A new assessment from the Assembly of First Nations shows the infrastructure gap facing First Nations schools and students is growing, not shrinking.
The First Nations Education Infrastructure Capital and Operations and Maintenance Needs Assessment looked at 395 schools and 1,222 teacherages on reserve across the country. It found 227 schools are overcrowded under Canada’s own space standards, and 77 need immediate replacement. That’s 25 more overcrowded schools and 21 more requiring replacement than in 2021.
The report estimates $19 billion is needed in capital investment over the next 20 years to bring those schools and teacherages up to standard, split roughly between $16.8 billion for schools and $2.2 billion for teacherages. On top of that, First Nations need $550.3 million a year just for operations and maintenance.
National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak says the gap goes beyond buildings. “First Nations children can’t learn in an unsafe, insecure environment and teachers can’t teach without a home,” she said, calling on Ottawa to invest in the 2026 federal budget.
The findings feed into the AFN’s pre-budget submission to Parliament, ahead of an October First Ministers’ Meeting where Chiefs have pushed to make education a central topic.
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