Tag Archives: First Nations

September 30 is National Day for Truth & Reconciliation

September 27, 2021

September 30 marks a new federal statutory holiday in our country – National Day for Truth & Reconciliation. The day honours the lost children and survivors of residential schools and their families and communities. It recognizes that public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.

Fix Our Schools wanted to mark this day with some reflection on First Nations schools across our country.

First Nations Schools on Indigenous Reserves Prior to COVID-19

While Ontario’s publicly funded schools rely upon provincial funding, the federal government is responsible for First Nations schools on reserves. Ontario’s publicly funded school buildings entered the COVID-19 pandemic with a $16.3-billion repair backlog and, despite “historic” levels of provincial funding, this repair backlog increased to $16.8-billion by June, 2021. While this number is staggering, it notably does not even include First Nations schools, portables, accessibility retrofits, water quality, air quality, or asbestos abatement. There is, however, significant disrepair as well as a lack of clean water and sanitation in many schools on First Nations reserves. There is also an absence of schools within a reasonable distance for many First Nations students, particularly high schools.

According to the Assembly of First Nations – First Nations Education Infrastructure Capital Needs Assessment, 2020, there are 526 First Nations schools across Canada, and $2.14 billion is required for new school construction and additions, with 28% (or 140) schools being overcrowded. Further to this, 46 of the 526 First Nations schools required immediate replacement based on the school age or poor condition.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Expanded Inequities In Education and Schools

Disrepair, lack of clean water and sanitation, absence of local schools, and overcrowding were issues that negatively impacted Indigenous students even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. And, as the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table noted in its July 2021 briefing, “for rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented additional distinctive and substantial challenges for education delivery which has expanded inequities”. This science briefing highlighted specific issues with school infrastructure on reserves:

  1. Ensure clear accountability for education support whether through federal or provincial resources.
  2. Remote learning is less accessible, due to technological challenges, in these communities.
  3. Aging infrastructure, including older HVAC and supplemental ventilation/filtration systems in many remote First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities may impact the ability to properly ventilate schools and ensure adequate air quality, particularly during local outbreaks and in the colder months when opening windows is not an option.
  4. Schools in remote, rural, and First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities that do not meet the appropriate minimum ventilation guidelines from ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2019, should be prioritized for upgrades.
  5. Overcrowded education infrastructure in some remote First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities could make preventative measures such as cohorting and physical distancing difficult and could result in the need to shift to remote learning in some instances, further contributing to high rates of disengagement. Appropriate resources should be provided to ensure adequate space is available to support consistent in-person learning in these communities, and to ensure equitable access to digital learning resources.

 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was formed in 2007, in response to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action suit in Canadian history. In June 2015, the TRC presented the executive summary of the findings contained in its multi-volume final report, including 94 “calls to action” (or recommendations) to further reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous Peoples.

The following TRC recommendations are specific to Education:

6. We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

7. We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.

8. We call upon the federal government to eliminate the discrepancy in federal education funding for First Nations children being educated on reserves and those First Nations children being educated off reserves.

9. We call upon the federal government to prepare and publish annual reports comparing funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves, as well as educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with nonAboriginal people.

10. We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles:

i. Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.

ii. Improving education attainment levels and success rates.

iii. Developing culturally appropriate curricula.

iv. Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses.

v. Enabling parental and community responsibility, control, and accountability, similar to what parents enjoy in public school systems.

vi. Enabling parents to fully participate in the education of their children. vii. Respecting and honouring Treaty relationships.

11. We call upon the federal government to provide adequate funding to end the backlog of First Nations students seeking a post-secondary education.

12. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.

September 30 is Canada’s first National Day for Truth & Reconciliation

So much listening, collaboration, funding, and commitment to do better is needed to address Canada’s hitherto abject failure of Indigenous children, their families and communities.

On September 30, we encourage you to mark Canada’s first National Day for Truth & Reconciliation. Consider taking time to:

  • Wear orange. Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day that honours the children who survived Indian Residential Schools and remembers those who did not, also takes place on September 30. Wearing orange on September 30 raises awareness of the very tragic legacy of residential schools, and honours the thousands of Survivors.
  • Write your newly elected (or re-elected) local MP and Prime Minister Trudeau to prioritize education and schools for all Indigenous Peoples in Ontario, and across the country.
  • Tune in to CBC coverage of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. CBC will be sharing First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives and experiences from across the country. For the entire day, these stories will be broadcast across CBC TV, CBC News Network, CBC.ca, CBC Kids, CBC Radio One and CBC Music, including a commercial-free primetime broadcast special, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
  • “See us, hear us, and to believe us”. Geraldine Shingoose, a residential school survivor – or warrior as she prefers to be called – said in this Global News piece , “I ask Canada to see us, to hear us and to believe us,” echoing the sentiments of Murray Sinclair, who served as chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Shingoose suggests Canadians take a moment of silence at 2:15 p.m. – referring to the number of graves found in Kamloops, and adds that small gestures such as displaying an orange shirt in your window can have a powerful impact on survivors.

Largest School Board in the Country Takes a Step in the Right Direction

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is Canada’s largest school board and, as per the following media release from September 22, 2021, has taken a step in the right direction.

“The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Urban Indigenous Education Centre (UIEC), with guidance from the Elders Council, will open the Boyne Natural Science School as an Indigenous Land-Based Learning site.Trustees unanimously supported the initiative during this evening’s Regular Board Meeting.

This site is located on 308.5 acres of the Niagara Escarpment, adjacent to the Bruce Trail and the Boyne River Provincial Park. Its reopening supports the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action and supports Indigenous Education on The Land for all students, staff and Indigenous communities

The Indigenous Land-Based Learning site, which will have one to two classes on location at a time will feature programming that focuses on holistic Indigenous health and well-being (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual) in support of Indigenous student success. It will also include professional learning, community engagement, partnerships, curriculum resource development and innovation, research and development, and reconciliation through Indigenous perspectives.

To support the expansion of Land-Based Learning through Indigenous ways of knowing and being, UIEC staff will create resources to support all curriculum areas based on Indigenous Pedagogies; including, but not limited to Indigenous cultures and traditions, Indigenous language revitalization, archery, canoe/kayak building, hiking, maple syrup programming, mapping and orienteering, medicine harvesting and walks, mountain biking and snow shoeing.

In the future, the TDSB anticipates the site can be restored to support larger groups for day and overnight programming when the pandemic allows.”

Failing Grades for Both Canada and Premier Ford

June 8, 2021

A Failing Grade for Canada

Canada has repeatedly failed Indigenous children, their families and their communities. The discovery of 215 children buried in unmarked graves at Kamloops Residential School has highlighted that there was nothing about Canada’s Residential Schools that was safe, healthy or conducive to learning.

NOTE: Several weeks after 215 unmarked graves were found Kamloops Residential School, on June 24, 2021, the Cowessess First Nation announced a preliminary finding of 751 more unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Southeast Saskatchewan. We expect additional unmarked graves will continue to be unearthed.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was formed in 2007, in response to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action suit in Canadian history. In June 2015, the TRC presented the executive summary of the findings contained in its multi-volume final report, including 94 “calls to action” (or recommendations) to further reconciliation between Canadians and Indigenous Peoples.

The following recommendations are specific to Education:

6. We call upon the Government of Canada to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

7. We call upon the federal government to develop with Aboriginal groups a joint strategy to eliminate educational and employment gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.

8. We call upon the federal government to eliminate the discrepancy in federal education funding for First Nations children being educated on reserves and those First Nations children being educated off reserves.

9. We call upon the federal government to prepare and publish annual reports comparing funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves, as well as educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with nonAboriginal people.

10. We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles:

i. Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.

ii. Improving education attainment levels and success rates.

iii. Developing culturally appropriate curricula.

iv. Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses.

v. Enabling parental and community responsibility, control, and accountability, similar to what parents enjoy in public school systems.

vi. Enabling parents to fully participate in the education of their children. vii. Respecting and honouring Treaty relationships.

11. We call upon the federal government to provide adequate funding to end the backlog of First Nations students seeking a post-secondary education.

12. We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families.

So much listening, collaboration, funding, and commitment to do better is needed to address Canada’s hitherto abject failure of Indigenous children, their families and communities. 

A Failing Grade for Premier Ford and his Government 

Premier Ford and his government failed to make the public health policy decisions that could have led to better outcomes for Ontario’s students, their families, teachers, education workers and Ontario’s businesses. In Robyn Urback’s Globe and Mail opinion piece of June 3, 2021 entitled, Doug Ford’s pandemic response has been the worst of Canada’s Premiers, she states,

“nowhere else in Canada have children been out of school so long, have seniors been hit with two equally devastating waves, have outdoor activities been so restricted for months, have personal service workers been forced into such prolonged shutdown and have retailers and other businesses faced such extended restrictions. And in exchange for these sacrifices, the province can boast … average case numbers, and above-average deaths.”  and also  notes, “Along with kids, Ontario’s seniors – particularly those in long-term care homes – have disproportionately borne the burden of Mr. Ford’s aimless, undisciplined approach to pandemic control.” 

Fix Our Schools’ focus continues to be on ensuring that Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. Throughout the pandemic, Premier Ford has claimed that he shared this focus, and that he prioritized Ontario’s students, their schools and education, and their mental health.

However, in our opinion, Premier Ford and his government have:

and in so doing, Premier Ford and his government have ultimately failed Ontario’s students and their families and our economy.

Acknowledging this failure, we must now look forward to ensuring Ontario’s students return to school in September as safely as possible and with as much normalcy as possible, to be sure. To deliver on this goal, Premier Ford and his government must ensure standards, metrics, data and investment are in place as quickly as possible. Success also requires that Premier Ford provides leadership that allows both the education and public health sectors to maintain a steadfast focus on September.

Beyond safety and normalcy, we also need a vision of excellence for Ontario’s schools and education beyond what was considered “normal” prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s remember that pre-pandemic, $16.3-B of disrepair existed in Ontario’s schools following decades of provincial underfunding, and we had no standards in place for schools to measure whether schools and classrooms were safe, healthy, well-maintained and provided environments conducive to learning. This vision for excellence absolutely must be developed with input from all education stakeholders. Given that Ford’s government was elected having a scant education policy platform, his government has no mandate from the electorate to determine this vision on its own. Ontario’s children and youth are going to need to be prioritized for many years to come.

Citizen Advocacy Works!

A recent study found that when citizens make direct contact with their local government representative – they do influence decision-making and policy. This same study also found that sharing personal stories is a powerful way to communicate with your local government representatives. So, at a time when many people have started to disengage, feeling a lack of control and a lack of hope at times – we encourage you to dig deep and advocate on behalf of Ontario’s students.

Please email Premier Ford or call him at 416-325-1941
Please email Education Minister Lecce or call him at 416-325-2600
Please also contact your local MPP

Please share your stories with our provincial leaders. Tell them how school closures and online learning have been impacting the children in your life. As two doctors wrote, “we cannot let our children and youth become the pandemic’s collateral damage.” Let’s work together to make Ontario’s children a priority now.

Is Premier Ford “Doing the Best He Can” Amidst Challenging Circumstances?

January 19, 2021

Fix Our Schools has been hearing on social media some version of the following question over the past few weeks:

“What do you expect Premier Ford to do? I think he’s doing the best he can in this difficult situation.”

So we thought now was as good a time as any to give a full and complete response to that question …

Please keep in mind that Fix Our Schools’ focus is on ensuring schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working, so what we expect of the Ford government focuses only on that aspect of education, leaving far more calls to action unwritten here. 

Our Pre-Pandemic Expectations of Premier Ford:

To answer the question fully, it seemed necessary to go back to the beginning. Since the Ford government took power in June 2018, Fix Our Schools has taken advantage of the annual budget consultation process to submit our expectations on what the Ford government should do to ensure Ontario’s schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working. Some expectations that we have consistently outlined in these submissions include:

  • Developing a standard of good repair for Ontario’s schools
  • Providing adequate, stable funding to eliminate the $16.3-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools
  • Resuming transparency into the disrepair in Ontario’s schools

We made these recommendations in January 2019 and submitted these recommendations in January 2020, and in each of these years also made presentations to the Committee of Economic Affairs and Finance as part of the budget consultation process.

Since 2018, our unwritten expectation of Premier Ford was that he would cultivate a government culture that authentically engaged with, actively listened to, and humbly learned from key stakeholders, in order to develop the best decisions and policy in the face of complex challenges. Our experience has, in fact, been quite the opposite. In stark contrast to the Liberal government who held power before Ford took over, and also in stark contrast to the PC Education Critic and Leader at Queen’s Park at that time, the Ford government has chosen not to actively engage with, listen to, or learn from stakeholders in any meaningful way. Prior to Ford becoming Premier, Fix Our Schools had true working relationships with the NDP Education Critic and Leader, the PC Education Critic and Leader, the Minister of Education, their political staff and the Ontario public servants in that Ministry, and, most notably, as a parent-led, non-partisan, Ontario-wide campaign, we had direct contact and many productive meetings with senior-level policy advisors within the Premiers’ Office. Those working relationships lead to some excellent progress, including significant increases in provincial funding for school repairs increase from $150-M/year to $1.4-B/year and transparency into the disrepair data in schools. Our experience with the Ford administration is that the culture established there is not one of learning or growth, so they seem destined to fall short when leading amidst the extreme complexity and pressure of a global pandemic.

As our input to the 2021/22 provincial budget, Fix Our Schools sent this submission to the Ministry of Education, and continues to call for stable, adequate, equitable funding for schools; a standard of good repair for all Ontario schools, including First Nations schools (which are funded with federal money) and portables. In this funding submission, we also included funding recommendations for the current pandemic environment, and looked ahead to 2025, when all public buildings are meant to be fully accessible for people with disabilities, and made recommendations to this government to provide funding to school boards to address accessibility within their buildings.

Our Expectations of Premier Ford Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic:

On June 11, 2020, Fix Our Schools sent these expectations to the Ministry of Education, in response to its request for public input to Ontario’s plan to reopen schools. Days later, we learned that an advisory group led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) had been working closely with the Ministry of Education.  SickKids issued its initial recommendations for safe school reopenings in the document, COVID-19: Recommendations for School Reopening (pdf), highlighting the need for:

  • the ability for children to maintain 2M distance from one another in classrooms
  • proper ventilation in classrooms
  • proper hand-washing facilities for all students

Given Fix Our Schools initial recommendations, and SickKids initial and subsequent recommendations, Fix Our Schools would have expected Premier Ford to have done the following, all of which are within his governments’ power: 

  • Released new emergency repairs funding to school boards so that they could have taken advantage of the fact that school buildings were empty for weeks and months at a time, and could have conducted outstanding repairs in these buildings more safely and more efficiently. 
  • Funded a return to school plan that would have allowed for sufficient space for students to maintain the recommended 2 m distance from others, like many other countries
  • Responded quickly to the June 17 Sick Kids report calling for proper ventilation in all classrooms, by immediately releasing funding to school boards to have been able to address ventilation issues, rather than waiting to release only $50-M in late August – weeks before schools were opening.
  • Provided funding required to ensure all Ontario students could have easy access to proper hand-washing in schools.
  • Advocated for Ontario’s First Nations schools, even though these are federally funded
  • Provided funding to replenish the technology that, understandably, was taken from schools back in the Spring to ensure all students had resources to participate in at-home learning, accommodate on-line learning. As it stands now, most schools have a dearth of technology available for in-school learning.
  • Developed a provincial outdoor education plan, acknowledging that being outdoors offers the most protection against COVID-19 transmission.
  • Consulted with educators and other education stakeholders to understand how government policies would actually unfold in real classrooms, in real schools, rather than relying on teachers, principals and education workers to work miracles.
  • Hired additional caretakers.

We, at Fix Our Schools, hope that this provides some insight into all that could have been done by Premier Ford since taking office in June 2018 to lead us to a much better place than we find ourselves in today. This January 7, 2021 Ottawa Citizen article provides some additional recommendations on ways Premier Ford and his government could make schools safer.

Individual vs. Collective Investment in Schools and Education: What is Needed Now from the Ford Government?

January 12, 2021

Since the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered Ontario’s schools in mid-March 2020, the Ford government has offered financial support to individual families to offset the costs of supporting their children’s learning amidst the pandemic.

  • Between April 6 and August 31, 2020, families could apply for a program called “Support for Families”, which would provide a one-time payment, per child, of $200 for children aged 0 to 12 and $250 for children or youth aged 0 to 21 with special needs. As per the Ministry of Education website, “this funding was offered to help parents with the costs of work books, educational apps, educational subscription services, movies and other tools to support learning at home”
  • On November 5, the Ford government released its annual budget, and announced it would extend an additional one-time payment to families of $200 for children aged 0 to 12 and $250 for children or youth aged 0 to 21 with special needs. “This funding was offered to help families access workbooks, school supplies, and technology to help their child’s learning this year”. The initial deadline to apply through the Get Support for Learners government webpage was originally January 15, 2021 but this deadline has been extended to February 8, 2021.

According to the November 5, 2020 CTV News report entitled, “Ontario parents will get another $200 payout to help with education costs”, the Ford government will spend $380-million on the second round of payments, on top of the $378-million for the first batch of payments. Rod Phillips, Finance Minister for the Ford government at the time, said this was “money well spent.”

On December 22, the Ford government announced that it would extend the same $200/student payment for students aged 13-through until Grade 12. Using 2016 Census Data for Ontario, Fix Our Schools estimates approximately 1-million students fall in this age range, meaning an estimated additional $200-million of government spending on this benefit. The application process for families to apply through the Get Support for Learners government webpage for children aged 13-18 opens January 11, 2021 and closes February 8, 2021.

The direct payments listed above are available to families of students who attend public schools, private schools, First Nations operated or federally operated schools, or are homeschooled. In total, they could equate to up to $958-million ($380-million + $378-million + $200-million) in government support directly to families for education amidst the COVID -pandemic.

Some would approve of the approach that the Ford government has used here – getting money directly into the hands of parents and guardians as quickly as possible, with as little red tape as possible. And there are certainly economic arguments for taking this approach.

However, others would vehemently disapprove of this approach, citing equity concerns such as:

  • Will the families who need support the most even apply to receive this payment due to awareness, access to technology, and time to apply?
  • Will the direct payment amount provided yield any real benefit for the education of children in this most challenging of times, when compared to benefits that may be yielded if this $958-million of provincial funding had been invested collectively in schools and education?

The Fix Our Schools campaign has always focused on ensuring that publicly funded schools in Ontario are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provide environments conducive to learning. The only mechanism within the current provincial funding formula to achieve this goal is for our provincial government to invest collectively in Ontario’s 5,000 schools. So why on earth, when we all knew back in the spring that ventilation in classrooms was key to safety, did the Ford government only invest $50-million in improving school ventilation?

We also question why the Ford government has done nothing to invest in ensuring that elementary students have the space in classrooms required to properly physical distance, knowing early on in the pandemic that this is a key success factor? Furthermore, we question why the Ford government has only invested $15-M collectively in technology for schools amidst this pandemic? Minister Lecce made an announcement on Saturday, January 9th, and shockingly, to quote NDP Education critic Marit Stiles and NDP Childcare critic Doly Begum:

“It’s desperately frustrating for parents that Stephen Lecce got in front of the cameras, and didn’t announce a single measure to make schools safe to re-open. This government doesn’t want to invest in schools, and that’s putting our kids’ health and their education at risk.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the fact that school infrastructure in this province has been chronically and grossly underfunded by successive provincial governments (and federal governments in the case of First Nations schools). Prior to the pandemic, there was $16.3-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s publicly funded buildings. A society cannot ignore infrastructure for decades and then expect that infrastructure to be resilient and safe amidst a pandemic. Knowing that the only source of funding for school infrastructure is government funding, Fix Our Schools believes that more collective investment by the Ford government is desperately needed – to address ventilation issues in classrooms, to ensure students have enough space in classrooms to properly distance, to buy the technology that school boards need to ensure all students have what they require to learn to name but a few collective investments. If you share our concerns and want the Ford government to take immediate steps to make the investments required to get all Ontario students back to in-class learning in schools, then please take one minute to send this letter to Premier Ford and your local MPP.

However, we also acknowledge that many families may benefit greatly from the direct payments from the Ford government, so if your family will benefit from the direct payments being offered by the Ford government to help with student learning, please ensure you apply before February 8, 2021 by visiting the Get Support for Learners government webpage. If your family circumstances are such that this direct government payment is not really needed, perhaps consider applying for it, regardless, and then donating the money? An idea to consider. 

Fix Our Schools shares the frustration of opposition parties with the Ford government’s lack of investment and lack of action to date to ensure students could be safe to learn in-person, clearly the best option for all students.

Fix Our Schools feels deep frustration on behalf of the children, teachers, principals, education workers, families, and school boards who have been and continue to be subject to the half-measures and lack of investment and action by our provincial government. Back in late August, Premier Ford said, “We’re really relying on school boards. I just told them I have all the confidence in the world that they’re going to be able to get through this and make sure that the students and the staff are in a very safe environment”. Premier Ford – you cannot continue to underfund schools and education, and then pass the buck to others to work miracles. Fix Our Schools believes that additional collective investment in schools and education is the only way forward, even though this investment would be coming much later than it ought to have been delivered. What do you think?

Onwards and Upwards But First …

January 5, 2021

Fix Our Schools was founded in 2014 with the goal of ensuring all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools were safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings that provided environments conducive to learning and working.  With some notable successes along the way, we continue to work towards this goal as we head into 2021. But first, a necessary reflection on the past year and on how Ontario’s provincial government handled school infrastructure in this unprecedented year.

Ontario’s school buildings began 2020 with at least a $16.3-billion repair backlog. While this number is staggering, it notably does not even include First Nations schools, portables, accessibility retrofits, water quality, air quality, or asbestos abatement.

Throughout a year like no other, Ontario’s school boards continued to be at the mercy of provincial funding and policies. While the Ford government maintained annual funding for school renewal and repairs at $1.4-billion/year, this level of funding has been shown to be grossly inadequate since disrepair in Ontario’s schools has continued to increase every year.

In fact, when the Ford government released its budget in November 2020, political economist Ricardo Tranjan declared it to be “really bad for Ontario education”.

https://twitter.com/ricardo_tranjan/status/1324491092147011584?s=20

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ford government actually shirked its responsibility to provide adequate, stable funding for schools and education when it ‘allowed’ school boards to dip into their own reserve funds to try to fund what was actually needed to ensure schools were safe, healthy environments.

Throughout 2020, the Ford government continued to drag its heels on new school builds and expansions across the province, leaving us almost 2 years behind in this process. 

When schools were shuttered in late March 2020 and left empty for months, the Ford government missed the opportunity to invest in school repairs and improvements, such as accessibility retrofits, that could have been done much more safely without students in these buildings. Even for repair and renewal projects that were particularly relevant amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, such as those focused on improving ventilation in schools, the Ford government dragged its heels in allocating any funding to school boards to take action on improvements. 

At the same time that Ontario’s provincial government was unable to take the necessary action to invest in school infrastructure that would provide safe, healthy environments for learning and working, especially amidst a pandemic, our federal government was doing very little to ensure First Nations schools were safe. Many of Ontario’s First Nations schools still do not even have clean drinking water, let alone the type of infrastructure that would be safe and healthy during a pandemic.

https://twitter.com/cbcreporter/status/1298973279923793920?s=20https://twitter.com/cbcreporter/status/1298973279923793920?s=20

The Ford government also failed to make needed changes to an outdated regulation guiding the eligibility for and use of Education Development Charges, so developers continued to get away without contributing to school infrastructure, from which they profit.

Our provincial government chose to ignore an opportunity to fund any outdoor education plans, which could have been a helpful component of a safe return to school in September. 

And, since taking office in June 2018, the Ford government has refused to publish updated disrepair data for Ontario’s 5,000 schools. This data is collected with taxpayer dollars, and citizens deserve transparency into the state of school buildings. 

Looking back on 2020, we realize a “silver lining” of the global pandemic relative to schools is that substantively more attention has been paid to the condition of school buildings. Ventilation, drinking water, and air quality may not be sexy topics, but Canadians now appreciate their importance. Media coverage of the state of school buildings was intense in 2020. With the ardent support of Fix Our School followers, we helped to keep a full conversation about safe, well-maintained schools in the press.

With your ongoing support, we intend to continue our work towards ensuring Ontario schools are safe, healthy, well-maintained buildings for all students and teachers. Onwards and upwards to 2021.

How First Nations Schools Are Faring Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

November 5, 2020

First Nations schools are funded by the Canadian federal government, whereas other publicly funded schools are the province’s financial responsibility. As provinces across the country were determining the safety measures that needed to be in place for public schools to reopen in September, inexplicably, First Nations schools were largely left to handle preparations themselves, without any resources or support. In fact, only in late August did the federal government announce that it would provide $112-million in funding for schools on reserves to help pay for things such as ventilation, personal protective equipment, and cleaning supplies. Unsurprisingly, by mid-September, these dollars had not yet started to find their way to First Nations schools.

On October 30, CBC covered that the federal government had released $200-million more in pandemic support for Indigenous communities to target childcare, education, and infrastructure. First Nations school infrastructure has frequently been noted as being overcrowded and in very poor condition. Therefore, amidst a global pandemic, sufficient and timely funding to address safety concerns should have been paramount.

Even though First Nations schools are funded federally, in an Ontario funding announcement the last week of October, the provincial government said that $6.5-million of the $1-billion announced would be directed toward Indigenous and on-reserve education, through the Ministry of Infrastructure in collaboration with the Ministries of Education and Indigenous Affairs. In Saskatchewan, more than 20 First Nations schools have closed due to COVID-19 fears, according to an October 30 CBC article.

Fix Our Schools believes that the federal and provincial funding that has been provided is likely far from sufficient to ensure all First Nations school infrastructure is safe, healthy, and well-maintained. We urge further steps by both provincial governments and the federal government towards ensuring adequate and stable funding for all First Nations schools and Indigenous children.

Who is Responsible for Funding Safe, Healthy Return to School for Ontario’s Children?

July 27, 2020

The schools that most Ontario children attend depend entirely on funding from the provincial government. However, the children of Ontario’s First Nations schools are funded at the whim of the federal government. In 2014, the Auditor General called for Canada to “immediately develop and implement a comprehensive strategy and action plan, with targets, to close the education gap.” This plan has not happened. Providing equal education to Ontario’s First Nations requires a commitment to adequate, stable funding.

Matawa First Nations Management, a council representing nine communities between the north shore of Lake Superior and James Bay (five of which are only accessible by air & winter road), has not received adequate funding to address a safe, healthy back-to-school this fall. 

These remote communities estimate they need $25-M in supplemental funding for all their educational facilities for this fall. These costs are in addition to the funding for Grandview Lodge, a dormitory-style school that will not only allow students to stay in the north, but will also allow their parents to stay for extended visits.

In Ontario’s First Nations communities, our federal government is obliged to fully fund appropriately-equipped schools and prepare all schools for this fall’s challenges. Prime Minister Trudeau… over to you.

Federal Government is Responsible for First Nations School Infrastructure

August 6, 2019

Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring  Society of Canada, wrote an Opinion piece for the Globe & Mail on July 16, 2019, entitled, “When will Ottawa end its willful neglect of First Nations children“.

She cites a report that was released earlier in the summer that confirms overall, 47% of First Nations children live in poverty – more than two-and-a-half times the national rate.

Blackstock calls on the Federal government to address this situation by co-developing a comprehensive plan with First Nations to address all the inequalities in public services on reserves, including education and basics such as water and sanitation.

Blackstock shares the story of the late Shannen Koostachin of Attawapiskat First Nation. “When Shannen was in grade 1, the only school in her community closed because of contamination from a gasoline spill. The Government of Canada, which is responsible for funding education on reserves, brought up portable trailers as a “temporary” facility while a new school was built. When Shannen was in Grade 8, those trailers were falling apart and there was no sign of a new school. She and the other youth in Attawapiskat called upon thousands of non-Indigenous children across Canada to join them in a campaign for a new school.

Shannen had to move off reserve to get a high-school education and in 2010, while she attended a high school she would have never gone to had the one in her own Northern Ontario community been properly funded, she died in an automobile accident. The thousands of children she inspired launched Shannen’s Dream to honour this hero and continue her work. In 2014, four years after Shannen’s death, a new school finally opened in Attawapiskat. Still, many other First Nations are without proper schools, so the campaign continues.”