Trudeau vows to invest in First Nations education

In a packed room at a Saskatoon hotel, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau announced his first big-ticket campaign promise, saying a Liberal government would spend billions to improve First Nations education.

He also acknowledged that his party was on the best financial footing to run an extended campaign, sitting on significantly more cash than the NDP, Liberals, Greens or Bloc Quebecois.

According to numbers from the Assembly of First Nations, on-reserve students receive on average about $3,000 less than children in the provincial system.

“Liberals perceive this: when the center class does nicely, so does the complete nation”, a relaxed-looking Trudeau stated as a few of his get together’s candidates stood behind him.

That legislation officially died with the election call, leaving unspent most of the $1.9-billion that the government had offered for First Nations education on the condition that the act be endorsed and passed into law.

“We’re proposing a strong and real plan, one that invests in the middle class, so we can grow the economy, not from the top down, the way Mr. Harper wants to, but from the heart outwards”.

Trudeau says the Liberals will work to see treaty rights and residential schools included in school curriculum. That deal, reached in 2005 under then-Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, would have provided billions of dollars for education, housing, health and other indigenous social programs, but it was scrapped when the Conservatives took power the following year.

He said more details on agriculture policy and First Nations will be unveiled in the coming weeks.

Saskatchewan has been fertile ground for the Conservatives in recent federal elections.

With NDP Leader Tom Mulcair away from the hustings and Prime Minister Stephen Harper touting his government’s economic philosophy in Saskatchewan, Trudeau found an opening to make a political splash.

Though light on details, Trudeau also made some offerings to agricultural producers – addressing water challenges, building “infrastructure that is going to be resilient and resistant to the more extreme weather events”, and getting a farmer safety net back in place.

Trudeau is the first of the party leaders to visit Saskatchewan. “The one that has completely failed under Mr. Harper?” he replied. “All the parties need to step up and make clear commitments to First Nations”.