Significant cuts coming to the Jordan’s Principle program — a federal program that many schools depend on to support their students — are taking a toll on education assistants in some small communities.
Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA Richard Edjericon painted a very cloudy picture of what schools could look like when students return in the fall.
“For weeks now, schools across the North have watched as their application for Jordan’s Principle funding for the fall have come back denied, leaving them with a massive funding shortfall,” he said on Wednesday.
“Let me give you a concrete example of how devastating these cuts are. Last week, I learned that Lutselk’e Dene school is losing five full-time education assistants, all of whom were funded through the Jordan’s Principle program.
“In Fort Resolution where the Métis students make up a large portion of the school population, new eligibility restriction means Deninu School stands to lose a significant amount of federal funding.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment currently funds just one student assistant in Łutsel K’e and only for a few hours a week.
“This is a stark example of the chronic underfunding of Indigenous education in our territory despite the fact that education is also a sacred treaty right.”
The community of Łutsel K’e. (CKLB files)
Teaching assistants help meet the diverse needs of Indigenous students, to bring their experiences closer to that of the non-Indigenous population.
They work under the supervision of teachers to help implement educational and behavioural plans, assist with students’ personal needs, help manage classrooms, and supervise students during activities.
Edjericon said that families are being forced to leave their traditional communities in search of better education opportunities — but now, even schools in Yellowknife are at risk.
Together, the Catholic and public school boards in Yellowknife, receive over $50 million from Jordan’s Principle funding each year, funding that is now in serious jeopardy, said the MLA.
“When schools re-open this fall, a crisis of Indigenous education will begin, unless this Minister talks immediate action to restore the Jordan’s Principle funding,” he said.
“So, today I’m calling on the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to meet with school boards across the North this summer and to provide a clear and immediate commitment to restore at least some of this critical funding.”
If the Minister fails to take this opportunity, she risks becoming the first education Minister in the North leaving education in worse shape than she found it.
Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland said she is travelling to Ottawa next week to meet with her federal counterparts.
“When this program was introduced, and over the last number of years, officials at the Department of Education have reiterated to officials within the federal government that we cannot afford to take on this program should they choose not to continue it,” she said.
Health Minister Lesa Semmler had to explain a flubbed roll-out of new Extended Health Benefit criteria, which saw seniors having to pay out of pocket for medicines.
“In the last year, hundreds of Northerners who rely on extended health benefits were suddenly confronted by new income thresholds driven by cuts which would determine who our health system would support with the costs of their medication and who were now on their own,” said Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart. “This so-called rationalization of a crucial health care benefit has caused serious anxiety and hardship,
“These income thresholds are unfair to my constituents struggling with a cost of living crisis alongside the fact that many are already paying out of pocket for other necessary health services like home care and accessibility supports.”
Testart said when these changes were first announced, he received calls from many seniors who were concerned their benefits were at risk too.
“But I was able to reassure them that the minister of Health and Social Services has made it clear to this House, and to Northerners, that seniors’ benefits would not be touched,” he said.
“But, lo and behold, several seniors in my Range Lake riding were recently charged … I was shocked to find out it was I who was mistaken because somewhere along the way that promise to not touch seniors’ benefits wasn’t as much as a guarantee as we were led to believe.”
While that new policy was put on ice, Testart is concerned it could be brought back.
“Let me be perfectly clear, when I say the time to charge seniors for their medication is never.”
However, Semmler promised that, “as long as I am the Minister, there will be no changes to the senior benefits.”
A PARTING SHOT…
The NWT’s rookie MP — and Canada’s new minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations — Rebecca Alty as seen on the first day of Parliament May 28, has scored a prestigious on-camera seat in the second row behind Premier Mark Carney. (Parliament livestream)
