Gaps

• The OECD also suggests broadening the scope of Australia’s so-called Safeguard Mechanism, which at present regulates the emissions of Australia’s 215 biggest polluting facilities.
• It awards Australia a score on carbon pricing well below the OECD average and even further below that of the top OECD performers.
• The OECD is a forum of 38 mainly high-income countries, including Australia, that describe themselves as committed to democracy and market economies.
• Declining productivity, declining competitiveness
  The OECD finds signs of “reduced competitive intensity” in product markets, as well as falling labour mobility.

• In Canada, when we talk about truth and reconciliation we have a tendency to focus on the Indian residential school system (IRS).
• While engaging with knowledge about residential schools and their legacies is an important facet of truth and reconciliation, there are other colonial school systems that we also need to acknowledge, consider and remember.

Multiple colonial schooling models

The Canadian government initiated and implemented multiple colonial schooling models for over a century and a half beyond the IRS, such as:
Where one system failed, the government designed a new school system based on the failure of the previous school model to try and assimilate Indigenous children.

Survivors from many school models

• Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) said, “The Survivors need to know before they leave this Earth that people understand what happened and what the schools did to them.” As a society, it is important that we remember Survivors from each school model and their many impacts on Survivors, their descendants and society as a whole.
• People need to know and understand the truth about what happened to Survivors and why this happened to them in order to heal and walk the path of reconciliation.

Addressing gaps in knowledge

• (also known as Akaisamitohkanao’pa, or gathering place) approached me to be a guest curator and create a traveling museum exhibit based on my TRC research, I decided to use the opportunity to rectify the gap of knowledge so many of us have about educational policy.
• It presents photographs and stories from Survivors, the Canadian government, the Christian religions and their missionaries, the Indian Agents and Indian school inspectors.

Right to know the truth

• fully adopt and implement the … United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why,” and “iii.)
• fully adopt and implement the … United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why,” and “iii.)

Multiple Christian churches

• The exhibit introduces the different Christian churches who created missions on the Blood Reserve, and shows Survivor experiences of missions’ different characteristics.
• For example, as Survivor Jim Young Pine shares about attending St. Mary’s School:
  “The nuns at the school were French and always spoke French.
• It was while working outside Kainaisskahoyi that I learned English from non-Natives.”
  “The nuns at the school were French and always spoke French.
• Churches opened several of the different schools the Canadian government devised to try and assimilate Indigenous children.

Stories from Survivors of institutions

• The stories are also a testament to the survival of the Blood People.
• We continue today to practice and live our ways of knowing, being and doing as Siksikaitsitapi.
• The exhibit concludes on a note of hope by highlighting the resiliency of the Kainai People.

Maintaining our identities as Siksikaitsitapi

• Today, the Blood Tribe runs its own education programs from early childhood education to post-secondary education.
• Kainai Board of Education operates five schools (Saipoyi Community School, Aahsaopi Elementary School, Tatsikiisaapo’p Middle School, Kainai High School and Kainai Alternate Academy).
• The Blood Reserve has worked hard to create education that works towards maintaining our identities as Siksikaitsitapi.

Education as ‘new buffalo’

• To many Indigenous Peoples across plains regions in Canada, education has become the “new buffalo.” This means just as the buffalo once sustained us for our needs, Indigenous Peoples are adapting education to meet our needs today.
• To observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and all year,
  let us be reminded of Survivors’ voices from the past century and a half, and as Sinclair said, re-commit our reconciliation efforts to “act to ensure the repair of damages done.”
  As the former TRC chair also said, until people show they have learned from this, we will never forget.

• Down south, the winter was the hottest ever recorded in Australia, fuelled by record ocean temperatures.
• Small wonder many Australians are worried about what summer will bring, as a likely El Niño threatens hot and dry fire weather.
• And if you live anywhere in Australia, you need to plan for heat.

Fire gets attention – but extreme heat can do more damage

• But in reality, extreme heat hits harder.
• That’s because extreme heat can be extremely widespread – and a hidden killer.
• As the climate becomes less stable, we’re seeing more heat domes – slow-moving high-pressure systems which sit atop an area and blast it.

Will bushfires be back this summer?

• Grasses dry out more quickly than other vegetation types, meaning grasslands switch rapidly from moist to tinderbox.
• The most likely fires we’ll see this season will be grass, scrub and city fringe fires.
• Very large forest fires like those of the Black Summer are less likely, as these need extended dry conditions.

What should you do to get ready?

• Let’s say you live near a forest or grassland which could be a fire risk.
• How could you make sure all your loved ones are contactable – and if they’re away from you, how could you make sure they can get to safety?
• If you’re in a bushfire prone area, explore and make use of planning resources offered by every state, territory and local emergency agency.
• With your family, friends or housemates, run through different scenarios so you’re on the same page.
• Businesses must understand their responsibilities to their employees during extreme heat and have plans to manage these.

Do prepare but don’t panic

• As these risks build and become more severe, we can no longer just think “she’ll be right”.
• As climate risks expand and become increasingly severe, understanding and actively planning for these risks is now an imperative.

• The government of Ontario has projected significant increases in demand for child care as a result of lower fees.
• In these early days, we are not aware of evidence of this happening, but anecdotally this seems to be the case.
• To prevent this, Ontario, and indeed all provinces, need to double down on removing barriers to child-care subsidies for low-income families.

Lower-income families have less access

• In Canada, many children spend a significant part of their day in early learning and child care, whether in centres or home-based settings.
• With the introduction of new child care agreements across Canada, all families are eligible for substantial fee reduction.

$10 a day is a hardship for many

• Before the federal government announced the introduction of Canada-wide early learning and care agreements, most parents who received a child-care subsidy in Toronto paid well below $10 per day.
• Since their fee contribution was set based on financial eligibility criteria, this means that $10 per day would be a hardship for many of these families.

Complicating factors

• Wait lists for child care can be long, with some parents having to get in line even before their child is born.
• One complicating factor is that parents find it hard to evaluate the quality of care their children receive, with many being unaware of whether it is licensed or not.

Disadvantages compounded

• It is concerning that children from lower-income families are less likely to have access to any form of licensed care.
• Low-income families tend to have limited knowledge of the child-care sector and tend to live in neighbourhoods with fewer child-care spaces per child.

Remove work/study requirements

• To address this inequity, all work/study requirements for fee subsidies should be removed.
• However, for vulnerable and marginalized groups, access to early learning and child care remains uncertain.
• Samantha Burns receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and The Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.