To the Editor:
Over the week, as we head toward July 1st - Canada Day 2013 - we'll all be celebrating the many great things about our country that make us so proud. And well we should!
But let's also take time to note where we must do better.
Child poverty is a prime example. It is sad enough to acknowledge that some 16 per cent of Canadian children overall struggle with life from day-to-day below the so-called "poverty line." But for visible minorities, the child poverty rate is even higher at 25 per cent. And for new immigrants, it's 33 per cent.
In Metis and Inuit families, child poverty runs at 27 per cent. And in First Nations communities nationally, it's a staggering 50 per cent. In my home province of Saskatchewan, the First Nations rate could be closer to 65 per cent.
Such sobering statistics about low income levels are typically accompanied by equally grim indicators about educational achievement, housing and homelessness, water quality, infant mortality, health, suicide and encounters with the justice system.
This is a vicious circle of negative compounding factors that spiral downward from what we like to believe is the high Canadian norm. Governments need the courage and the will to break the cycle. Citizens, taxpayers and voters need to signal loud and clear that more effective action to fight child poverty is being demanded.
It's hard to know where to begin, but one priority must surely be higher levels of educational achievement. Getting there will not be simple or easy. There's no quick fix for keeping kids in school with the will and the aptitude to learn, and the desire to keep on learning more and more every day. But a start could be made on the basic question of financing.
Provincial governments are primarily responsible for the K-12 school systems in their respective jurisdictions across the country. But one big exception is schools for First Nations kids on-Reserve. That's federal jurisdiction. And there's a big gap between the two.
The Government of Canada invests about one-third LESS per-child in First Nations schools than the provinces invest in the general school system off-Reserve. This is clearly part of the problem.
A couple of weeks ago, students at St. Dominic Savio Catholic elementary school asked me to attend an assembly at their school in a pleasant suburban neighbourhood in southeast Regina. They wanted me to hear their concerns about the discrepancies in education that discriminate against First Nations. These students were impressive - engaged, informed and articulate.
They told me what they had learned from their teachers about the debilitating legacy of Indian Residential Schools, how that painful experience ricocheted through families over several generations, and the sad reality that educational deficiencies for First Nations children persist even today.
The St. Dominic Savio students want the funding gap fixed. They want First Nations children to have the same opportunities they have. They put their ideas in writing, and I was honoured to deliver their letters to the Prime Minister.
Before another Canada Day rolls around, the federal government should be determined to bring its support for educating First Nations children up to the K-12 standard set nationally by the provinces. That would be a good beginning, and a great reason to celebrate.
My thanks to everyone at St. Dominic Savio school for showing how much they care.
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
