GDI is a Saskatchewan-based educational, employment and cultural institute serving Métis across the province
Oct 23, 2019
Posted in: Adult Basic Education, Education
These are exciting times for the Métis Nation– Saskatchewan (MN–S) as it makes progress in meeting the post-secondary education needs of Métis across the province. On July 19, 2019, the MN–S President Glen McCallum and Education Minister Dr. Earl Cook announced $89 million in new post-secondary education funding for Métis students. The funding was received through the national Métis Nation 10-Year Education Strategy.
The Strategy identifies three critical areas for federal investments in Métis post-secondary education: direct financial support for Métis post-secondary education students; increasing Métis Nation education governance capacity; and support for post-secondary education student services to be delivered primarily through the MN–S’s post-secondary educational institution, the Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research.
The online portal to enable Métis post-secondary students to submit their applications for funding is available at: https://gdins.org/career-and-employment/sponsorship/uni versity/.
The new funding will help empower Métis students to overcome barriers to accessing post-secondary education. Until now, there has been a significant gap in post-secondary attainment levels between Métis and non-Indigenous populations in Saskatchewan. This is due, in part, to inequities in the way that the federal government supports the post-secondary education needs of Indigenous students which has resulted in the exclusion of Métis students from funding available to other Indigenous students.
However, in its 2016 decision on Daniels v. Canada (Indian Affairs and Northern Development), the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed that Métis are included in section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867, and that any systematic exclusion of Métis from federal policy and programming represents a failure on the part of the Crown to honour its fiduciary responsibility to the Métis Nation under Canada’s Constitution.
GDI is a Saskatchewan-based educational, employment and cultural institute serving Métis across the province
