3. PEI's not-so-impressive investments in Indigenous Education

The image above shows part of the PEI provincial legislature chamber, the room where PEI provincial delegates meet to discuss matters at hand. It is located in a historic building, named Province House, where, long ago, the Fathers of Confederation met to discuss the creation of a provincial union and independence from the Crown.

I figured that looking at my home province should be the logical next step for my inquiry as it would be here, in this room, that decisions regarding provincial education and indigenous affairs would be made. I wanted an up-to-date snapshot of the situation here, and a quick search online revealed that a new provincial report has just been published in June 2022.

Let's begin with an interview with Mark Sheridan, who is the Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Director in PEI. Here, Sheridan spoke about the importance of publishing an annual report on Reconciliation progress (CBC/Radio Canada, 2022). This is good news, as an annual status report would keep the provincial government accountable for continuing to find new ways to support the Island's Indigenous communities. He is quoted as saying:

It shows a commitment by government, but also by people and Canadians that raises awareness of the importance of the impact of residential schools on the Indigenous population in Canada and the intergenerational trauma that it's caused and is causing today. (CBC/Radio Canada, 2022).

The fact that Sheridan mentions intergenerational trauma in his interview does two important things, in my opinion. It acknowledges that intergenerational trauma exists, and it helps to educate the public about this. A message from the government can be perceived by the public as a strong and researched message. This is important because I believe many older Canadians are still in denial about this. For example, my father, who is in his 70s, still strongly believes that Indigenous people have been given everything they need to succeed in life, but instead they choose to live on the streets. Unfortunately, his generation, and many generations before, were taught these falsehoods about Indigenous people. But these messages are no longer acceptable, now is the time for change, and messages like Sheridan's above, will hopefully reach a few people like my father.

Next I looked at the Government of PEI's Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report for 2022. There were many areas reported on, but I chose to focus on the items related to the domain of education. 

Here are the highlights from the report, verbatim (Government of Prince Edward Island, 2022):

• Providing the “4 Seasons of Reconciliation” training for educators to bring awareness to diversity and inclusion, and historical perspective for teaching Indigenous ways of being;   

• Funding of $50,000 to STEAM PEI to assist in the development of a Creativity Centre in the Epekwitk Assembly of Councils Building for STEAM programs focused on Indigenous knowledge; 

• Funding of $80,190 to Lennox Island for the Netukulimk Education Program to implement a community-based approach to education resource design in renewable energy and promote careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among Indigenous youth.

Let's start with the first point. "4 seasons of Reconciliation" is a great resource. There is a unit plan with impactful videos, meaningful discussion prompts, collaborative student projects. I know this because I did the training for this in 2018, with the French representatives for our Department of Education (I teach the History of Canada to French Immersion Students). I am confused about why it is in the 2022 report, though. Did the English teachers complete the training this year? If so, why the delay? If you'd like to have a look, this is the link. Our Department of Education paid for our access.

https://www.reconciliationeducation.ca/fr-ca/

As for the second 2 points, they look pretty promising at first:

$50,000 for STEAM activity development

$80,190 to promote careers in tech.

These figures made me want to look up what the province is spending on non-indigenous education, so I looked up the provincial Budget Estimates for 2022-2023 (Department of Finance, 2022) and here are the most shocking numbers I found. The province is spending the following dollar amounts on:

$3,510,200 for French Education, Programs, and Services

$55,219,900 for Early Childhood Development

$2,304,800 for Autism services (salaries alone are $1,255,000 !)

$1,092,000 is going to College de l'ile, a French post-secondary school

$33,907,900 is going to Holland College

$42,815,800 is going to UPEI

There is not even a Budget heading for Indigenous Education.

Ok... wow... 😲😳😬😩😟.

So the province obviously has A LOT of money to spend on education, in general, and is choosing to devote a total of $130,190 to Indigenous education??? I knew the numbers would show an imbalance, but I cannot comprehend how the province came up with that amount. This is incredibly demoralizing. 

In his CBC interview, Sheridan made it seem like the money was a huge win, and yes, it probably is a baby step in the right direction, but in the grand scheme of things, the province can do better. First off, the budget needs to devote an entire major section to Indigenous education, in my opinion. Then the government needs to organize its indigenous education department so that it resembles other departments, like the French programs for example. This will allow for a fundamental restructuring, equalize the resources between stakeholders, and allow for more direct comparisons of investments in the future.

CBC/Radio Canada. (2022, June 10). P.E.I.'s truth and Reconciliation Commission Report helps Keep Province focused, director says | CBC News. CBC news. Retrieved July 9, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-truth-reconciliation-report-1.6484783

Department of Finance. (2022, June 28). Estimates of revenue and expenditures 2022-2023 (restated). Government of Prince Edward Island. Retrieved July 11, 2022, from https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/publication/estimates-of-revenue-and-expenditures-2022-2023-restated

Government of Prince Edward Island. (2022, June 10). Truth and reconciliation commission report. Government of Prince Edward Island. Retrieved July 9, 2022, from https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/news/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-report