Memo to Minister Bennett: Keep the Promise

No one will be watching the release of next week’s federal budget more closely than First Nations. 

The Liberals made a number of promises to us in the election last October. The cornerstone commitment was to pump $2.6 billion into First Nations education. 

We responded. Indigenous people voted in numbers never before seen in history. Long suspicious of settler government (and for good reason), we chose to believe that elections could make a difference. 

The budget will be a test of that faith. 

Now, there will be those who will counsel political realism. Election campaigns are one thing, budget practicality another.

But the situation of First Nations is unique. Colonialism is a litany of broken promises. Failure of the government to live up to its election undertakings will be seen by Indigenous people through that lens. 

That’s why Indigenous affairs minister Carolyn Bennett’s bizarre show-and-tell last week about missing First Nations education funds was doubly disconcerting. 

A source told the Globe and Mail that the government “has discovered” that $1.25 billion was quietly taken from education funds by the Harper Tories in order to balance the budget just before the election campaign. The Liberals were counting on that money to fulfil its promise to add $2.6 billion to First Nations education funding. 

The story was almost certainly planted by the government to set the stage for Bennett’s announcement in the House of Commons the next day. 

Confirming the missing money, she stated vaguely that the government would “redouble its efforts” to improve on-reserve education, but pointedly refused to answer NDP questions about whether it will meet its $2.6-billion promise.

The story – coming as it does nearly half a year since the Liberals took office – has all the signs of prep for breaking a promise.

If that is the plan, the Liberals will pay a heavy political price for it. 

But, as they always do, First Nations students will pay an even bigger price by having to keep on attending substandard schools that are funded 30-percent less per pupil than off-reserve. 

Do the right thing, Minister Bennett. Keep your promise and close the gap.