Tories plan First Nations overhaul (1)
The Conservative government is set to unveil a new approach to its relations with Canada’s First Nations that will see fresh money flowing to bands when Ottawa believes there is a good prospect of economic success, while bands with a track record of failure will be frozen out.
As part of its move toward a more market-oriented approach, the government is also keen to reform the electoral system used to elect aboriginal chiefs.
Chuck Strahl, the Minister for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, will outline the policy Thursday in a speech in Ottawa. “There will be a shifting of resources. If you take economic development as an example, there has been a tendency to sprinkle it like pixie dust and hope for magic results. I’m increasingly convinced we have to reward those who are ready to take that kind of help,” he said in an interview with the National Post.
In his speech, he will say that the single defining feature of the new approach is that the government is not prepared to “waste time on unproductive and unsuccessful processes”.
Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said that he was surprised that the government is going down this path. “The Prime Minister spoke of reconciliation last year with the historic apology [on residential schools], in effect setting the stage for a new era that ended unilateral decisions and the ‘we-know-best’ approach. We’re committed to partnership but we don’t want the imposition of government will,” he said in an interview.
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Mac Says:
Interesting comments on the Post website. If anyone can pull this off, it’s Chuck Strahl… and this kind of reform is long, long overdue.
How typical of Phil Fontaine… Instead of recognizing that this approach gives reserves the tools to succeed, he pretend it’s the feds imposing their will on poor, helpless natives. Bah!
Posted on June 4th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
CMax Says:
Very unconstitutional because one of the fundamental rights of First Nations people is the fudicary responsibility of the government to Canada’s First Nations, its defacto.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 12:05 am
ward Says:
We’re committed to partnership but we don’t want the imposition of government will,” – but keep those unaccountable dollars flowin’ eh Phil!
CMax – great illustration of Libthink and why natives are one of the most comprehensively damaged peoples today.
Posted on July 21st, 2009 at 2:54 am
CMax Says:
Seems to me that Canada was built by the welfare state, yet somehow in the great democratic (majority-rules ideology) it is considered wrong when help goes to others, whose the hypocrite anyways?
Posted on July 26th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Mac Says:
Seems to me that Canada was not built by the welfare state which is a fairly recent blight. As a nation, Canada would be better off if Pierre Elliott Trudeau had never been born.
Cmax, there’s a difference between a hand up and a hand out. So far, Canada has done very little of the former and a great deal of the latter. What the aboriginal communities need are more leaders like Clarence Louis.
http://www.naaf.ca/html/c_louis_e.html
Posted on July 26th, 2009 at 12:39 am