Just give B.C. one—one representative to co-draft the First Nations education legislation, said Greg Louie, president of the First Nations Schools Association in British Columbia.
He was responding to a comment made by Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt while he visited Nuu-chah-nulth territory on March 19.
“Listen, you know, I don’t beat around the bush. I cannot have 620-some First Nations co-writing a piece of legislation,” the Minister told Ha-Shilth-Sa about drafting the recently announced First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act.
“I don’t know why he keeps saying that,” said Louie. “We don’t expect that 600 first nations are going to be involved in the co-drafting. That’s ridiculous.” Louie said the comment was meant to distract from a discussion on what is really possible.
“He can throw away that comment.” Have a representative from each region and that “narrows it down to maybe 10,” Louie said.
The minister had been asked if first nations would be involved in co-drafting the legislation and if there would be regional diversity within it. Valcourt said Canada’s government has “taken good note” of the five conditions set out by the chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations.
“It is on the basis of those five conditions that we have agreed to incorporate in the draft, which I had made public last fall,” Minister Valcourt said, adding the dialogue would continue with the Assembly of First Nations “to ensure the Bill, the draft, incorporates those changes.”
“So, at the level of co-writing, yes, in the sense that we are in constant touch and consulting and dialoguing with the AFN to make sure that the Bill incorporates those conditions.”
The past draft of the Bill is “the one everybody completely slammed and said ‘We don’t want anything to do with that’,” said Ken Watts, vice-president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. “In B.C. some of the nations have said ‘We don’t want to use that template. We want to start all over’.”
During a First Nations Summit meeting, Watts said the BC chiefs asked AFN National Chief A-in-chut Shawn Atleo whether the recently announced Education Act would be wholly new legislation based on the five principles brought forward by the country’s chiefs in assembly. It was communicated to them that Atleo assumed it would be.
“I find it pretty frustrating that they are just trying to incorporate into the old one,” Watts said, adding he thought the five conditions would be the framework of that new legislation.
As far as consultation with individual first nations, the Minister says they’ll have to wait until the hearing stages of the Bill.
“You have to pass the legislation,” said the minister. ’You know, Parliament will consider and there will be hearings, there will be further consultations on the Bill, and if it passes the House and the Senate, then you have to develop the regulations.”
Valcourt said it’s at this regulation drafting stage that the regional diversity of the legislation will take shape.
“Those that know a bit about legislation will realize that the important part of this is the regulations. Will this be sensitive to the regions of the country? That’s through regulations we can ensure that.”
Watts hopes that the government will actually consider what they hear back through the process of Parliament.
“I hope that’s the truth. We signed a declaration last September at our AGM that says our kids are sacred... I truly believe that if this isn’t what our nations want, then you’ll hear about it.”
The minister said the government is committed to the creation of a joint council of expert education representatives. This group will oversee, not only the implementation and the execution of the Act, but participate in the development of the regulations. There will be appointments from first nations and the federal government to form that council.
“I worry that it’s going to be the same process that’s happened before and they just pull out who they think our education experts are,” said Watts. “We have our own, especially here in B.C. We have some amazing people here in B.C. that have done work around education all the way from kindergarten up to the post-secondary level… I sure hope in British Columbia that we get a say on who is on that council; it not just be dictated to us.”
For Louie, he has maintained since the announcement Feb. 7 that the AFN is not the body for consultation and dialogue on the legislation. Louie told Ha-Shilth-Sa that he has had a one-on-one discussion with National Chief Atleo about this specific issue.
“You know what he will do… the national chief has said he will go out there and he will advocate for the money for the first nations; the regulation building, the policy building, will be up to the regions,” Louie said.
The schools association is taking all of this information with a grain of salt, however, until they can see in black and white what the government committed to in its announcement.
“We are kind of hearing through the grapevine that they have already started drafting… so we are waiting for word from the Prime Minister about this.”
A letter has been sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and to the minister of Aboriginal Affairs for some details about the announcement, said Louie. The First Nations Summit and the BC Leadership Council has also written letters asking what this new Bill will mean.
When there is a response, the First Nations School Association’s plan is to bring all of the first nations in B.C. together with a political rep and an education rep, and they will have an in-service in Vancouver “so everybody will be on the same page.”
And that includes the provisions for language and culture funding, which seemed to Louie like a soft commitment in the wording of the announcement.
“In my meeting with the national chief I asked him, ‘OK, is this real money?’ He said, ‘Yes, it’s real money.’ Will language and culture be funded, because in the announcement they only said that it would be supported? I said ‘What does support mean? Will language and culture programs in our first nations receive funding’ He said ‘Yes.’
Still, Louie is waiting for that commitment in writing.
As for this planned joint council that the minister is pinning so much authority on, the best case scenario, said Louie, would be that there would be no joint council. He said that first nations in B.C. wish to maintain and build on what has been developed over several decades in the province.
“We already have our own system. We want to build on that. We want to keep it. There still needs to be work done to bring it up higher, but we would rather not have the joint council.” He said the farther away the decision makers are from the schools they are overseeing the worse the situation will be for BC first nations schools.
“We can’t let this legislation affect the Tripartite Education Framework Agreement,” said Watts. “It’s gone really well and it’s benefiting our communities from a funding perspective and a whole bunch of other things that are working for us. So we need to respect that and not interfere with it.”
Finally, Louie said it is his sincere hope that this process can be slowed down.
“This is going too fast.”
“It sounds like there is a crunch over at AANDC,” said Watts. First nations believe that the federal government wants this pushed through by the summer for completion before the next election.
“I hope that’s not the case… My ideal would be that we spend the next year developing it and engaging with First Nations.”
And Watts remains optimistic there is a good way forward.
“I know, it’s a tough process to engage in with our nations, but there are ways of going around that. We can, whether it’s at a tribal council level with our 14 nations, or even if it’s at the BC regional level, bring together the first nations of British Columbia to talk about it. That could have been done. It’s kind of frustrating because it doesn’t even feel like a process.”
