Harper government continues to block post-secondary access for First Nation students
Fontaine slams education underfunding
By Nick Martin - Nov 7, 2007
Canada is denying 10,000 aboriginal young people a post-secondary education because of federal underfunding, Grand Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations said this morning.
"Young people are being shortchanged. It's not fair in a country as rich as Canada is.
"We're not asking for any more than you receive, we're not asking for special favours," Fontaine told university presidents and senior government bureaucrats at a round table on aboriginal education at the University of Winnipeg.
He said Ottawa needs to put at least $2 billion more into transfer payments for aboriginal education.
Fontaine said that there are 30,000 aboriginal young people in university and community college, but 10,000 more cannot afford to go.
"One of the big challenges we face is the severe underfunding of aboriginal governance," Fontaine said. "Our local educational authorities just don't have the money.
"We can devise all of the most wonderful access programs here (at universities), if our communities don't have the money, these deserving people won't have the opportunity to go to university or college," Fontaine said.
The conference moved behind closed doors for the rest of today and tomorrow.