The Government of Canada is trumpeting $626 million in new investment for Indigenous peoples in yesterday’s budget. Let’s just say that’s a slight exaggeration.
Here’s a closer look at the four “investment” areas.
“Supporting First Nations fishing enterprises”
Surprisingly, the largest single-year investment in the 2013 budget for a program aimed at Indigenous people at $33 million. Like much of what was “announced” yesterday however, it is an extension of an existing program, not new investment.
The Atlantic and Pacific Integrated Commercial Fishing Initiatives were created in response to Supreme Court decisions recognizing the Indigenous right to fish. They are aimed at keeping the peace with some in the non-Indigenous fishery who were unhappy with the recognition of this constitutional right.
The funding does not extend to 2014-15, the year that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is expected to realize “efficiencies” of exactly $33 million, coincidentally.
“Building Strong Aboriginal Communities”
The biggest new investment in this category is $24 million per year over 2 years for First Nations and Inuit health plus $2 million each of those years for mental health initiatives, totaling $52 of the $64 million in new money under this category. It doesn’t meet need, but this is the best news in the budget for Indigenous peoples.
The $9 million over 2 years to allow First Nations to opt into a land management regime outside the Indian Act is also a good thing. At this rate of funding, all First Nations might be able to participate sometime in the 22nd century.
There is $3 million in new money for First Nations Policing Program funds aimed at shutting down contraband tobacco, surely a high priority in communities with over 3 times the national average in violent crime. The rest continues existing funding.
There is no new or increased funding for the Aboriginal Justice Strategy or Family Violence Prevention Program, but they don’t get cut.
The money for “Resolving Specific Claims” is not an investment. It is to settle lawsuits out of court. This is a debt to be paid and it is an insult to First Nations whose treaties have been breached to suggest otherwise. One has to ask if the government would even think of telling other Canadians who were about to win a law suit against it that the payment of that debt was coming out of the goodness of its heart.
“Support for First Nations Infrastructure”
There is $155 million over 10 years, nothing in 2013-14 and almost all of it scheduled for after the next election, conveniently. This averages to $1.5 million a year for over 630 First Nations, which is less than $2400 per community for roads, bridges, energy systems and schools. Just the amount needed to put a school in every community that does not currently have one would cost 3 times this amount.
“Job Opportunities for Aboriginal Peoples”
The good news is $5 million for each of 2 years for post-secondary scholarships and another $1 million for the next 5 years to “promote business studies”.
Then there is the big ticket item in the budget, $241 million over 5 years “to ensure that young recipients have the incentives to participate in the training necessary for them to gain employment”. Incentives means workfare, with more than half the funding going to another level of bureaucracy to enforce the new rules.
Rightly called “a slap in the face” by New Democrat leader Tom Mulcair, this workfare program means those unable to participate in training will be denied benefits and so will those communities that refuse to capitulate to this coercion. It is a denial of the fiduciary responsibility of the federal government and most probably unconstitutional.
Totals
Over the next two years, there is approximately $87.3 million in new investment, which works out to a little more than $100 per person. As noted, over $73 million of this goes to health care or workfare.
What is not in the budget is any new money for education on reserve so that First Nations youth can qualify for the job opportunities the federal government claims it wants people to fill. The gap between what children in provincial schools get and what is provided to those going to on-reserve schools (where they exist) remains the same. The likelihood that this will help to fill jobs with qualified people — the government’s main objective in this budget — is extremely small.
What is also not there is any money to bring other comparable services to reserves as those provided by the provinces. For example, the 22% gap in funding for child welfare services, about which there is a case in front of the Canadian Human Rights Commission at the moment, is completely ignored. No service for which Canada is responsible to First Nations is funded at levels equal to those of the provinces. It is the inverse of the federal government’s initiative to starve First Nations onto reserves and force capitulation to federal land grabs in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 21st century, the plan is to starve people off reserve and enable resource extraction to proceed without all the hassle of dealing with Indigenous rights.
What is also missing is any effort to address the problems that have plagued Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples, especially the odious attack on Indigenous rights in Bill C-45 that led to the Idle No More movement. As noted, insult is added to injury with workfare, claims that legal debts are generous investments, and a complete disregard for the opinions of Indigenous peoples and their governments with continuing development of the rejected education legislation being the prime examples.
One more note on the hypocrisy of the Harper government in this budget.
In 2009, Prime Minister Harper said: “You know, there’s two schools in economics on this. One is that there are some good taxes and the other is that no taxes are good taxes. I’m in the latter category. I don’t believe that any taxes are good taxes.”
Yesterday, the budget said: “Taxation is an integral part of good governance as it promotes greater accountability and self-sufficiency and provides revenues for important public services and investments. Therefore, the Government of Canada supports initiatives that encourage the exercise of direct taxation powers by Aboriginal governments (emphasis added).”
Taxes bad, Aboriginal taxes good. Let’s all pretend that there is another word for this kind of contradiction than the obvious one.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
