First Nation distance education program conducting a review of the program for INAC
INAC to fund Wahsa for three additional months
Rick Garrick/Wawatay News - March 19, 2010
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada will fund the Wahsa Distance Education Centre for three additional months while it conducts a review of the long-running program.
“Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) is not cutting funding to the Wahsa Distance Education Centre,” said Susan Bertrand, INAC’s manager communications north, in a March 18 e-mail message. “On April 1, 2010, INAC will provide Wahsa with 100 per cent of its entitlement for April, May and June 2010. INAC will provide Wahsa with the remainder of its 2010-2011 funding entitlement following a review of the program. The Department is arranging to conduct this review in April 2010.”
Bertrand said INAC routinely and periodically undertakes a review of the effectiveness of the programs it funds, in accordance with financial arrangements with its recipients, to ensure First Nations are receiving the maximum benefits these programs are intended to provide.
“I’m really disappointed because I see how important our education is,” said Slate Falls Chief Lorraine Crane about the news that Wahsa would be shut down. “We have so many young parents who cannot leave home. Having Wahsa in our community is so important – we are encouraging our people to get educated and this is just another setback.”
Northern Nishnawbe Education Council originally posted a letter March 12 to the chiefs of the Sioux Lookout area First Nations stating that INAC’s cutback in funding will “effectively and unilaterally shutdown Wahsa” effective April 1.
“We will be taking an overall projected 25 per cent hit,” said NNEC board vice chairman Vince Ostberg on March 15.
Crane, who was one of Wahsa’s first graduates in the early 1990s, spoke about the Wahsa shutdown after participating in a Women in Leadership keynote panel March 17 during the March 15-18 NAN Women’s Training Forum.
“It built me up as an individual,” said Crane, who has represented her community as chief or councillor for many years and was recently re-elected as chief. “I was always somebody who said there must be more to life, and I did it by getting educated.”
Crane said the news about Wahsa was a “shock.”
“I’m hoping that they can resolve it, that we’re not going to lose the program,” Crane said.
Ostberg had said March 15 that NNEC will only receive $15.6 million for 2010-2011 school year after operating on a $20.7 million budget in 2009-2010 and $23.4 million in 2008-2009.
To operate the organization, Ostberg said NNEC needs at least $21 million, but will be short between $4-5 million.
“They (INAC) are going to cut back the Wahsa programming,” Ostberg said.
Wahsa is a provincially accredited and federally funded high school that delivers curriculum through satellite centres in 23 First Nations in the Sioux Lookout District, with 31 community-based Wahsa distance education coordinators and assistants employed by the First Nations and 17 Sioux Lookout-based staff employed by NNEC.
Ostberg said NNEC would be forced to restructure the organization and people would be laid off from their positions if Wahsa does not receive funding for the upcoming year.
Wahsa currently has 788 registered students, with 15 of those projected to graduate this year. Since opening in 1992, Wahsa has graduated 309 students.
NNEC plans to have an emergency meeting with Nishnawbe Aski Nation March 22 to discuss the situation.