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'Filled with bureaucracy'
Applications for $3,000 in funding is Oct. 31; Process has been made unnecessarily difficult says Assembly of First Nations rep helping NWT residents apply

Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 27, 2014

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Five thousand NWT residential school survivors who are eligible for a $3,000 education credit from the federal government have until Oct. 31 to submit their claim.

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Shannon Payne, NWT Personal Credits Liaison for the Assembly of First Nations talks to Dene chiefs about how residential school survivors can apply for a $3,000 education credits at the Chief Drygeese Centre in Dettah on March 6. Payne called the application process "incredibly slow and incredibly filled with bureaucracy" and warned that strict deadlines could keep residents from applying - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

However, even if residents submit their claim on time, a representative from the Assembly of First Nations says the tight deadlines set by the federal government could cause beneficiaries to end up empty-handed.

Shannon Payne, the AFN's NWT Personal Credits Liaison, has been tasked with travelling throughout NWT to help people fill out their application forms since the funding was announced last January. Payne said the deadlines set by the government are unrealistic based on the rate at which applications are currently being processed.

According to figures which Payne obtained from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, approximately 10,000 of the 80,000 residential school survivors who are eligible for the credits across Canada have so far submitted their applications. Of the 10,000 who have applied, only 771 cheques have been returned so far, she said. The applications are so backlogged that people who applied for their credits as far back as February have yet to receive their credits, she said.

"The process has been incredibly slow and incredibly filled with bureaucracy," she said.

Part of the problem is that after the initial application has been reviewed, a subsequent application must then be submitted by the educational organization, in order to confirm that the funding will in fact be used for its intended purpose.

According to AANDC, those forms must be submitted by Dec. 1 and the funding must be spent by Apr. 30 of next year. Even if someone was to submit an application within the next week, Payne said it is unlikely that it would be processed by all the relevant departments in time to receive the credit.

"It's a multi-step process, so after (a residential school survivor) receives their acknowledgment forms and sends it in, they get a redemption form back, they have to fill it out," she said.

"Then they have to take it to the organization, the organization has to fill out a budget, that has to get sent back into Ottawa, that has to be approved by the administrator, then the administrator sends it to AANDC for payment, then AANDC approves it and sends it back to the administrator, then it goes to (the department of) economic and social development, they cut the cheque ... to the administrator, then the money goes to the organization."

"It's crazy, it's absolutely crazy."

Payne has been joined by others in advocating for AANDC to push the deadlines back. However the federal government has so far held fast on its timelines.

Representatives from AANDC did not answer questions from News/North regarding the deadlines by press time.

Feds did not disclose all information

The education credits can be used to pay for educational programs such as university or college courses, or trades school/training. In the event that the individual who is claiming the credit does not want to use it themselves, they can transfer it to a single family member or use it toward supporting community-based programs such as workshops and cultural centres.

During an Oct. 20 sitting of the legislative assembly, Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli encouraged those who have not yet applied to submit their forms so that they could be used to increase funding for on-the-land programming.

"These deadlines are fast approaching, but there is still time to collectively join elders out on the land and get that education going," he said.

On top of its mishandling of the deadlines, Payne said one of the federal government's biggest oversights is that it failed to mention the money could be used for community programming when it sent out the application forms in January.

"If you read the terms and conditions, there are complete sections that refer to language and cultural activities and opportunities and options. None of that information was conveyed in the original information that was sent out from the government," she said.

"As a consequence, a majority of the people threw the forms away, thinking, 'Well, I'm 83 years-old and I'm not going to school anymore.'"

Payne said some NWT communities, especially in the Beaufort Delta, have been proactive in ensuring that those eligible for credits are applying for them.

She encouraged all eligible beneficiaries to still apply for the funding. Those who no longer have their form should contact either their local band office or the AFN as soon as possible.

The education credits, which could total of $40 million nation-wide, was earmarked after there was money left over from the $1.9 billion set aside for paying out residential school survivors through the 2007 residential schools settlement.

Any money which is not handed out will be transferred to trust funds under the watch of the AFN and the Inuvialuit Education Fund.

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