The NWT government is set to announce funding for some educational assistant positions either cut or left unfilled because of changes to Jordan’s Principle.
The territory has called a Thursday morning news conference regarding what it termed the Interim Support Assistants Initiative.
Thursday’s announcement will feature a “direct response to recent changes in federal funding under Jordan’s Principle – a program that has long provided essential in-school supports for Indigenous students across the Northwest Territories,” the GNWT stated in a short advisory.
No further detail was immediately confirmed, but Cabin Radio understands millions of dollars will be committed. How many positions that cash will sustain is not yet clear.
Around 200 positions across the NWT’s education systems relied on some form of Jordan’s Principle funding during the 2024-25 academic year, according to government records.
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Dozens and dozens of positions have been lost according to school boards, including 79 in Yellowknife’s YK1 school district alone.
Jordan’s Principle and a companion program, the Inuit Child First Initiative, exist to ensure Indigenous children receive important services.
However, changes made by the Trudeau government earlier this year had some major consequences in the North. Those changes meant many schools weren’t able to renew their Jordan’s Principle funding for educational assistants.
Some schools said Ottawa had rejected their applications as they aren’t on reserves, even though just one of the territory’s 49 schools is reserve-based. (Only two reserves exist in the NWT.)
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Separately, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation has said it is ending a grocery subsidy worth up to $500 a month because of changes to Inuit CFI.
In July, federal Indigenous services minister Mandy Gull-Masty said she needed time to consult with Indigenous leaders about how Jordan’s Principle and Inuit CFI can be improved – but added she would not “rush” to solutions. The minister said an update should come in the federal fall budget.
“I know that the school year is approaching quickly. It is not far from the forefront of my mind,” Gull-Masty said, “but I have to make sure I am really reflecting something that is conducive to the needs of children in schools.”
The GNWT, by contrast, has repeatedly asserted that finding a way to fund the affected positions is urgent.
If a multi-million-dollar territorial funding package is confirmed on Thursday, that will mark a departure from the territory’s previously stated position that it did not have the money to intervene.
“One thing that needs to be very clear here is the GNWT cannot afford to take on the programs that the federal government introduces and does not continue,” education minister Caitlin Cleveland told the legislature in late May.
“Over the last number of years, officials at the Department of Education have reiterated to officials within the federal government that we cannot afford to take on this program should they choose not to continue it.
“That is why the Minister of Health and Social Services and I are teaming up together to deliver this message to Ottawa. That is why I have teamed up as well with education ministers from the Yukon and also from Nunavut, because this has an impact on Indigenous people across this country and across all three territories.”
