Minister defends planned cuts to aboriginal organizations
Valcourt says education is top priority
OTTAWA — Months after the Idle No More movement spawned commitments to discuss treaty implementation and comprehensive claims, some groups are dismayed with the federal government’s plans to cut project funding to aboriginal organizations.
But Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt says the decision won’t affect essential services in First Nations communities, and that the groups should seek other sources of funding.
“Some groups, they have this sense of entitlement because year after year after year, project money was coming,” Valcourt told Postmedia News. “I think that Canadians would agree that if your advocacy group wants to advocate for certain things, that their supporters should fund them to an extent.”
Valcourt defended the government’s aboriginal policies, including how it consults with First Nations, its plans for education on reserves and how it’s handling the issue of violence against indigenous women.
A June 3 letter from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada to 43 aboriginal organizations outlines changes to the way their projects will be funded.
For the Assembly of First Nations, it was a surprise 30-per-cent cut amounting to $1.7 million; AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo said the move undermines the potential for progress and is inconsistent with the government’s stated intention to work with First Nations.
But Valcourt said the changes won’t affect areas such as housing, infrastructure and social services, and would leave funds to focus on “shared priorities” such as economic development. In February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper tapped Valcourt, 61, to steer the government through the complex and often unforgiving aboriginal affairs file.
“I’m concerned about those gaps I see between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. Whether it’s employment, whether it is graduation rates, incarceration rates, suicide rates, name it … it’s serious,” Valcourt said. Valcourt says his top priority as minister is education.
“It is my sincere, profound belief that the greatest legacy that we can leave to First Nations in Canada is an education system that will give those young native people the chance to get the education they need,” he said.
Valcourt says that’s the common refrain he has heard when speaking with aboriginal leaders and youth across the country. “We cannot let the current system continue to fail them. Everyone agrees on that.”
Critics say the federal government needs to provide more cash to close the funding gap between federally funded aboriginal youth and their provincially funded, non-aboriginal counterparts. And the government is working on having a First Nations Education Act in place by the fall of 2014.
Valcourt maintains that the government funds First Nations education on par with what the provinces pay off-reserve. But he concedes money is inconsistent across different regions, something he says new legislation will address by providing “stable, predictable, sustainable funding.”