In Alberta colleges and institutes indicated that there is a lack of provincial support for First Nation students, in particular for training allowance support that is available to all other Albertans. Funding from First Nations Bands is limited and there is unmet demand. In addition, Grant MacEwan College faces challenges in accessing funds from the government to create and expand Aboriginal programming. Occasional grants from other funding partners enable the college to create unique services such as an Alberta Health grant to initiate an Elders office on campus. The college makes efforts to provide a global perspective on learning and includes Aboriginal specific content in many programs, especially those in the human services. Entrepreneurial activities within program areas have also contributed to financial viability, for example15 students came to the college’s Aboriginal Police program from the Saskatchewan RCMP recruiters).

The funding sources available to New Brunswick Community College are limited because as a ministry governed institution and is not eligible for provincial Aboriginal funding programs.

• HRSDC – AHRDA, LMDA and Employment Insurance Students

Colleges and institutes identified challenges with the three main programs accessed for funding from HRSDC: the Aboriginal Human Resource Development Agreements, Labour Market Development Agreements (LMDA) and the Employment Insurance (EI) program.

Some colleges and institutes rely on AHRDA funding to meet the needs of Aboriginal learners from the communities and region they serve. In some cases, some institutions indicated that AHRDA holders provide program funding to their own training arms rather than give student specific funding. This leaves public post-secondary institutions in some regions without a primary funding source to meet Aboriginal community needs for college level credentials. On the other hand, Camosun College does not access local AHRDA funds because it considers that Aboriginal communities are more in need of this funding.

Colleges and institutes identified some limitations with the federal funding available through AHRDA’s, LMDAs and EI for Aboriginal programming:

• First, interventions funded by these programs are too short and geared to direct employment. However many aboriginal learners require more long term training due to low secondary school graduation rates and literacy levels. For example:
  • One campus at SIIT currently has 300 Adult Grade 10 students on a waiting list, and another 300 for the Grade 12 program. However high school upgrading programs are not a government priority because they are not tied to direct employment at the end of the program. Given the backlog, SIIT has been trying to make the case for government to fund these students because the upgrading provides them with a direct ladder to other post-secondary and employment related programs.
  • Nunavut Arctic College works with a population base with low literacy levels. In order to address the real needs in Nunavut the federal government should provide more sustainable, multi-year funding that enables institutions like Nunavut Arctic College meet the literacy and skills development needs of its population. For example, in Nunavut, the average grade level of the Inuit is Grade 9 if you remove all the government employees. Within this context, it is not realistic to expect that short term training programs can enable learners to develop academic, work related skills as well as employment skills such as punctuality, financial management, and personal skills to be successful in the working world.