First Nations education bill to be tabled in Parliament tomorrow

The federal government has given notice it will table its long-awaited bill on First Nations education Thursday, ahead of a scheduled two-week Easter recess.

The government gave notice on Tuesday that Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt will table a bill "to establish a framework to enable First Nations control of elementary and secondary education, and to provide for related funding, and to make related amendments to the Indian Act and consequential amendments to other Acts."

The notice comes after a retooled education plan giving First Nations control over First Nations education was unveiled with the endorsement of the Assembly of First Nations in February.

Under the proposed bill, the government would also close the funding gap by earmarking $1.25 billion over three years for aboriginal schools across Canada beginning in 2016. That amount would increase by 4.5 per cent each year after.

But Ghislain Picard, the AFN's regional chief for Quebec and Labrador, is challenging the proposed bill in court.

Picard's group has asked the federal court for a judicial review of the proposed legislation despite the agreement reached between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the AFN. 

The petition to the court was filed on the grounds that the government failed to meet its obligation to consult directly with the First Nations concerned.

First Nations leaders in Saskatchewan have also expressed some concerns with the proposed bill.

All eyes will be on the fine print to see what changes — if any — the government has made to the bill since its announcement in February.

A draft of the legislation unveiled last October was rejected outright after it failed to meet the five conditions laid out by the AFN.

However, Shawn Atleo, the national chief for the AFN, said he endorsed the second version of the bill because it meets all of the conditions set out by a group of national chiefs during a meeting in Ottawa last December.

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