Den Tandt is Right On The Mark.....

Money won't fix Native reserves

By MICHAEL DEN TANDT

Phil Fontaine, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, is so right. And he's so wrong.

Fontaine says it's a national disgrace that, in 2008, 27,000 Canadian aboriginal kids are in state care; 40 reserves across Canada have no schools; 100 are under perpetual boil-water advisories; and many if not most offer a quality of life that is shockingly below that enjoyed by most other Canadian communities.

Right.

Fontaine says the vast majority of Canadians believe aboriginals should have more control over their own affairs, and a clear majority of us - more than 60% - think it's time for a radical redesign of the relationship between Canada and her First Nations.

Right.

Fontaine says it's a travesty none of the leaders of Canada's national parties are talking about aboriginal issues.

Right.

And Fontaine says the solution is a huge pile of money - "Kelowna-plus," as he puts it - that would exceed even the $5 billion offered by the Paul Martin government in 2005. Martin proposed to hugely increase spending within the current reserve system, with the goal of raising aboriginal living standards to those of other Canadians by 2015.

Wrong.

The reserve system in Canada is broken. The population of Canadian status, Metis and non-status Indians now is about 1.1 million. About half - and growing - live off reserve. Yet the lion's share of federal funding for Native people is still funnelled through reserves and controlled by their chiefs.

Though some reserves have negotiated self-government agreements that take them outside the Indian Act, most haven't. The Act is an explicitly racist document. It assumes aboriginal Canadians are not capable of managing their own affairs. It denies most aboriginal Canadians on reserves the right to private ownership of their homes. In Canada in 2008, the Indian Act is an abomination.

Reserves themselves are the problem.

Our current system, supported by an aboriginal political class that benefits from the status quo and an Ottawa political class too frightened to tackle real reform, is the problem.