Mixed response to aboriginal measures
OTTAWA— There is no grand aboriginal strategy or focus in this year’s Conservative budget, but myriad measures designed to improve the health, welfare and economic prosperity of aboriginal Canadians are sprinkled throughout.
In most cases, the money is a renewal or extension of funding that was slated to end. In one significant investment — for skills training — it is new spending.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the Commons the government proposed “measures to ensure First Nations can fully participate in the economic opportunities that are available,” citing skills training money for on-reserve young people now on income assistance, and ongoing talks to reaching a new First Nation Education Act. But he made no mention of how much money the government will put toward overhauling education on reserves.
Clearly disappointed, the Assembly of First Nations tried to make the best of the budget’s scattershot approach to its concerns. National Chief Shawn Atleo said the budget’s many references to First Nations suggest “unprecedented attention . . . but the investment just isn’t there.”
The government highlighted its biggest new commitment: $241 million over five years to boost skills training for young native people on reserves who now receive income assistance — the equivalent of welfare. It will be available to those reserves that make skills training mandatory for recipients. The budget also promises $155 million over 10 years for infrastructure improvements to aboriginal communities on reserve lands
$100 million over two years to build 250 new homes in Nunavut
$54 million over two years to help speed up resolution of specific land claims
$9 million over two years to expand the First Nations Land Management Regime, a scheme that allows First Nations bands to opt out of the Indian Act for the purposes of developing, conserving and otherwise using reserve lands
$10 million in new money for Indspire, the not-for-profit organization formerly known as the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. It will hand out bursaries and scholarships to First Nations and Inuit students
$33 million over two years to extend policing in aboriginal communities
$24 million over two years in renewed funding for family violence prevention in reserve communities