Education credit 'colossal mess'
Daunting paperwork, confusing information and Oct. 31 deadline makes process for residential school students to use funding unworkable
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 20, 2014
NUNAVUT
As news outlets and Facebook posts remind former residential school students of a looming Oct. 31 deadline to use a $3,000 personal education credit, many are only now realizing they are eligible, some are just learning the possible ways it might have been used, and some are frustrated by the terms of the credit's use, which are dictated by the federal government.
All former students who received a common experience payment (CEP) are eligible for the credit.
"The timelines tell you everything you need to know. I have to wonder that this program was designed to keep the uptake to a minimum," said lawyer Stephen Cooper.
Cooper has been involved with the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement process since the beginning, about 10 years ago, and he is "absolutely stunned."
"This will compete with the absolute worst programs ever designed in any democratic state in the world. I have to think it was three 30-year-old white males in downtown Toronto for whom an exotic trip is Ottawa. I am just appalled at how horrific this is."
Cooper cites two documents totaling 28 pages of highly technical information, zero advertising, impossible deadlines, a website that doesn't function, documents mailed to five-year-old addresses as among the factors that contribute to his disparaging assessment of the credit program.
From the Oct. 31 deadline, a month remains to set everything up with the educational institution. The deadline for that is Dec. 1.
"Here's the insanity. After posting your application form, you have to wait for the application to be approved and sent back to you and you get this little certificate that is reminiscent to me of winning a cruise. You get this stupid little certificate, which you then have to get to an institution that's going to offer you the program. That's assuming you know where that might be from going to the Internet, which your average 80-year-old is not very competent at doing.
"Then you have two weeks to get that institution to approve it and all that has to happen in 30 bloody days. And I hear, anecdotally, that some of these programs are causing problems already for people trying to get them approved. You have to have it in before Dec. 1 and if not, you are considered not to have a credit."
After Dec. 1, the value of unused personal credits will be transferred to the National Indian Brotherhood Trust Fund and the Inuvialuit Education Foundation to fund their own educational programs.
"Not only that, but they'd have upwards of 100,000 people that have to complete these programs by when? April 15, 2015."
Lawyers were intentionally kept out of the common experience payment, one part of the two-part settlement process, designed as a streamlined method to proceed for all former students. Others with more severe claims, such as sexual abuse and physical abuse, could proceed with the independent assessment process.
Cooper was one of the negotiators for the trust fund that feeds the education credit.
"It was all good intentions. We don't want the federal government to have any incentive to reduce the amount that is paid out to any of the parties. We don't want them to say, 'We can save ourselves a billion dollars by being difficult.' We removed the incentive to the federal government to do that by saying, 'Here's what you're paying' - I think it was $1.9 billion - 'and if it turns out that the payout is $1.5 billion, you don't get to keep the other $400 million.'"
The common experience payment process closed in September 2012, the remaining money was placed in the trust fund and, in early 2014, the education credit was announced.
"I don't know how much is in there. I wasn't able to find out. It's more than $40 million, because that was the trigger. I would be surprised if it were under $200 million. It's fairly significant."
The idea, said Cooper, was for as much money as possible to go to individuals and their family.
"The people who put this program together should be ashamed. As far as I'm concerned, they're victimizing the common experience survivors again."
Cooper compares the credit program to the common experience payment process.
"At least the CEP was a two- or three-page document. I've got 28 pages in front of me of documents that are primarily in English (for this credit). When you compare this to the four years people had to complete the CEP process, with a massive program out there to advertise it, with workers going into communities, with workshops put together by First Nations, Inuit and other groups to make sure this was done ... and then you have this colossal mess."
As former students become aware of the extent of the program's failings, some are fighting back. In Manitoba, a petition is circulating.
It reads: "Survivors legally represent themselves, and are fully capable of making their own informed decisions and choices.
"The process and terms and conditions for applying for the $3,000 personal education credit are unjust, biased, does not reflect true restitution and reconciliation, and are a barrier to accessing educational initiatives."
Cooper has received multiple phone calls and desperate pleas on Facebook for help from clients about how to access the education credit. "People are confused," he said.
Unfortunately, as Cooper notes, the age range for former students is about 60 to 90 years old.
Asked what real recourse former students have, Cooper replies, "I don't know. Go to court? This was court-ordered, so what's your recourse? Go back to court."
