Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

Chapter 6: Elementary and Secondary Education
Although on-reserve education is a federal responsibility, the province is affected because
there is significant student mobility between on-reserve and provincially funded schools.
The majority of Aboriginal students in Ontario are educated in provincially funded schools.
In addition, many secondary students living on-reserve are educated off-reserve in provincially
funded district schools through tuition agreements and the underfunding of on-reserve
elementary schools often translates into acute remedial needs at the secondary level in
provincially funded schools.
The federal government identifies “comparability” as a general objective for on-reserve
education. 5 It is commonly noted, however, that federal funding falls well short of parity with
provincial education spending on a per-student basis. 6 The intolerable delays from the federal
government to increase per-student funding for on-reserve education to close the gap with
provincial funding levels must end.
Recommendation 6-6: The Ontario government should put strong pressure on the federal
government to provide funding for First Nations on-reserve education that at least reaches
parity with per-student provincial funding for elementary and secondary education.
Recommendation 6-7: The province should negotiate with the federal government and First
Nations to ensure the establishment of new multi-year, strategic top-up funding agreements for
on-reserve schools. These agreements, voluntary for interested First Nations, would ensure
that per-student funding for on-reserve schools is at least equivalent to that provided to
adjacent English-language public district school boards.
The federal government’s current approach to funding on-reserve education in Ontario
involves funding individual bands and stand-alone schools. This “one-school, stand-alone
model” does not allow for economies of scale in the provision of educational services.
Back-office services, which are typically supplied by district school boards and provincial
ministries of education, include functions ranging from curriculum development to long-term
capital management. 7 Without a comprehensive education system, individual bands and
schools may have less capacity to provide specialized services such as speech therapy and
counselling that are generally shared among schools in district boards. The creation of
administrative bodies could help achieve economies of scale and improve the provision of
educational services on-reserve.
5 Tonina Simone, “Current and Emerging Issues: First Nations Education,” Library of Parliament (2011), p. 22.
6 See, for example, Don Drummond and Derek Burleton, “Aboriginal People in Canada: Growing Mutual Economic Interests Offer
Significant Promise for Improving Well-being of the Aboriginal Population,” TD Economics, (2009), p. 9, and Michael Mendelson,
“Improving Education on Reserves: A First Nations Education Authority Act,” Caledon Institute of Social Policy, (2008), p. 7.
7 Michael Mendelson, “Why We Need a First Nations Education Act,” Caledon Institute of Social Policy, (2009), p. 5.
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