NDP leader slams PM's Attawapiskat response
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The country is gorgeous........If it's not Winter....
Ontario's Wilderness Region - A Train Ride To The North
Ontario's Wilderness Region - A Train Ride To The North
We brake for moose is their motto, not to mention mail, food, people, equipment parts etc.
Feds aware of Attawapiskat crisis for years
The federal department responsible for First Nations has known about the worsening living conditions at Attawapiskat for years, says former Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl.
In an interview with CBC Radio's The House, Strahl tells host Evan Solomon the crisis at Attawapiskat "has been a slow moving train-wreck for a long time."
However, the current Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development John Duncan said this week that officials in his department were unaware of Attawapiskat's housing problems until Oct. 28, despite having visited the community several times in the past year.
But Strahl, who retired from politics earlier this year, paints a different picture.
"It was not good when I was there, and I don't think it's appreciably, or any better now. That was well known, everybody knew it was a very difficult community for a bunch of reasons."
Attawapiskat "was always a problem," said Strahl.
The federal government put the community of Attawapiskat in Northern Ontario under third-party management, and ordered an audit to find out how federal funds have been spent in the commmunity of about 1,800.
The government says it has given Attawapiskat roughly $90 million since 2006. However, documents from the department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada show Attawapiskat only received $4.3 million in funding for housing since 2006.
"Sad to say that in some of these communities, because some of the other needs are equal or greater than housing, that's how difficult it is, and arguably every one of them is a crisis," said Strahl.
Feds aware of Attawapiskat crisis for years - Politics - CBC News
The federal department responsible for First Nations has known about the worsening living conditions at Attawapiskat for years, says former Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl.
In an interview with CBC Radio's The House, Strahl tells host Evan Solomon the crisis at Attawapiskat "has been a slow moving train-wreck for a long time."
However, the current Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development John Duncan said this week that officials in his department were unaware of Attawapiskat's housing problems until Oct. 28, despite having visited the community several times in the past year.
But Strahl, who retired from politics earlier this year, paints a different picture.
"It was not good when I was there, and I don't think it's appreciably, or any better now. That was well known, everybody knew it was a very difficult community for a bunch of reasons."
Attawapiskat "was always a problem," said Strahl.
The federal government put the community of Attawapiskat in Northern Ontario under third-party management, and ordered an audit to find out how federal funds have been spent in the commmunity of about 1,800.
The government says it has given Attawapiskat roughly $90 million since 2006. However, documents from the department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada show Attawapiskat only received $4.3 million in funding for housing since 2006.
"Sad to say that in some of these communities, because some of the other needs are equal or greater than housing, that's how difficult it is, and arguably every one of them is a crisis," said Strahl.
Feds aware of Attawapiskat crisis for years - Politics - CBC News
I think a long hard look at how the money is being allocated and managed is a must in this case.
Governments will do hearings or five-year studies and churches will do a lot of praying.
This is clearly a disaster area and people are suffering what we need is a mobilizing team and a group of individuals that will go in and fix it.
What is the First Nation Chief Atleo doing about this all I see is a lot of talk on the media and nothing else.
There is a lot of aboriginals living off the reserve who are making a lot of money and are they organizing anything to help with this effort.
The time to act is now
This is clearly a disaster area and people are suffering what we need is a mobilizing team and a group of individuals that will go in and fix it.
What is the First Nation Chief Atleo doing about this all I see is a lot of talk on the media and nothing else.
There is a lot of aboriginals living off the reserve who are making a lot of money and are they organizing anything to help with this effort.
The time to act is now
Two Sides of the Same Bay
People may recall the stories about Kashechewan that were in all the media a few years ago, or Pikangikum. There are many others. Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba wants people to know they are in similar circumstances.
Estimates are that 80,000 new houses are needed and similar numbers are in need of major repair across the country. There are over 100 communities living under boil water advisories. There are over 40 First Nations that have no school for their children to attend.
Embarrassed by the media and public attention, the Harper government leapt into action this week and immediately blamed the people of Attawapiskat. Basically, they said that big money had been spent there, so we'll solve the situation by sending in an accounting firm to run the government.
Others have analyzed that spending to demonstrate the fallacy on which Harper is relying, an argument that really shouldn't need to be made. Does anyone think people would choose to live this way? Or is it just that Indians can't be trusted to manage money?
Outside the government, people are mobilizing, donating items of use, and the Red Cross has gotten involved. Most are treating this as the crisis it is, pointing to the avoidable tragedy and urgently pleading for help to stop it from happening. Let's hope that succeeds.
But what about the dozens of communities where the media aren't paying attention? Will crises come and go relatively unnoticed? And what about stopping this from happening over and over again?
That is where people need to see the bigger picture and focus on solutions.
The bigger picture explains why Attawapiskat should not be seen in isolation. The situation there is the result of deliberate policies. It begins with the Crown breaking the partnerships with First Nations that formed the basis of the treaties and ignoring their own laws, like the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Yes, history matters if you want to understand how we got to this point.
It is followed by a policy of segregation. They invented the idea of "status" Indians, as defined by the Crown, and created reserves, where the Crown chose what it thought was valueless land and compelled people to stay there.
That was followed by the policy of assimilation, where the Crown reversed itself and started encouraging people to leave reserves to join the rest of Canadian society. Encouragement took the form of legislation that stripped people of their "status" and denied them the right to live with their families and communities if they did things like get an education.
The policy of assimilation is still in place. Only now, the Government of Canada uses talk of formal equality -- treating everyone exactly the same -- to justify treating First Nations like they have no Aboriginal or treaty rights, despite the Constitution of Canada and the UN Declaration.
So, there will be no partnership with First Nations to support them in self-government. There will be no co-operation in planning and implementing effective long-term strategies to make reserves liveable. There will be no money to help catch up from decades of neglect and mismanagement by a distant bureaucracy. There will be red tape and catch-22s and bureaucratic inertia. The plan is that the reserves will fail and people will have to move away. Those who don't die first.
That plan is what John Duncan is hinting at when he talks about "unviable reserves." They're pressing to close them down and send people into the cities as they tried with Kashechewan. They are introducing legislation to privatize reserve lands so that they can be sold or taken in default of loans. The fact that this will make resources, like the diamonds around Attawapiskat, more readily and cheaply available to developers is pure coincidence, I'm sure.
There are solutions. Working in the original spirit of partnership, supported rather than constrained in self-governance, First Nations can move forward. The deal that I helped negotiate between the Grand Council of the Crees and the Government of Quebec called La Paix des Braves has achieved some of that and is benefitting people from all communities in the area, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, right now. It is not the only example. That is what is meant by reconciliation.
On the other side of the same bay from Attawapiskat, their Cree cousins are not living in the same squalor. It can happen elsewhere.
Romeo Saganash: Two Sides of the Same Bay
People may recall the stories about Kashechewan that were in all the media a few years ago, or Pikangikum. There are many others. Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba wants people to know they are in similar circumstances.
Estimates are that 80,000 new houses are needed and similar numbers are in need of major repair across the country. There are over 100 communities living under boil water advisories. There are over 40 First Nations that have no school for their children to attend.
Embarrassed by the media and public attention, the Harper government leapt into action this week and immediately blamed the people of Attawapiskat. Basically, they said that big money had been spent there, so we'll solve the situation by sending in an accounting firm to run the government.
Others have analyzed that spending to demonstrate the fallacy on which Harper is relying, an argument that really shouldn't need to be made. Does anyone think people would choose to live this way? Or is it just that Indians can't be trusted to manage money?
Outside the government, people are mobilizing, donating items of use, and the Red Cross has gotten involved. Most are treating this as the crisis it is, pointing to the avoidable tragedy and urgently pleading for help to stop it from happening. Let's hope that succeeds.
But what about the dozens of communities where the media aren't paying attention? Will crises come and go relatively unnoticed? And what about stopping this from happening over and over again?
That is where people need to see the bigger picture and focus on solutions.
The bigger picture explains why Attawapiskat should not be seen in isolation. The situation there is the result of deliberate policies. It begins with the Crown breaking the partnerships with First Nations that formed the basis of the treaties and ignoring their own laws, like the Royal Proclamation of 1763. Yes, history matters if you want to understand how we got to this point.
It is followed by a policy of segregation. They invented the idea of "status" Indians, as defined by the Crown, and created reserves, where the Crown chose what it thought was valueless land and compelled people to stay there.
That was followed by the policy of assimilation, where the Crown reversed itself and started encouraging people to leave reserves to join the rest of Canadian society. Encouragement took the form of legislation that stripped people of their "status" and denied them the right to live with their families and communities if they did things like get an education.
The policy of assimilation is still in place. Only now, the Government of Canada uses talk of formal equality -- treating everyone exactly the same -- to justify treating First Nations like they have no Aboriginal or treaty rights, despite the Constitution of Canada and the UN Declaration.
So, there will be no partnership with First Nations to support them in self-government. There will be no co-operation in planning and implementing effective long-term strategies to make reserves liveable. There will be no money to help catch up from decades of neglect and mismanagement by a distant bureaucracy. There will be red tape and catch-22s and bureaucratic inertia. The plan is that the reserves will fail and people will have to move away. Those who don't die first.
That plan is what John Duncan is hinting at when he talks about "unviable reserves." They're pressing to close them down and send people into the cities as they tried with Kashechewan. They are introducing legislation to privatize reserve lands so that they can be sold or taken in default of loans. The fact that this will make resources, like the diamonds around Attawapiskat, more readily and cheaply available to developers is pure coincidence, I'm sure.
There are solutions. Working in the original spirit of partnership, supported rather than constrained in self-governance, First Nations can move forward. The deal that I helped negotiate between the Grand Council of the Crees and the Government of Quebec called La Paix des Braves has achieved some of that and is benefitting people from all communities in the area, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, right now. It is not the only example. That is what is meant by reconciliation.
On the other side of the same bay from Attawapiskat, their Cree cousins are not living in the same squalor. It can happen elsewhere.
Romeo Saganash: Two Sides of the Same Bay
Okay Guys, here we go.....
The place has been buried in money. It is a wonder they are not burning the stuff for heat. There has been, on average, $70,000 a year provided for each family of four.
Here's what I read:
On the payroll are the ex-chief (?), the chief, a deputy chief, and NINETEEN councillors......for a population of 2,000.
They got money for a school. They built it on a site polluted with diesel fuel. They tore it down. They got more money.
Did they build a school?
No.
Did they build more housing?
No.
They built a rink. A very nice rink.
And they bought a zamboni.
Uh-huh.
Has it ever occurred to anyone that a village of 2,000 souls in a place where there is absolutely no employment is simply not viable?????
The place has been buried in money. It is a wonder they are not burning the stuff for heat. There has been, on average, $70,000 a year provided for each family of four.
Here's what I read:
On the payroll are the ex-chief (?), the chief, a deputy chief, and NINETEEN councillors......for a population of 2,000.
They got money for a school. They built it on a site polluted with diesel fuel. They tore it down. They got more money.
Did they build a school?
No.
Did they build more housing?
No.
They built a rink. A very nice rink.
And they bought a zamboni.
Uh-huh.
Has it ever occurred to anyone that a village of 2,000 souls in a place where there is absolutely no employment is simply not viable?????
This is all wonderful rhetoric, but it's already been shown that they've been grossly underfunded by the Harper government.
I suggest you read up on the real news rather than the half truths the sun is providing you.
Would you have any verifiable numbers let's say from 2000 until 2006 when the Harper government took over, whereas the previous government gave more????
The ninety odd million dollars that the Harper government has provided, was not for just housing, or just education, or just infrastructure. It was to cover all of those things.
They are not exactly unemployed. They do have some income.
The more I look at this situation, the more I think the whole community should be moved somewhere
south of the Moosonee rail head. If we are going to support them we should at least do it the most efficient way possible.
What?
Their zamboni is not top-of-the-line?
Obviously, they need help now, but someone has to grow the cojones to tackle this problem, here and elsewhere, without simply shoveling money into a bottomless pit.
My reckoning works out at $35,000, but the majority of that wouldn't get into the hands of the families! :lol:
Paul Martin came up with what looked like a reasonable solution to this mess seven or eight years ago,
Harper cancelled it and did nothing, which is a good part of why we are in this mess now.
Kelowna Accord - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
No. Paul Martin was the PM at the time, but the agreement was hammered out by the
first ministers, and the first nations. It really pisses me off because I think it
would have worked.