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Disappointment expressed by AFN National Chief and NAN Grand Chief as they react to today's Federal Government Budget (see both press releases below) ...

Statement on Federal Budget by National Chief Phil Fontaine: First Nations not Included in a "Stronger, Better" Canada - Another Missed Opportunity: First Nations Remain in Last Place

     OTTAWA, March 19 /CNW Telbec/ - "Today's budget was supposed to contain something for all Canadians, but today, First Nations are beyond disappointment. We don't see any reason to believe that the government cares about the shameful conditions of First Nations. We have tried dialogue and tabled a rational plan to address it. The only thing missing is a commitment from the federal government.

     It is encouraging to see this government re-new and expand programs where First Nations are demonstrating great success such as the Aboriginal Justice Strategy and the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership initiative.
However, the investments in Budget 2007 fall far short of a comprehensive plan. Similarly, while we are pleased to see money from last year's budget confirmed in 2007 for market-based housing on-reserve, the larger question of the pressing need for social housing remains unanswered.

     It is clear First Nations have been left out of the "stronger, safer, better Canada" painted by the Finance Minister.

     Today's budget goes far towards cutting taxes and paying down the national debt -- but there is no mention of dealing with the huge debt to First Nations in the form of outstanding land claims. I would like to remind this government of the recent Senate Report on specific claims -- Negotiation or Confrontation: It's Canada's Choice - the title says it all.

     I am also calling on First Nations leaders - especially women and youth -- to study the budget carefully, and provide their reactions to the Minister of Indian Affairs and the Prime Minister. I know that many Regional Chiefs will provide their own commentaries.

     Canadians believe in fairness, and trust that no one should be left behind in prosperous times. Some Canadians will welcome this budget, but many more would be alarmed if they knew about the devastating consequences for First Nations given the lack of attention that First Nations have received in this budget. The frustration of First Nations people is only growing, and this budget does nothing to allay their concerns.

     It is clear that the circumstances of First Nations peoples remain a black mark on Canada. It's an enormous burden, not just on First Nations people, but the whole country. We want to turn this situation around so that First Nations are more effective contributors to Canada's prosperity. First Nations need to be able create opportunities, not continue to miss out on them.

     Nowhere is the fiscal imbalance more apparent than in the critical under-funding of First Nations health, child welfare, education, housing and infrastructure. No other Canadian citizen has had to endure a two-percent cap on funding that has now lasted for over a decade. Our population continues to grow and the poverty gap continues to widen. Today's budget only contributes to the imbalance by providing $39 billion over seven years to the provinces, without any comparable attention to First Nations.

     In November 2005, First Nations had a plan that was unanimously accepted by the Premiers and Aboriginal leaders. As an Opposition MP at the time, Minister Prentice said: "the fight against aboriginal poverty is the most pressing social issue that our country faces ... and as Conservatives, we believe something has to be done."

     Beyond investment that is critically needed, First Nations of this country seek a commitment to structural change. The First Nations - Federal Crown Political Accord on the Recognition and Implementation of First Nation Governments (signed in May 2005) provides an exit strategy from the current policies and structures that restrict our communities and condemn our people to poverty.

     Minister Prentice committed to the process established under the Accord at a meeting of BC First Nations last year. I call upon him to act in accordance with the provisions of the Accord as a way to replace fundamentally flawed government processes and policies.

     We have patiently waited a long time for action. This budget only allows for enough money to continue the management of misery."

     Phil Fontaine
     National Chief
     Assembly of First Nations

     The Assembly of First Nations is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada.

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NAN disappointed 'the budget for every Canadian' contains only a fraction specified for First Nations

     THUNDER BAY, ON, March 19 /CNW/ - Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Stan Beardy is disappointed only a fraction of what's being called the budget for every Canadian is designated for the country's First Nations.

     "Given the build up to Budget 2007, I was hopeful the Harper government would address the need to close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians on a larger scale," said NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy following federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's speech today in the House of Commons.

"The Government of Canada needs to address the fiscal imbalance on a more comprehensive scale that includes First Nations along with provinces similar to the all-encompassing package committed to in Kelowna November 2005."

     The First Ministers Meeting on Aboriginal Issues, which took place in Kelowna, B.C. November 2005, had former Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal government announcing contributions of more than $5 billion over the next five years to close the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians in the areas of education, health, housing, and economic opportunities.

     Today's Budget specifies supportive measures to provide training and job opportunities for Aboriginal Canadians, assistance in home-ownership for First Nation members, improvement of drinking water, and enhancing the Aboriginal Justice Strategy.

     Many of the 49 First Nation communities represented by NAN, such as Pikangikum (water and sewer) and Kashechewan (clean drinking water) First Nations, have made national news coverage in recent months showing living conditions similar to the Third World.

     "Increasingly, the honour of the Crown outlined in James Bay Treaty 9 is being denied, as First Nation people in NAN territory are not being provided adequate resources to meet a basic standard of life," said Beardy.

     The opposition is expected to vote on the Budget in the next two days. 

-30-

/For further information: Jenna Young, Director of Communications, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, at (807) 625-4952 or (807) 628-3953 (mobile)/

Article from Canoe.ca ...

Status quo is 'the enemy'- Writer stirs up controversy with new book urging Natives to stop pointing the finger

By LICIA CORBELLA, EDITOR - Sun, March 18, 2007
 
"One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements. One who does not know the enemy but knows himself will sometimes meet with defeat. One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated in every engagement." -- SUN-TZU, The Art of War

Thus starts the remarkable and often irreverent book, Dances with Dependency: Indigenous success through self-reliance, by aboriginal lawyer and entrepreneur Calvin Helin.

Helin, 47, a true Renaissance man who hails from B.C., admits his book is "politically incorrect."

Yet, unlike other politically incorrect tomes, this one is not sneeringly so. Indeed, this 300-plus page book is filled with hope and written out of deep love and concern for aboriginal people. ...

Just how politically incorrect?

In his book, Helin recounts a joke told by a well-known aboriginal comedian.

The comedian says the minister of Indian Affairs slipped and fell on the stairs and landed on his backside.

"He said: 'You know what happened when he landed? He broke the noses of seven Indian chiefs!'"

Despite the harsh criticisms Helin levels against chiefs in general, he says he has been called by many, who congratulate him for speaking the truth.

In the book, Helin sugarcoats nothing. While he recognizes and acknowledges the historical reasons and complexities behind the numerous social dysfunctions in Canada's aboriginal communities -- including massive unemployment, high incarceration rates, epidemic suicide rates, rampant addictions and tragic rates of child abuse and neglect -- Helin says none of that will change until Natives stop pointing the finger of blame at others and start to take responsibility for their own futures.

"It's going to require an entire change of attitude and that's perhaps the toughest thing of all to do," he admits, "but we've taken the first step because most of us agree we cannot continue with the status quo and I think this book gives our people permission to speak frankly."

At that, Helin refers to a quote from the great children's book, Alice in Wonderland that he's included in his book, a national bestseller.

"'Cheshire Puss,' ...(Alice) began, rather timidly... 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

'I don't much care where,' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat."

Native people, points out Helin, are at least in a better position than Alice.

"We know that the welfare trap is one path we shouldn't continue to take, that the status quo has to change," he writes.

"The system of welfare and transfer payments have literally rotted the souls of many and damaged their families beyond measure."

Helin points out that for 9,600 years, Canadian aboriginals were completely self-reliant. That started to change in the last 150 years or so.

"There's a quote in the book by Quebecois singer Felix Leclerc that says: 'The best way to kill a man is to pay him to do nothing,'" adds Helin, who visited Calgary recently to promote his book, which is causing ripples throughout the aboriginal community and beyond.

Former prime minister Paul Martin has met with Helin after reading the book and vows to get copies of it into the hands of his former Liberal colleagues.

Helin says aboriginal programming expenditures in 2005-2006 were around $9 billion with 88% of federal government spending going to reserves, where only 29% of Aboriginals live, and yet living conditions are on par with the Third World.

Helin says as one-third of the Canadian population reaches retirement age, Native communities are having more babies and have the youngest population in the country.

That's a reality he calls a "demographic tsunami".

"To those that might defend the status quo," writes Helin, "I would suggest they look carefully at the wholesale misery and poverty that the welfare trap is delivering now."

Helin says the time has come for all Natives to elect their national leaders rather than have chiefs -- many of whom are corrupt and want to continue riding their own personal gravy train -- do it for them.

"The book acknowledges our past but looks forward, not backward," says Helin.

The time has come, he adds, "to recognize that the status quo and our acceptance of that is our enemy. We must slay that enemy if we are to have a decent future."

About the Book - visit Orca Spirit Publishing

Dances with Dependency - Indigenous Success through Self-Reliance

Ever wondered how the lives of indigenous people and those in developing nations can be made better? Then this is the book for you! For the first time in print, real turnaround solutions are provided in answer to such poverty through focused strategic action. Take the 10,000 year mystical canoe journey through time and space. Learn how you can make a difference now! Detailed research and indigenous storytelling are dramatically blended in this groundbreaking publication—a publication that provides a fantastic gift of knowledge and understanding. Printed in full colour, with a beautifully embossed dust jacket, and featuring over twenty dazzling full-page art works by internationally renowned northwest coast artist Bill Helin. This hardcover book is sure to be a collectors’ edition.

"Helin’s book is above all a challenge for aboriginal people to recover their pride and self-sufficiency. It deserves to be widely read by B.C. and local politicians, and by aboriginal leaders as well…[and he] doesn’t pull any punches in recounting the history and the current state of aboriginal life in his native B.C. and around North America. He details how aboriginal populations are rising rapidly at a time when the general population is aging. A resource boom centered on northern and western Canada means the aboriginal workforce is urgently needed. And if aboriginal people don’t go to work to support themselves, they and their culture might not be the only thing destroyed...."