Native Funding

One of the long standing issues facing Canadian politics is how to relieve the perpetually high poverty rates blighting many communities across the country.  Most of the solutions usually involve some sort of micro funding which is direct and targeted for programs which typically have clear objectives.  For instance, perhaps a provincial government wants to specifically increase transit in Toronto and will spend 1.5 billion dollars and put it in hands of the city government to handle.  Or maybe it is a Federal grant to local businesses to expand employment.

Whether they work or not is a different question but they have objectives which can be measured.  Grant didn't do much for employment in a 10-year period?  Perhaps it is time to rethink the idea.

Yet, while those types of policies can be easily discussed, they are typically completely ignored for the largest area of poverty in Canada; native/aboriginal communities (or First Nations, I'm not clear which is the best term to use).  Let's face it.  If I said "there is poverty in Attawapiskat", the first response is "it's their own fault".  If I said "there is poverty in St. Catherines", the first response is "how can government get rid of it?".

I'll come back to that roadblock at the end.  Let's talk solutions first.

The first is the typical slew of anti-poverty programs any poor community gets.  I've seen many but I'm not clear on the efficacy on all of them but I'll list them out:

• Community programs for youths to give them something to do other than criminal activity to find purpose
• School attendance payments, giving financial incentives to go to school to make it a better opportunity cost of time if your family is low on money rather than committing gang activity
• Small business/family business grants, money specifically used to create more jobs in a community
• Infrastructure development to spur economic growth (roads, hospitals, schools, water/sewage etc)

So those are pretty good but actually, when it comes to native communities there's a serious problem.  The Federal government, responsible for administering 600+ native communities (of about 700) does not even provide the basics.  What do I mean by that?  Ever heard of a community in Canada without drinking water?  Well, 70% of Ontario's reserves don't have clean drinking water.  When you don't even have drinking water, I'm not really sure how you can have anything else (you can't even run a proper restaurant because the water isn't safe).  I doubt that anybody would have ever thought that you shouldn't "drink the water" in any Canadian community.

That's just the start of it, so what would the best suggestion be for getting the basics done right?  Well here is an article that speaks about funding issues:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/02/15/f-first-nations-accountability-faq.html

Most people believe that accountability is a problem in native reserves.  It is... but not in the way people believe.  For instance, in the article itself it states that 81% of Canadians want native reserves to have external auditors.  They already have external auditors.  Why are Canadians demanding something be done that is already done?  Unfortunately, there is widespread ignorance about existing government programs and how the system works in general.

What is key to notice is that of the 600+ communities run by the Federal government, not a one has any proper spending.  When the First Nations asked for an auditor general the government actually refused.  That is odd considering that Harper regime stated that one of its goals is accountability.  Why no Auditor General for native spending?

Actually, what is more key to notice is that the 30 or so self-run native communities perform far far better without having to be beholden to the Federal government.  That is, letting natives run themselves is a better idea. 

Well, it makes sense.  Think about it like this.  Native communities aren't full of incompetent simpleton savages which need White Man to save them.  Sound racist?  That's because our rulership of their communities is nothing but 1800s racism right in your face.  When you let them have self-government and you treat them and view them as real equivalent human beings what you get are a people who have the power to do things themselves, a government accountable to them (rather than Chiefs being accountable to the Harper regime) then you have a people vested in their government and vested in programs that improve their situation.

Self-run government is the first step to better native communities and tackling poverty issues.  Next would be to include aboriginals in the equalization formula.  Although it is a bit confusing with so many different aboriginal communities, it is imperative that we as a country ensure that every single community has the proper funding to build out government services to allow economic success.

Next are a slew of strange legislation, born out of the 1870s (and somewhat before) that were designed specifically to destroy aboriginal communities.  Most Canadians aren't aware of these laws and maybe they don't want to be aware, they however exist.

• Aboriginal governments mostly do not have the power to levy taxes
• Most land is community-owned but not allowed for development, the only way natives can let it be developed is to forever give up ownership (if you are not aware, that is not the case with provincially owned land, you pay land taxes to the province when you "own" it and the same should be done with native owned treaty land)
• Due to the way the land ownership works, natives are also disallowed from mortgages
• Also due to the way land ownership works, even if a native reserve managed to allow housing development to occur on their land, they can't charge taxes

There's more but those are the bigger ones on the plate.  Basically the idea behind most of these laws was to make it impossible for natives to see economic success without giving up their culture.  We don't ask Irish to give up Catholicism to become participating members of Canadian society, we should not ask natives to give up their culture to participate in the wider part of Canadian society and enjoy similar economic success.  What's the problem with being able to speak a third language or to know about the Haudenosaunee Confederacy?

And let me drive the point home how incredibly frightening it is to have a society be so oblivious to these problems.  Imagine I was to say that you are not allowed to learn English.  That if you practice Anglicanism and not Catholicism then you will be beaten publicly and executed later if you do not conform.  Imagine a foreign government controls your government and its spending, so no matter who you vote for locally it doesn't matter because they have no actual power.  Imagine I told you that if you sold your house and its land, you will never be able to own land again until you give up your citizenship.  Imagine that I told you, you weren't allowed to learn your own history, that you had to learn a foreign country's history.

Does it sound like 1984?  Well it's happening right here, right now.  Don't pull the excuse of "I'm not racist".  You probably aren't.  But systems can be racist without individual participants in them being so.

Picture for instance if the Federal government were to say that everyone in Prince George, due to their insanely high crime rate, loses right to self-government.  No one there may vote.  All of their taxes go to the Federal government.  In turn, the Federal government will require an external auditor to look at any funds that the Federal White Affairs Minister decides to disperse into the community.  For every payment to the community, there is a requirement for several reports to be made to ensure accountability.  The list of salaries of all employees must be published otherwise funding will be cut.

Sound like an idiotic plan?  Then stop saying it's a solution to native poverty.