New accord gives Mtis more funding, control over skills training

Mtis people in Canada will have more control over skills training and more money to pay for it under a new accord signed with the Federal government Friday.

The Mtis Nation Skills and Employment Training Accord commits $325 million over five years to training, and an additional $67 million per year after that.

The funding constitutes an increase of nearly 30 per cent over the previous funding allotment for Mtis skills development under the former Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy, according to the Ministry of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour.

It will also work more like a provincial transfer rather than a funding program that the Mtis would have to keep reapplying for, Minister Patty Hajdu told CBC News.

"That gives communities that runway tobe able to do longer term planning, to work with folks that sometimes have a harder time getting skills training or education, that might be further away from a career or work and to be very specific in terms of how they want to deliver those programs," Hajdu said.

The funding is part of a larger block of $2 billion over five years for a newly transformed Indigenous Skills and Employment Training Program.

Hajdu signed the accord Friday morning with Mtis National Council president Clment Chartier.

It is the first sub-accord to be signed with the Mtis Nation since the signing of the Canada-Mtis National Accord in April 2017.