Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Education Policy

The government of Canada has a fiduciary responsibility for the First Nations People in Canada. This study examined documents from 1993 to 2005 to determine the policy communities and the policy networks that were involved in education policy development and implementation for band operated schools in the Saskatchewan Region. The policy issue examined in this study was the nominal roll process that is the basis for education funding. Policy communities and networks were analyzed according to the streams approach of John Kingdon. This study revealed that the organization of the associational actors and critical events played an important role in policy development and implementation.The policy process was found to be highly state-directed with minimal involvement from the associational actors until 2003, when a critical event occurred, resulting in a realignment of the associational actors. Although this critical event was part of the nominal roll process, it was unrelated to the actual issue of the procedure for the student census or student count.