More cash for First Nations ‘goodwill gestures’

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This article was published 30/03/2012 (5099 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IN a belt-tightening federal budget, Canada’s First Nations were one of the few groups that received more funding from Ottawa.

But the $275 million over three years to build and renovate schools and improve educational programming, and $330 million over two years to improve water and sewer services, were described as “goodwill gestures” by Derek Nepinak, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

Aboriginal leaders had called for $500 million to improve aboriginal schools and Manitoba’s Island Lake region needs $100 million alone for water and sewer services, Nepinak said.

Other funding for First Nations Thursday includes $27 million over two years to renew the urban aboriginal strategy and a commitment to improve on-reserve employment training.

“I think parts of it could be characterized as goodwill gestures towards addressing some of the substantial issues that we have in Manitoba,” Nepinak said.

Only a small part of the education initiative — $45 million — will be spent in the current fiscal year.

The rest, $230 million, will be divided equally into each of the next two budget years.

Ottawa also announced it will introduce a First Nation Education Act “to establish the structures and standards needed to support strong and accountable education systems on-reserve.”

Nepinak said First Nations want to ensure the new education framework includes the protection and perpetuation of indigenous languages and culture.

“To us, that is a priority,” he said, adding it’s a positive move that Ottawa is providing “some seed money” to start engaging in such discussions with First Nations.

Premier Greg Selinger called Ottawa’s proposed investment in First Nations education a “modest” improvement.

He noted the funding gap per student between students on-reserve and off-reserve is $3,500 a year. He said he is disappointed the $275 million would be stretched over three years.

“It’s not going to have as much impact as we had anticipated,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nepinak said he is concerned about Ottawa’s proposed changes to environmental regulations and to old age security eligibility.

He said turning environmental reviews into “merely administrative exercises” undermines Ottawa’s “constitutional duty to consult and accommodate First Nations interests” with regards to their ancestral lands and resource development.

He said he is worried about the implications for Manitoba First Nations concerning future hydroelectric development.

The First Nations leader said raising the age of eligibility on OAS benefits to 67 from 65 is particularly unfair to aboriginal people.

“It’s built on the premise that Canadians are living longer. And that may be very true for many Canadians, but for Canada’s First Nations people, we’re not living longer,” Nepinak said.

He said there is a seven-year gap in the life expectancy of an aboriginal man and a non-aboriginal Canadian.

He said new OAS eligibility rules should not be applied to First Nations people until that gap is closed.

 

— with files from Mia Rabson

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca