11. Priority Resolution: Equalizing On-Reserve Education
WHEREAS one-third of First Nations students on-reserve attend First Nations schools;
WHEREAS Aboriginal people have a higher financial rate of return to education than non-Aboriginal Canadians because, with education, the gap in earnings closes and largely catches up to non-Aboriginal earnings;
WHEREAS presently, nearly 40 per cent of Aboriginal students do not finish high school;
WHEREAS over the next 10 years, aboriginal young people will make up a significant portion of new entrants in the labour market;
WHEREAS funding for schools on reserve lags that of other schools by roughly 30 per cent;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Liberal Party of Canada supports First Nations rights to education and commits to funding First Nations schools equal to that of the Provincial funding allocations for Provincial operated schools; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Liberal Party of Canada is committed to closing this education gap within its first term in government.
Liberal Party of Canada (Saskatchewan)