Meetings Tab

December 2 2007

Summary: Jurisdiction Main Table Meeting

October 23 and 24, 2007

I. Welcome

Nathan welcomed everyone tothe first day of Education Jurisdiction Negotiations. Twelve First Nations will be confirming the Canada First Nation Education Jurisdiction Agreements by indicating the options selected for the two negotiable clauses.

He reviewed the agenda, noting that issues arising from the review of the annotated funding agreement will be discussed and decisions made on how to deal with them in order to ensure a strong negotiating position.

II.Dialogue

II.A.Updates

Provincial Legislation

Nathan provided an update. Nancy has been in contact with the province’s lawyers on technical details and some wording changes. Ministers Bond and de Jong have agreed that the legislation should be introduced and hopefully passed during the Fall Session. Nathan also indicated that the effective date of the federal legislation will be November 22, 2007. Ideally, announcements regarding both pieces of legislation can be made at the upcoming Provincial Education Conference.

Other Action Items

There was a brief update on the status of the Education Program Authorities renewal. There is no information available on the content of the new authorities, as the Memorandum to Cabinet has been prepared and submitted by INAC.

The Contribution Agreements for community consultation have gone out to IFNs. The amounts are based on Jurisdiction meeting attendance: $5,000 for one or two meetings and $10,000 for three or more meetings.

The Employment Handbook has been copied for distribution at today’s meeting.

Board Governance Training

Nathan and Kathi provided a PowerPoint presentation and requested input from the IFNs. A working group was established at the last meeting and has met to discuss next steps in further development of the Board governance training manual and process. Funding will need to be negotiated, with the first training session targeted for June 2008. Training on the more general components can take place now, with the more specific law-making pieces to be scheduled later on.

Kathi also reported on her community visits, and reminded IFNs that she is available to attend community meetings, and will tailor her presentation to meet community needs.

II.B.Negotiation Session Preparation

In the afternoon, the 12 negotiating First Nations will be concluding their Education Jurisdiction Agreements. The tables will be arranged so that First Nation negotiators will e on one side and the federal negotiators on the other. Nathan will act as facilitator, with Nancy and Jan keeping a record of the proceedings. The federal negotiators and FNESC will give brief presentations, and then each First Nation negotiator will confirm the selection of options as stated BY Chief and Council in the Mandate BCR. This will be a standing agenda item, as it is expected that more First Nations (from the list of 24) will be sending in the mandate BCRs.

III. Action

III.A. Canada First Nations Education Jurisdiction Agreement Negotiation Session

Please see Appendix I

III.B. Review of Annotated Funding Agreement

Nancy Morgan led a brief review of the annotated Canada First Nation Education Jurisdiction Funding Agreement. Funding for education jurisdiction will flow to the PFN in three ways:

  • Ratification Costs Agreement: Canada will provide the PFN with a one-time payment to offset the costs of establishing and conducting a ratification process.
  • Transition Agreement: This is a one-time funding agreement to support transition activities after ratification, so that the PFN can begin exercising Jurisdiction on the Effective date without delay.
  • Canada First Nation Education Jurisdiction Funding Agreement (CFNEJFA): This 5-year agreement will include funding for Education programs and services provided by the PFN, as well as governance and startup costs. It comes into effect on the Effective Date, and is negotiated every five years.

Nancy noted that there is nothing in the funding agreement dealing with treaty transition; we have left room for this in the legislation. There was considerable discussion about school facilities; Nancy indicated that there should be some kind of inspection of school facilities, and agreement that issues arising from this will be dealt with at a future date. There was a question about whether the Capital Asset Inventory System (CAIS) will apply under Jurisdiction. Tanja will look into these issues and report back at the next meeting.

With reference to clauses 5.1 and 5.2, “Exceptional circumstances,” Nancyrecommended doing as much advance planning as possible to avoid using this clause, and noted the importance of building as much as possible into the 5-year projections. For example, if the school is going to add more grades, clauses should be added or customized to reflect this. Exceptional circumstances are only those which cannot be predicted. In the event of a disagreement, the dispute resolution process will be used.

In response to other questions, Nancy and Tanja indicated that:

  • Moving funds from a tribal council CFNFA to an individual First Nation CFNEJFA would require the PFN to work things out with the other First Nations.
  • It isn’t clear what would happen if the “additional two years” passes and there is still no agreement on the subsequent CFNEJFA. Tanja will check into this.
  • If Canada defaults on the Agreement, the PFN could seek contractual remedy from the courts.
  • There is no need to provide a separate audit, just a separate Schedule. It was noted that there may be incremental audit costs.

Review of Schedule A: Education Programs and Services

As part of the review of the Annotated Canada First Nations Education Jurisdiction Funding Agreement (CFNEJFA) Sandy Thomson provided a review of the Schedule A: Education Programs and Services.

In order for NFNs to begin negotiating CFNEJFAs it is crucial to have a good understanding of the how funding currently flows of tuition for students attending First Nation schools. Schedule A, “Education Programs and Services” is the section of the in which the funding for instructional services and instructional support services are contemplated.

Sandy reviewed the definition of “eligible student” as it applies to instructional services and instructional support services, noting that the two differ. This is because some of the support services (e.g., ancillary services) are only available to students attending public schools, some are available to students attending First Nation schools and others are available to all students.

Instructional support services include: ancillary services; accommodation; student allowances; guidance and counseling; comprehensive instructional support services; transportation; school operation and maintenance; education minor capital and employee benefits for those persons employed in the education system. It is noted in the Schedule A that Aboriginal language and culture is currently targeted funding, and will only be included in the list of negotiable support services if education funding authorities change in the future.

At this time it is very difficult to establish a position for negotiating Jurisdiction funding agreements as there is no information on the national renewal of authorities (INAC), which will include a re-formulated Band Operated Funding Formula (BOFF), which is the FTE amount per student that First Nation schools would receive. INAC should have some idea early in the New Year what the new BOFF would look like.

It was asked if the new categories that were included in the interim Band Operated Funding Formula (iBoFF) would be included in the new BOFF. At this time it is not known. FNESC and Nathan were very involved with the work INAC was conducting leading up to the renewal of BOFF, and it is hoped that the needs of BC region will be reflected in the new BOFF. However, we do have the option of entering into discussions with senior officials from INAC on a “made-in-BC” approach to education resourcing; this will be discussed in more detail at the next meeting.

Sandy reviewed the reporting procedures and one-time implementation activities and procedures, noting that item # c provides the opportunity to negotiate “other matters agreed to by the Parties.” A more detailed list of governance cost drivers will be developed for discussion at the January meeting. There will also be a more focused discussion about the cash flow and adjustment procedures.

There were several questions and comments on the need for language and culture to be negotiated as part of the CFNEJFA. Tyrone commented that there is a National Languages Strategy with a costing model attached; there is a need to put dollar values to this. INAC has stated that the language and culture funding is included in the BOFF; however, either it does not seem to be there or the funds are insufficient. Also, the Cultural Education Program has been transferred to INAC, and it is unclear what this means for the Cultural Centers funding. Tyrone that a business case for language and culture funding should be prepared- hopefully, the FNSA will do the work on schools-based costing, and provide a 1-2 page briefing to FNESC. There is also a need to pull information together from other pieces: the Barry Anderson report on funding for schools and the Education Systems piece.

The IFNs requested responses from INAC regarding funding issues. The negotiator for INAC responded that they were taking careful notes of the issues arising under the funding discussions and will use this to carry out work related to funding agreements and also to form the agenda for the upcoming months as we move along in negotiations.

III.C. Issues arising from review of CFNEJFA:

A number of issues were raised by the IFNs:

  • Transportation costs, e.g. boats, not buses for isolated communities. Transportation costs for non-FN students living off reserve but attending a FN school – are costs included in this agreement for this
  • Nominal roll: What about children in care? What about children living on one reserve but attending a FN school on another reserve?
  • Eligible students: Public schools can’t refuse students if they don’t get funding for them, how could FN schools do this?
  • Special Needs: funds flowing with/following the student- off-reserve students?
  • Isolation and the high cost of living
  • Emergency services (climate change); the need for generators
  • Language and culture and curriculum costs. Intellectual property/ownership: Who has ownership of language programs and curriculum?
  • Technology; the costs for licensing, hardware & software
  • Employee benefits costs (pensions)
  • Teachers wages & need for on-going parity
  • Audit costs
  • Nutrition costs for in-school programs
  • Special needs (assessments, counseling services)
  • Governance (including LEA negotiations)
  • Delivery services (cost of delivery to communities)
  • Professional development costs and educational assistants costs
  • O & M costs
  • Security systems
  • Upgrades to administration systems, libraries, office equipment
  • Insurance costs (↑ isolation = ↑ insurance cost). Need to communicate with insurance broker re: costs for CEAs and FNEA
  • What about the transition to treaty?
  • capital facilities transfer to FNs?: re the facilities adequate and in good shape or will the FN have to take repair and upgrading costs
  • Criminal records checks:
  • Process and legalities
  • What is the definition of “ordinarily resident”?
  • What about the 2-year period after the 5-year expiry date of the agreement?

Nathan grouped and summarized the issues as follows:

Instructional Services:

  • What’s currently covered for instructional services?
  • We need to identify what we currently get through IBOFF and ensure that the funding will not drop

Instructional Support Services:

  • What’s included?
  • Transportation issues
  • What’s available from other federal departments?
  • Provincial parity (at the very least) is critical

Funding for language and culture:

  • Has to be included, not “if” funding authorities change to include in the BOFF
  • Heritage Canada has responsibility for language and culture; however, Heritage Canada is still “Canada” per the agreement
  • French language Nationally- how is it handled (also, Constitutional protection)?

National Authority Renewal:

  • Updates and timing

Other Federal Departments

  • What are other federal government departments doing with regards to programs related to education? How is it changing? E.g., Heritage Canada, etc.
  • We need briefing notes from other departments as to what they are responsible for (programs relating to education).

Reciprocal tuition: scope and process

Reporting requirements: (schedule C of schedule C)

  • What is “n/a” in “Completion Rate” column on the reporting form? (pg. 17 of 19)
  • Audit requirements: CFNEJFA

Capital Facilities

  • Need for facilities to be in good condition- transition: who provides funding?
  • Pre-inspection
  • What about construction of new facilities?

Cash Management

  • CFA/CFNFA/CFNEJFA
  • How are adjustments to the block handled year to year? Is funding based on per pupol for 5 years or enrollment at the beginning of the Agreement?

Transition to treaty

Bigger ticket items such as insurance

  • Can we share?
  • How do we qualify?

Subsequent Agreement

  • Second year extension, renegotiation

Next Steps:

  • Provide IFNs with comprehensive list of what is currently in the iBOFF
  • Identify gaps in current education funding
  • Develop justification for increasing levels of funding

IV. Communications

IV.A. Communications Materials

The expanded Jurisdiction DVD will be finished once filming of the introduction and passage of provincial legislation is completed. Othercommunications materials will be prepared before the provincial legislation is introduced.

Jan has prepared the first set of reports for INAC on the Negotiations and CapacityBuilding activities and budget; the community-based PowerPoint presentation prepared by Kathi is attached to the report.

The Jurisdiction web site is being updated, with completion of the “virtual binder” as the priority.

V. Community Progress

In addition to meetings, newsletters, presentations, the following ideas and practices were highlighted:

  • Coordinating communications activities with other First Nations in the tribal council
  • Using professional development days to provide information to parents
  • Using incentives (such as loonies) to attract more people to meetings
  • Presenting information about jurisdiction at bringing out ceremonies
  • Having a dedicated communications person working with all IFNs within the Nation. Pooling funds
  • Having Jurisdiction on the agenda at the local school board retreat
  • Door-to-door kitchen table discussions
  • Not using the term Jurisdiction…talking instead about control over education
  • Involving Elders and youth to a greater degree: “pincer,” having youth present to Chief and Council

Issues and concerns were raised:

  • The $10,000 allocation is not enough for a Jurisdiction Coordinator
  • There is a need for funding confirmation for the next three years (capacity building)
  • When a First Nation’s school is located on provincial Crown land: need to look at transferring it to reserve.
  • Staff and Council turnover is impacting consistency and continuity
  • Some community members are unclear why the province is involved (need clearer messages)
  • What to say when the issue of sovereignty comes up
  • Concern that the process is moving too quickly: need to stress that initialing the Agreement provides an opportunity to test drive, and make the final decision from there
  • Concerns around funding, reciprocal tuition expressed at some meetings
  • Issue of teachers’ salaries, parity with the province need to be addressed.

VI. Other Issues and Updates

VI.A. Teacher Certification

Sue Gower provided an update on progress to date, noting that Barb Kavanaugh continues to provide expertise and that two regional Principals will be hired this June to assist. She distributed several sets of information:

  • The seven standards for First Nations schools
  • Sample guiding questions, with reference to the standards
  • Using standard # 2 as an example, strategies and techniques we would like to see in our schools.

It was also noted that the BC College of Teachers is modeling their standards after the work done by Barb Kavanaugh for FNESC/FNSA. There will be assistance from the BCCT regarding standards for fitness and teacher decertification.

VII.Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held in Vancouver on December 5 and 6.

VIII. Action Items

Action / Who, By When / Progress
Meeting Summary
- Prepare October meeting minutes
- Prepare list of action items
Provincial Legislation
-Prepare and send letter to provincial Ministers
- Complete final wording changes
Agreements:
- Complete final revisions to annotated CFNEJA and CFNEJFA and post on web site
Community Readiness
- Complete Negotiations Readiness Checklist
- Community visits/presentations
Negotiations
- Follow up with Heiltsuk and Simpcw re: appointment of Negotiators
- Confirm any new Mandate FNs ready to negotiate/finalize CFNEJA
Templates and Checklists
- Prepare revised Law
- Co-Management Agreement
Other Legal
- Develop CEA options and “before and after” snapshot: Board/Society to CEA.
- define “ordinarily resident”
Board governance training:
- Assemble training content into manual.
Communications
- Update web site and virtual binder
- Develop key messages: negotiation, initialing funding; fiduciary, self-gov’t/treaty, CFNFA, Indian Act, etc.
- Update Jurisdiction PowerPoint
- Update questions and answers
Jurisdiction Budget
- Review Jurisdiction budget, project to March 31, discuss add’l $ with INAC
- Report: sources of $ for major pieces of Juurisdiction
- Prepare 2008-2009 Jurisdiction Work plan
Jurisdiction Funding
- Prepare Issues list for October meeting
- Instructional Services/iBOFF- what is included
- Review Barry Anderson paper, compare to IBOFF
- Research issue re Language and Culture, including how French funding is handled
Subcommittees
- Schedule Costing Subcommittee
English 12
- One-page briefing for Education Partners meeting: challenges
- Confirm dates of University Presidents’ Council meeting
December Jurisdiction meeting
- Agenda (meeting structure- build in small group discussion, nametags) / - Kathi/Jan/Sandy by Nov. 16
- Sandy by November 7
- Nancy/Sandy/Paisley by Nov. 2
- Nancy by November 16
- Nancy, Sandy by November 16
- Kathi/Jan/Sandy by Nov. 22
- Kathi
- Kathi, Paisley by November 16
- Paisley by November30
- Nancy by November 30
- Nancy by January meeting
- Nancy by January meeting
- Nancy by December meeting
- Nathan by November meeting
- Jan/Nancy/Sandy/Patti by November 15
- Nancy/Kathi/Sandy by Jan.
- Jan/Jenny by January meeting
- Sandy , Nancy by January meeting
- Sandy/Jan by November 16
- Sandy/Jan by November 20
- Sandy/Jan draft by January/08
- Tanja/Heather/Sandy by Nov. 9
- Tanja/Heather by November 13
- Tanja by November 16
Paisley-set for November 20
Karrmen by
Jan asap
Sandy/Kathi/Jan/Nathan/Paisley by Nov 9 / Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete
Complete
ongoing
Complete
Complete: Mt.Currie
Complete
In process
Virtual Binder updated
Complete
Deferred to January
Complete
Complete
Analysis completed
Complete- Subcommittee held
Complete
Complete

Appendix I