How much? | Liberals say revealing sensitive details could hurt negotiations

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By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN
llewellyn.stephen@dailygleaner.com

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More than 1,500 children from 15 First Nations communities attended class in New Brunswick's school system in 2007 and the province should have been paid between $12 million and $15 million.

But the Department of Education refuses to lift a veil of secrecy and say how much of that money was received or which community is in arrears.

That information was contained in documents obtained by The Daily Gleaner recently under the Right to Information Act.

"Currently, three of the 15 First Nations communities in New Brunswick have been under third-party management and pay tuition for First Nations students to attend the public education system," said Education Minister Kelly Lamrock in a letter dated Dec. 1.

The provincial government refused to identify the three communities, saying the information can only be released by the federal government.

First Nations communities in this province receive money from Ottawa for educating their children, and that money is supposed to be passed onto the province if the children attended public schools.

The first hint that some First Nations communities weren't paying tuition for their students was reported by The Daily Gleaner in October after testimony by a senior Department of Education official before the legislature's standing committee on public accounts.

The government refused to release any additional information so the newspaper filed a Right to Information application in October to find out which bands are in arrears and how much each band owes for educational services.

In his letter, Lamrock said the government couldn't reveal that information, "as it could jeopardize the current negotiations of arrears repayment agreements between the Aboriginal Affairs Secretariat and with each First Nation community in New Brunswick."

Section 6 (c) of the Right to Information Act allows the government to withhold information that would cause financial loss or gain to a person or department, or jeopardize negotiations leading to an agreement or contract.

The province did reveal that as of February 2007 there were 1,571 First Nations children enrolled in New Brunswick schools, or 2.4 per cent of all students.

That includes 193 from the Listuguj Mi'gmaq First Nation in Restigouche, Que.

There were 110,288 students enrolled in New Brunswick schools in 2007-08, at a per pupil cost of $7,751.31.

Based on that amount, First Nations should have paid $12.2 million for educational services that year.

But Lamrock announced in October an agreement on educational payments had been reached with the Kingsclear First Nation, including the repayment of $919,000 in arrears. For the next five years the band will pay the province $9,664 per student, and half that money will go to school programs for aboriginal children.

If the per-student figure from the Kingsclear First Nation deal is included, the total value of all First Nations student education would be $15.1 million.

Government budget documents also provide some information on what the province received from First Nations communities for educational services.

According to the Public Accounts Volume Two Supplementary Information for the year ending March 31, 2007, the province received $9.9 million in revenue under the heading of "native students."

That same document also shows the government received $1.9 million from the First Nations Education Fund.

Chuck Strahl is the minister of indian affairs and northern development and federal interlocutor for Metis and non-status Indians. He was in Fredericton recently and was asked about the missing money.

"We can probably do a better job of following the money, so to speak," he told The Daily Gleaner.

But Strahl said it cuts both ways because sometimes the bands transfer money to the province only to have some of their children drop out of school.

"And that school board got the full (amount) for the year," he said. "That money has been transferred and they feel not accounted for on that other side."

Strahl said that happens across Canada. He said that's why Ottawa, New Brunswick and First Nations communities recently negotiated a new tripartite agreement on education.

Don Desserud, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick's Saint John campus, said transparency in government doesn't mean everything has to be public.

"It could be legitimate," he said about the secrecy surrounding First Nations arrears on education services.

"It might just be because it is embarrassing."

But the process by which information is dealt with and why information is handled one way and not another should be clear, he said.

"If it is not, then you risk generating suspicions when those suspicions are not even warranted," Desserud said.

"If we don't know what the real story is, people are going to jump to their own conclusions, and that is unfortunate for all concerned."

The Daily Gleaner is appealing the government's refusal to release the information.