CALGARY: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Centre for Aboriginal Policy Change responded today to the Auditor General's report on the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada's education program and post-secondary student support program.

"It is clear from the Auditor General's report the department of Indian Affairs has little or no accountability for $1.1 billion of tax dollars they spend each year on native education. The department cannot even say if taxpayers are receiving any value from the $1.1 billion," said the Centre's director Tanis Fiss.

The graduation rate for native Canadians who live on reserves is 40 percent compared to about 70 percent for other Canadians. The Department of Indian Affairs spends $1.1 billion dollars a year - or roughly 20 per cent of its annual budget - to educate 120,000 native Canadians in over 500 reserve schools. This is equivalent to $9,166 per student per year. This amount is more than 35 per cent higher than the average of what provinces spend per full-time equivalent. For example, British Columbia spends approximately $6,833 per full-time equivalent student and has a 79 per cent graduation rate.

"To add insult to injury, taxpayers learned today the department does a lousy job tracking and additional $273 million spent each year on post-secondary funding," noted Fiss. "Therefore, the department cannot determine if the funds are actually spent on eligible students."

Currently any post-secondary education payments received by eligible status Indians are tax exempt. The federal government is considering taxing the education allowance payments after December 31, 2005.

"If the federal government decides to tax the post-secondary education payments it will be another gong show at the expense of taxpayers, since they don't even know where the money is going," concluded Fiss.