money than comparable programs in colleges and universities. FNTI’s share of ISSP has remained virtually unchanged since 1996. That means each year; the buying power of that funding has decreased while the number of students attending FNTI and the number of programs offered has gone up. That is an unsustainable situation.
Your recent decision to give a supplementary one-time funding increase of $528,121 will help FNTI complete this school year but students in multi-year programs will still be left in the lurch. They have already invested significant time and money in their programs and will have to start all over again at other institutions. They chose FNTI because of its success rate, because they knew that over 96 percent of FNTI students finish their programs and go on to work in their chosen field. Mainstream universities and colleges cannot boast of such high completion rates.
Minister Strahl, I cannot understand why your government is turning its back on these students and condemning a fine institution to closure. FNTI should be an institution that is given the support needed to ensure it grows.
In fact, in the business plan submitted to you in December 2007, FNTI gave notice of its plans to expand its programming to better meet the needs of students. And the business plan outlines the international work that FNTI has done, helping improve educational opportunities for Aboriginal learners in Ecuador, Nunavut, South Africa and Chile.
It has plans to create an endowment fund, and a capital fund to improve its facilities. But those plans are on hold while they wait to hear if the federal government will live up to its rhetoric and support Aboriginal education. To operate at its current capacity, FNTI needs $6 million a year from all funding streams. The federal share of that is $2.5 million a year. That is only a small percentage of the tax breaks you’re offering to corporations, or a pittance of the subsidies paid to oil and gas companies. Where is the fairness for Aboriginal learners?
Sincerely,
Jean Crowder, MP Nanaimo-Cowichan
NDP Aboriginal Affairs Critic
Thank you for writing about this issue. It’s important that more people know about whats going on here.
Just a little speculation here from the peanut gallery as to some possible underlying motives of this squabble. I can’t help but feel that this is an extension of the squabbling that been occuring between the province and the feds over the jurisdiction of ‘land issues’ and each others responsibility in dealing with other FN’s issues in Ontario. Primarily we’ve seen this happen in reference to the on going dispute in Caledonia, still is for that matter though there appears to be an uneasy truce between the two parties at this time.
Each party seems to want to download, or upload or whatever and not take responsibility. Though I would hate to really think that that this sort of arguing would extend to this issue, unfortunately I can’t help but wonder if there is a bit of petty power play going on here in order to get at back at each other for differences in these other issues. Unfortunately I can’t completely discount the possibly that such things like this can happen. I could and I hope I’m way off base, but I think it’s something to think about.
Regardless what’s happening is horrible and once again the average person is getting caught up in political bickering and their lives being affected in a really big way. There is no need for this to happen and play out this way.
provincial government should be paying
while the federal government should be implimanting on native school money to be to pay the program costs