Sifton represented settler attitudes in the expanding agricultural west and believed that residential schools, especially the industrial institutions, were a misguided failure. The 'attempt to give a highly civilized education to the Indian child,' he said in the Commons, 'was practically a failure. I have not hesitation in saying - we may as well be frank - that the Indian cannot go out from school, making his own way and compete with the white man.' The Indian, unfortunately, 'has not the physical, mental or moral get-up to enable him to compete. He cannot do it.'

    Sifton's dismal opinion of the Indians' potential reinforced a sense of disillusionment about Canada's Indian policy that was growing throughout the bureaucracy. The problems that unavoidably had to be faced were numerous. An Ottawa analyst observed in 1897, 'the teachers appointed by the various religious bodies engaged in the work of Indian education, are not as a rule well fitted for the work of teaching, owing to their not having received the proper training.'

    Physical conditions, as well as deficiencies in the staff, held the schools back. The buildings were frequently unhealthy and generally there was not enough inspection; the whole system for some time had been declining into a uniform mediocrity.

    Industrial institutions were supposed to enroll older students, usually after several years in a boarding school of the same denomination. More often schools in both categories competed for students regardless of their age.