First Nations have waited too long for proper funding

First Nations funding in Canada has long been a colonial exercise of underfunding, over-regulation and has provided social programming that, in the words of John Ralston Saul, has the mentality of a Victorian poorhouse.

First Nations funding is based on warehousing people rather than meaningful development.

Each year this is the time First Nations across the country are working on budgets for the coming fiscal year. This is an oxymoron since there is no such thing as a budget for a First Nation. The colonial office meets with the band council and tells them how much they will receive.

There is no formula, no reasoning; it’s just based on how much money is available and how little they can get away with.

This all happens in spite of the fact that we are a federal responsibility and have treaties that promise education, health and social programs. On every program area we receive lesser amounts than comparable provincial institutions.

Back in 1982 we thought that with the recognition of our treaty and Aboriginal rights in the Canadian Constitution we would see our First Nations and governments treated fairly. Section 35 affirmed our treaty and Aboriginal rights and we thought that implementation was not far off.

Three first ministers’ conferences were held to discuss and define First Nations and Metis Aboriginal and treaty rights. In the end nothing was decided, and the issue was kicked down the road for future governments to address. Obviously the provinces were not ready.

This lack of action on behalf of the federal and provincial governments gave us the alternative to go to court, and in the intervening years we had a series of historic decisions that recognized and strengthened our rights. Despite this, little was done to follow through with fair funding.

Then after the fall of the Mulroney Conservatives, the Liberals under Jean Chretien took over. In order to balance the books and cut back on the deficit the federal budget was slashed and programs were amputated. First Nations were given a so-called break and a funding cap of two per cent was placed on increases in the budget of the Department of Indian Affairs, a.k.a. the colonial office.

At first it looked like we would be able to survive for a few years while the federal finances were put in shape. The problem was that we were forgotten, and the cap remained in place for close to 20 years.

Meanwhile the First Nations population and inflation exceeded two per cent year after year and the budget of the colonial office shrunk in real terms. Our First Nations governments were unable to meet the needs of our people and the rot spread.

Our people contributed more than any other group to reduce the federal deficit.

The Paul Martin government realized this and the result was the Kelowna Accord, which would have injected $1 billion a year for five years to be spent on a variety of infrastructure and social programs. When the Harper government came into office the accord was scrapped and the cap remained in place.

Our people fought back, and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada took the issue of the growing funding shortfall to the federal human rights tribunal. There was a protracted 10-year court battle and the executive director of the organization was the victim of spying and shunning by the colonial office.

In the end, in 2016 the federal government was found guilty of practising racial discrimination and the federal government was ordered to bring child welfare programs up to parity with the provincial rate.

This week’s federal budget finally addressed the issue and an additional $1 billion has been added to First Nations funding for the next five years, which is what the Kelowna Accord called for in 2005.

The Liberal government made a big deal of the increase in First Nations funding but the reality is that they are simply catching up and responding to an order from the human rights tribunal. We still have to address serious infrastructure problems such as clean water on reserves.

This year we will wait and see how much of these increases filter down to the community level.