Canada continues to underfund education, health and other basic services in First Nations
Former PM calls education 'absolute key' to improving aboriginal life
By Betty Ann Adam - October 22, 2011
The Rt. Hon, Paul Martin, Founder and Chairman, Martin Aboriginal Initiative and former Prime Minister of Canada discussed the crucial importance of education and training for Aboriginal youth at Canada's North Beyond 2011 on October 13, 2011 in Edmonton. Hosted by The Conference Board of Canada's Centre for the North, the event brought together 300 leaders to discuss key issues related to Canada's north, including economic development, governance, infrastructure and community security.
OPASKWAYAK CREE NATION, Man. — Paul Martin knows it doesn't hurt to drop the name of a famous rock star pal when trying to connect with teens.
A classroom of students at Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) perked up noticeably when the former prime minister responded to a boy’s interest in music with, “You know Bono? He’s a friend of mine.”
“He’s a musician but he’s running a business,” Martin told the grades 11 and 12 students who will participate in the aboriginal Youth Entrepreneurship Program offered by his charitable organization, Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative (MAEI), Scotiabank and OCN.
Martin is determined to grab the teens’ attention and hold it because he wants to change some wretched statistics: a 60 per cent high school dropout rate among on-reserve students and 43 per cent among off-reserve aboriginal students, compared with 9.5 per cent for non-aboriginals; a university degree rate of seven per cent for first nations compared to 23 per cent for the non-aboriginal population; and a suicide rate among aboriginal youth six times higher than the that of non-aboriginals.
On-reserve students are being short-changed by inadequate school funding from the federal government, Martin says.
“School education is a universal free good . . . but the provinces spend 25 to 30 per cent, per student, more on primary and secondary education (off reserve) than the federal government does on reserve.
“If you live on reserve, you’re getting one-third less in your education, which is morally wrong,” Martin said.
“The same thing happens in health care, welfare and everything else.”
Since retiring from politics in 2006, Martin has used his attention, influence and money to address the social and economic inequality that has prevented aboriginal people from full participation in Canadian society.
“I have always felt that education is the absolute key to the turn around in the conditions in which First nations and Inuit and Metis find themselves. So when I stepped down from government I said, ‘I’m going to continue doing what I believe in,’ so we set up these series of programs,” Martin said.
The MAEI takes programs that have succeeded with at-risk students elsewhere, and modifies them to reflect aboriginal experience.
Hands-on activities, guest speakers and business mentors teach students how to create products or service-based businesses.
That includes a specially designed text book for the entrepreneurship program that was created by Aboriginal teachers.
MAEI brings together aboriginal organizations, the business community, post-secondary institutions, First Nations schools and provincially-funded school boards to implement pilot projects.
When the programs have been proven to work, the intention is to expand them across the country, Martin said.
“That’s where we went to Scotiabank and RBC.
“I can afford to get the programs up and get them going, but we would like to see this course in every aboriginal school in the country and every school where there’s a majority of aboriginal students,” Martin said.
Scotiabank stepped up to fund the entrepreneurship program at reserve schools, RBC supports it in provincially funded schools and oil and gas industry partners have identified potential locations in Northern Alberta and Northern British Columbia.
The focus of all that effort is aboriginal youth and the purpose is to open the world to them, Martin said.
“The intention of the course is to teach them about business, but it really is to open their eyes that they have a lot of choices. And that’s the overall vision. Basically to ensure that young first nations, Metis or Inuit understand that their choices become limitless, there is no restriction on the choices, if they get education.”
Scotiabank’s prairie region vice president George Marlatte said he is inspired by Martin’s vision, which meshes with the bank’s commitment to social responsibility.
“When we saw what Paul Martin did with such passion, we latch onto that and say, ‘Gee, can we help?’” Marlatte said.
Scotiabank has donated $280,000 to fund the first site of the on-reserve program, as well as having staff volunteers mentor the students as they learn how to use bank accounts, keep records and acquire leadership skills.
The bank offers $500 to students who start their own micro-businesses.
The bank’s investment pays off with future customers, future employees and a more thriving community in which to do business, Marlatte said.
“What the bank is trying to do is change the equation and make it possible for these kids, whose fathers and mothers aren’t bank presidents and those kinds of things, to give these kids the understanding that they can do it. That’s really what it’s about,” Martin said.