A/HRC/27/52/Add.2 Additionally, some provincial governments are making efforts to ensure that Canadian students learn more about the aboriginal contribution to the country, and to promote aboriginal students’ success. For example, Saskatchewan has mandatory treaty education and includes First Nations and Métis content, perspectives and ways of knowing into curricula, and is currently developing a pilot strategy for teaching the Cree language. 20. However, numerous First Nations leaders have alleged that federal funding for primary, secondary and post-secondary education is inadequate. The Auditor General has noted that although the Government “identified seven categories of factors having a significant impact on the cost of First Nations education … it did not make funding adjustments based on its findings”.13 21. In recent years, the federal Government has placed a priority on education, as highlighted by its development of the First Nations Education Bill. However, the bill has been met with remarkably consistent and profound opposition by indigenous peoples across the country. Indigenous leaders have stated that their peoples have not been properly consulted about the bill and that their input had not been adequately incorporated in the drafting of the bill. The main concerns expressed by indigenous representatives include that (a) the imposition of provincial standards and service requirements in the bill will undermine or eliminate First Nation control of their children’s education; (b) the bill lacks a clear commitment to First Nations languages, cultures and ways of teaching and learning; (c) the bill does not provide for stable, adequate and equitable funding of indigenous schools; and (d) the bill will displace successful education programmes already in place, an issue that was raised particularly in British Columbia. 22. In a positive development, in February 2014, the Government, supported by the Assembly of First Nations, announced Can$ 1.9 billion in additional education funding starting in 2015, including Can$ 500 million for education infrastructure, and a 4.5 per cent annual “escalator” for core funding, to commence in 2016, in place of the long-standing 2 per cent cap on funding increases. The Government also affirmed that First Nations would maintain control over education. However, it remains unclear to what extent First Nations were adequately consulted about these developments. 23. Approximately 90 aboriginal languages are spoken in Canada. Two thirds of these languages are endangered, severely endangered or critically endangered, due in no small part to the intentional suppression of indigenous languages during the Indian residential school era. The same year the federal Government apologized for the residential school policy, 2008, it committed some Can$ 220 million annually for the next five years to Canada’s “Linguistic Duality” programme to promote English and French.14 By comparison, over the same period, the federal Government spent under Can$ 19 million annually to support indigenous language revitalization.15 2. Housing 24. The housing situation in Inuit and First Nations communities has reached a crisis level, especially in the north, where remoteness and extreme weather exacerbate housing problems. Overcrowded housing is endemic. Homes are in need of major repairs, including plumbing and electrical work. These conditions add to the broader troubling water situation in First Nations reserves, in which more than half of the water systems pose a medium or 13 14 15 8 Auditor General 2011 report,, para. 4.30. Ministry of Canadian Heritage website, “Roadmap for Canada’s linguistic duality 2008–2013: acting for the future”. Assembly of First Nations, Report to the Special Rapporteur (2013), pp. 50–51.