First Nations at a crossroad

Indigenous people are on a collision course with modernity. They cannot live with one foot in the past and the other in a modern society. Life was harsh and unforgiving when the pioneers arrived in what became Canada, but the generations that followed built the country Canada is today. Our three levels of government — federal, provincial and municipal — work reasonably well together and are stable.

The First Nations demand to be self-governing, but that concept is not defined, nor is how it will fit into our current levels of government. Currently, any band can become, in name, a “First Nation” and sovereign; no single governing body speaks collectively for the 1.3 million First Nations people in Canada. Today individual bands can negotiate with any level of Canadian government and interfere with infrastructure projects, such as pipeline construction.

To be truly sovereign, First Nations will need a governing body to speak for all First Nations people and to duplicate services already provided by existing federal and provincial governments. Where will the money come from to pay for these services?

The time has come for a serious and reasoned discussion with the Government of Canada and the leaders of the First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples about what kind of Canada we want to build. Stop dwelling on the past with reconciliation talk and all the hurts of the past, our sights should be on the future. That is something we can change.

Gerald Bates, Saskatoon