Former Prime Minister: Continued underfunding of Aboriginal education just ‘dumb’

It is not only “immoral” but “stupid economically” for the federal government to continue to underfund the education of the fastest growing, youngest segment of the Canadian population.

“(It’s) as dumb as anything…. These are the people on who we are going to build a nation and we’re not going to educate them? It’s just beyond belief,” said former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Since leaving office in 2006, Martin has thrown his energy and financial commitment behind organizations that support Aboriginal youth and entrepreneurs. Martin believes that while universities and post-secondary institutions have made giant steps to advance the educational opportunities they offer Aboriginal students, early education, elementary and secondary schools, whether on or off reserve, have not made the same strides. To that end, Martin and his family started the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative (MAEI), which has as its focus not only education but also entrepreneurial opportunities.

The Capital for Aboriginal Prosperity and Entrepreneurship Fund offers investment dollars to Aboriginal graduates who want to explore business opportunities. The investment fund contains $50 million that Martin raised from 20 Canadian companies.

The education portion of MAEI includes two different pilot projects in schools across the country. In two on-reserve schools in southwestern Ontario, one pilot project focuses its energy on literacy in one school and numeracy in the other to make it possible for students from those schools to transfer to any school and be on par with their same-grade counterparts.

The second pilot project involves nine schools across the country and instills the value of education on the students in attaining better jobs. The young entrepreneurship program teaches the students the necessary skills to be in business and encourages them to go on to post-secondary education and further their skills and opportunity to make a good living.

MAEI also runs an accounting mentorship program with accounting firms working with students who have shown an interest in numbers. A Web site, another MAEI project, allows teachers to offer best practices, guidance that is not readily accessible for isolated northern reserve teachers.

Martin is particularly proud of the MAEI’s latest accomplishment: the development of its own textbooks. Instead of using textbooks adapted to meet First Nations’ needs, two teachers spent a year writing the high school textbook.

“We’ve written what we believe to be the first textbooks on how to do business by Aboriginals for Aboriginals anywhere in the world,” said Martin.

Martin approaches his partnership with on-reserve schools the same way his government dealt with First Nations and other Aboriginal peoples.

“We don’t go anywhere unless a chief and band, education director and principals of a school say that want us,” said Martin.

It was the Liberal government, led by Martin between 2003 and 2006, that did the ground work and began discussions for the apology that was delivered in 2008 by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

But the Kelowna Accord, the second part of Martin’s two-prong approach to addressing Aboriginal concerns, was scuttled by the Conservatives.

The Kelowna Accord, which had its share of critics, set out $5 billion to be spent over five years on priorities identified by the Aboriginal leaders, and included education, health care, water, housing and accountability. The amount to be set aside for the next five years was to be discussed later.

Martin and his government, along with premiers and territorial leaders, met with the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and heads of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Metis to discuss issues of concerns.

“(The Aboriginal leaders) were going to set the issues to be discussed,” said Martin. “I said, ‘You make the demands and then we’ll negotiate how to achieve them.’”
But the Kelowna Accord died when Harper took over.

Martin finds some consolation in the fact that prior to the last federal election Harper issued an invitation to the AFN, opening the doors to a First Nations-Crown gathering.

Martin also finds hope in the fact that at least 30 Aboriginal people sought seats in the May federal election with seven successfully taking their place in Ottawa.

“I have maintained from the very beginning that while I believe very much in self-government, there’s nothing in self-government that precludes Aboriginals from running as MPs,” said Martin. He noted that sometimes it is easier to bring about changes when working from within. “I’d love to get people elected who would be on my side.”

Martin’s passion for justice and his commitment to Aboriginal people are values he has carried since he was a teenager. Working in the northern parts of Ontario in the summer of his high school years, Martin became aware that kids his age didn’t have the same educational opportunities as he did.

When he became prime minister, his religious ceremony was a smudging. Now, as he talks in Africa about Canadian values, it gives him pause to reflect further.

“I say to myself, ‘How can you be talking about Canadian values when there are reserves where the tragedy is every bit as great as anything you’re going to see in a small community in Africa?’ Yet we as a very rich country are allowing that to happen,” said Martin.