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Arguable the most vague audit ever.

12 million for "program delivery".

3.29 million on "administration".

Might as well labelled it all. 34,314,000 to "Waste".

   

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1099281--respect-mah-authoritah#.TuI_QXnvzeF.facebook

Nice. Pretty sweet gig for someone who's not even a chief.

   

Nearly as lucrative as being chief or one of the top dogs in the Band.

   

^Only a zero short on the pay stub.

   

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/201 ... s-numbers/

Actually a really good read and shows some number comparisons.

Just replacing the houses would be like sticking silly putty into a crack in a dam, sure it will work for now but in a little while it will be back to normal and worse than ever. The reserve doesn't need a quick patch, it needs a full blown repair job and those aren't cheap or fast, if the manager does his job well that $1300 a day will pay itself off in a couple years and if they keep the changes they will be better off as a whole. Move the people living in the condemnable houses temporarily off reserve until the situation is resolved.

   

As long as they don't have any economic activity there, they'll just be dependent on govt handouts - that manager can't fix that. 90 million over a number of years doesn't go far for 2000 people.

But the reserve has taken in 300+ million in income from the DeBeers mine that's close by - where is that money?

   

I live in the middle of Saskatchewan, a lot of towns smaller than that reserve are economically stable, if they actually allowed non-reserve people to set up businesses on the lands they would start gaining some real economic activity. Or they could actually do something with that $3,0000,000 surplus they posted and start up some businesses to start creating an economy.

   

Jeff the place is totally isolated. It's waiting for the ice road to open at this moment. Unfortunately people choose to live there.

   

It's not the size, it's the location. Those small towns probably serve farmers and maybe oil? workers. This reserve is fly in, with winter roads only acessible 4 months of the year. Can't grow anything there, there's just no reason for it to exist except it's traditional land. There is that diamond mine about 60 km away tho. Apparently a lot of the natives would work there for a day or so, then not show up. But the mine says the reserve has taken in about 300 million in contracts etc since the mine started being built. Wonder where that money went.

But in the long run there's just no economic justification for that reserve to exist, and so we're just keeping natives there in welfare. We should stop that, help them move and get education so they can participate in the regular economy.

   

I know this is the underlying topic but you can't say much about it but the Indians need to move. It's the Canadian way to support them and we will continue to do so but the aboriginal plight is a story in how a peoples can get caught in a downward cycle. I don't know anything about the sociology of it but other New World countries have similar problems. This is the short of it, everyone here knows it - but I just had to say it.

   

Well, what was it you said? I'm not really clear.

They're not on a downward cycle unless you start that cycle at first contact. Their way of life was basically fucked when they were conquered by a far more technologically advanced people. And we did do all sorts of shit to them, they weren't treated well. But the way forward is for them to join our society, not insist on their spatial status and demand we pay them welfare rent for all eternity.

   

Ok, downward cycle is not articulate. Somehow they got stuck in the North, never moved, and live in poverty. Part of what makes it painful to think about is the cost to the government that will eventually be tallied.

   

They were always where they are now - probably for thousands of years. Lived a stone age existence. This is no longer feasible for most of these reserves, since we've destroyed their hunting grounds. Nor do they want to live like that, they want the same mod cons other Canadians have. We're the ones who pushed them onto reservations and made vague promises that we would support them. But that's just a welfare trap, where we begrudge what we give them, and they think it's never enough. Somebody has to step up and change that situation. When the govt tries tho, they're just called racist. From the native side they seem to always want a special deal, what the ROC has plus more. Until we find a way out of that trap we're just going to get a lot of hand waving on both sides.

Some bands, because of their location and leadership do very well. The Osoyoos band under Chief Louie comes to mind. But it's still all about special status, which I don't think a democracy can sustain for the long run. People need to at least in principle have the same rights and obligations. Course in a way that's like saying a rich guy has the same right to sleep under a bridge as the poor one.

   

I assume they are legally allowed to trap, They also have government money coming in regularly to offset the cash that would be sent out, it would go a long way to getting cash in the hands of the people living there. Towns located in the far north seem to be doing alright.


Actually a number of smaller towns are alive for no reason at all, they have grocery stores, bars, some have hotels, etc. I can name a couple that at 3/4 people on welfare and 1/4 the business based on just those guys. Even in those cases there is never a house without heat, water, or basic necessities. You don't need a ton of money to create a micro economy, just people actually willing to work for the cash, (hell, people on welfare sometimes make cash under the table by doing simple repair work).

   

As always Ottawa is throwing more money at the problem which is a band aid at best. The first step in the right direction would be to fire every Native leader on the reserve.

   

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