Cut-off students top item on AFN agenda

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The cut-off of funds for Status Indian students was the top item on the agenda at the most recent meeting of First Nations Confederacy in Ottawa.

The confederacy, an arm of the Assembly of First Nations, is protecting the Department of Indian Affairs' decision that November 1, 1986 would be the cut-off date for applications for funding for students commencing study in '87l.

As well as protesting the cut-off itself, the confederacy is questioning DIA's interpretation and administration of the cut-off order.

In some provinces, students newly entitled under Bill C-31 are exempted from the cut-off; in other provinces they are included. Also, British Columbia and New Brunswick have extended the cut-off beyond even DIA's guidelines. (In N.B., the cut-off was pushed back to October 27, 1986 and in B.C. 14 students who had applied as early as May of '86 were denied funding.).

According to DIA, the funding deadline was set because the department needed the educational figures early so they could feed them into their computer accounting system (the same one that Auditor General Ken Dye described as a disaster area) in time to complete their budget.

While DIA claims that the cut-off was for accounting purposes, there are indications in DIA directive on costs associated with Indian education that the real reason for the deadline was DIA's desire to put a cap on the department's spending on Indian education.

The confederacy says that the AFN has to fight any move by DIA to undermine funding for First Nations' education and demand consultation with the department on any policy that might affect the education of First Nations' citizens.