Survivors upset at limitations on education credit monies

Survivors Committee member Eugene Arcand is urging survivors to “stay calm” as his committee pushes for changes to the personal credit portion of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement.

“Don’t react to the psychological warfare we have endured for the past five years of this residential school settlement agreement… Now is not the time to lower our level of intelligence and integrity to someone else’s, who continues to wound us,” Arcand told a hall full of survivors and family members during the seventh and final national TRC event, which was held in Edmonton at the end of March.

Survivors have taken exception to the limitations set for the use of personal credits.

“Recently we have been re-victimized with an issue called personal credits,” said Arcand. “We are (treated as) little children, told how to spend the piddly little $3,000. We are challenging that.”

According to the IRSSA, recipients of Common Experience Payments are entitled to $3,000 in non-cash personal credits which are to be used to further the education of that residential school survivor or a family member at a pre-approved educational institution. The IRSSA stated that if more than $40 million remained in the CEP Trust Fund, that money would be distributed as personal credits to CEP recipients. Personal credit acknowledgement forms were mailed this past January and claims must be submitted by Oct. 31.

“We want those personal credits invested in our own communities for language and cultural retention. We were not warned of that part of the agreement and it has upset many of our people,” said Arcand.

The Assembly of First Nations is aware of the concerns survivors have about personal credits.

“We’re getting lots of feedback in respect to personal education credits…and there are issues,” said AFN CEO Peter Dinsdale. AFN is one of the signatories to the IRSSA.

However, he noted, the agreement does set out a method, which is “a little bit cumbersome,” that allows recipients to pool their credits so they can be used for language programs or back to the land camps. Recipients would have to work through an organization, such as the band council or a friendship centre, in order to do this.

But other concerns noted by survivors are not addressed by the terms set out for personal credits by the IRSSA.

Some survivors have noted that the personal credit should be more than $3,000, said Dinsdale, while others said they would rather have the $3,000 in cash and not in credits. Survivors have also said they would rather the credits have a broader use so that the funding can cover supportive services such as daycare, for a student’s children;  health care; room and board; or books.

“I think they’re legitimate concerns. I think they’re all kinds of barriers that exist. I think the challenge is for us is that these funds weren’t really contemplated for that and because they are part of a legal settlement agreement … we’re kind of bound by those terms,” said Dinsdale.

AFN liaison officers are continuing to meet with survivors to understand their needs, but bringing about changes to the implementation of personal credits is limited.

“We’re going to do our best to communicate those (concerns) back to government and where there’s flexibility, try to make sure those amendments are made but it’s a very short time frame, it’s a very short window and there’s certainly no shortage of needs out there,” said Dinsdale.

In an email reply to Windspeaker, Valérie Hache, spokesperson for the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, stated, “The Government of Canada is committed to a fair and lasting resolution to the legacy of Indian Residential Schools and is focusing on an agenda of reconciliation between Aboriginal people, their families and communities, and all Canadians.”

She did not respond to inquiries on whether the government was aware of the concerns voiced by CEP recipients or if the federal government were open to changes guiding personal credit uses.
If after personal credits have been allotted there is surplus, that money will be divided proportionally between the National Indian Brotherhood Trust Fund and the Inuvialuit Education Foundation and used for educational programs.

“And frankly, we’re not anticipating there will be a surplus. That’s the reason why we’re doing such a push through our liaisons,” said Dinsdale. “This money … is to help facilitate reconciliation in some way and that’s really where it is best spent. So our hope and really expectation is that all be spent through that process.”