Latest news with #RichardEdjericon
CBC
2 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Yellowknife school district bracing for loss of 79 education assistants from change in Jordan's Principle
Yellowknife Education District No.1 (YK1) says it no longer has the funding to keep 79 of the district's educational assistants next school year as a result of recent changes to Jordan's Principle. Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) announced earlier this year that it would be narrowing the range of eligible requests for funding through Jordan's Principle, a program established to ensure First Nations children don't face gaps or service denials because of their identities. In a news release Tuesday, YK1 superintendent Shirley Zouboules wrote that the district has applied for Jordan's Principle funding but is still waiting for a reply. Without the funding confirmed, Zouboules said 79 educational assistants in term, or temporary, positions have been told their positions likely won't exist next school year. Zouboules said that YK1's eight schools will adapt and that students previously supported by the 79 educational assistants not returning next year will be reassigned to the remaining educational assistants. "Assignments will be prioritized to ensure safety and promote student success," Zouboules wrote. MLA for Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh Richard Edjericon said Łutsël Kʼé is losing five educational assistants as a result of the changes.
CBC
29-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Impacts of Jordan's principle funding cuts already evident in N.W.T. community
An N.W.T. MLA says funding cuts to federal Jordan's Principle funding will affect school teaching assistant funding in Łutsël Kʼé. The federal government announced sweeping changes to the program earlier this year. In February N.W.T. educators questioned if the funding changes would impact teaching assistant positions, considering the majority are funded through Jordan's Principle. MLA for Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh, Richard Edjericon says schools have since realized that the cuts will in fact affect those positions. "Let me give you a concrete example of how devastating these cuts are. Last week I learned that Łutsël Kʼé Dene First Nation School is losing five full-time education assistants, all of whom were funded through the Jordan Principle program," said Edjericon. Edjericon gave Fort Resolution as a second example, and said that its Deninu School stands to lose a significant amount of federal funding with the new eligibility restrictions. He added that even schools in Yellowknife are at risk of losing funding with around $50 million in serious jeopardy come fall. "For weeks now, schools across the North have watched as their applications for Jordan Principal funding for the fall have come back denied," said Edjericon. "When schools reopen this fall, a crisis of Indigenous education will begin unless this minister takes immediate action to restore the Jordan's Principal funding." In 2024, the education department funded 127 support assistants. The other 205 were funded by Jordan's Principle. Edjericon asked Caitlin Cleveland, N.W.T. Minister of Education, how she is working with community school boards and First Nations to restore funding. Cleveland said she has a close working relationship with the territory's education bodies and education ministers in the Yukon and Nunavut. She said that while conversations are taking place, it isn't possible for the N.W.T. government to carry on the program with funding in place of the federal government. "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," said Cleveland. Edjericon noted how education is a treaty right to be upheld and questioned why the schools in the territory became so reliant on the federal funding. Cleveland said the territorial government accounts for school positions within their funding formula and the federal government has created additional positions through their program, entirely separate from territorial government methods. Cleveland said that she and the N.W.T. Minister of Health and Social Services will be bringing concerns to the federal government and looking to discuss them with Rebecca Alty, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.
CBC
23-05-2025
- CBC
'Colonial mindset' preventing return of child's remains to her community, says N.W.T. MLA
WARNING: This story contains details that may be distressing. Some N.W.T. MLAs pressed the territory's culture minister on Thursday to waive legislation that they say is holding up efforts to return a deceased child's remains to her home community. The child from Fort Smith, N.W.T. — identified only as Alma by the Deninu Kųę́ First Nation — died while at residential school in the 1940s, according to the First Nation. Under the territory's Archaeological Sites Act, Alma's remains are considered artifacts since it's evidence of human activity from over 50 years ago and that means a permit would be required to move them. "Insisting that the remains of Indigenous children are subject to Archaeological Sites Act reveals the same colonial mindset that led to the creation of the residential school to begin with," Richard Edjericon said, MLA for Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh. Chief Louis Balsillie of Deninu Kųę́ First Nation has said that his community has been searching for unmarked graves of students of the former St. Joseph's residential school in Fort Resolution. It's a possibility people have talked about for years in the community. Balsillie said earlier this year that they've figured out where Alma was buried, and that the community wanted to help Alma's sister fulfil a promise of returning Alma to Fort Smith to be buried alongside her mother. Edjericon, along with Yellowknife MLA Robert Hawkins, pressed the minister to issue a directive to override the Archaeological Sites Act and instead invoke the Coroners Act to allow the territory's coroner to exhume the remains for the purposes of an investigation — something Edjericon says is warranted since he believes "there are serious reasons to doubt" that Alma died of tuberculosis, as indicated on her official death certificate. The Deninu Kųę́ First Nation said in a news release this week that the cause of death for residential school students was often said to be tuberculosis, a "catch-all category." "However, these deaths are questionable according to elders (survivors) and archival records," the release states. Indigenous people not 'property of the state,' MLA says Hawkins says that under the Archaeological Sites Act, Alma is considered a "thing." "And if she is a thing, she becomes a property of the state. And if she becomes a property of the state, what symbolism does that represent, that Indigenous people are a property of the state?" Hawkins said. Caitlin Cleveland, the minister of Education, Culture and Employment, emphasized that neither she nor her department wants to stand in the way of Alma's remains, or those of anyone else, being returned to their community. But she said she needs to follow the law and she doesn't have the authority to issue a directive as suggested by Edjericon and Hawkins. The Archaeological Sites Act came into force in 2014 and Cleveland said the territory is in the process of updating the legislation. She said it wasn't drafted to addresses cases like these but the territory is working to make improvements. "This act does use the term 'artifact,' but in no way, shape or form is the respect or dignity of this process, or the importance of this process, diminished because of that," she said. "There is a desire to ensure that respect is being afforded to all Indigenous people of this territory and Nunavut who may have family who are buried at the sites of our residential schools in this territory." Cleveland also said that if the community knows the identity of the individual and it is clearly marked, the Archaeological Sites Act does not apply. It's not clear how the community would prove that individual's identity. Edjericon said that he was "saddened" by Cleveland's response and said that government policies were overriding treaties and Indigenous values. Caroline Wawzonek, acting as premier in R.J. Simpson's absence, called a point of order on those comments. She said Edjericon had overstepped and made inferences about the minister's intentions and the process, imputing negative motives when the issue is important to all of the assembly's members. "It's not a characterization of work that's happened on this file, that's been described in this House today," Wawzonek said. "It's not fair and it's not proper." Speaker Shane Thompson agreed with Wawzonek in his ruling and Edjericon retracted his comments. A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
