Auditor General documents detoriating living conditions on First Nations across Canada
From the Toronto Star
Living conditions on First Nations reserves getting worse: AG
“I am disappointed that conditions on reserves have worsened and are well below the national average,” interim Auditor General John Wiersema told a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
The report tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday morning revisited earlier investigations into living conditions on First Nations reserves — where services provided by provinces or municipalities in the rest of the country are under the sole jurisdiction of Ottawa — and found that many key recommendations had still not been satisfactorily implemented.
Continuing problems include a growing housing shortage, mould in the housing that is there, access to safe drinking water, a high level of high school dropouts among First Nations children living on reserves, and a lack of culturally appropriate child and family services.
The report urges both Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and First Nations communities to come up with new ways to deal with the issues, including rethinking funding arrangements and choosing legislation over policy.
“Despite the federal government’s many efforts to implement our recommendations and improve its First Nations programs, we have seen a lack of progress in improving the lies and well-being of people living on reserves. Services available on reserves are often not comparable to those provided off reserves by provinces and municipalities. Conditions on reserves have remained poor,” says the report.
“Change is needed if First Nations are to experience more meaningful outcomes from the services they receive ...
“Addressing these structural impediments will be a challenge,” the report says.
“The federal government and First Nations will have to work together and decide how they will deal with numerous obstacles that surely lie ahead. Unless they rise to this challenge, however, living conditions may continue to be poorer on First Nations reserves than elsewhere in Canada for generations to come.”
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Auditor general finds a decade of failure in delivering basics to First Nations
By Heather Scoffield, The Canadian Press – 1 day ago
OTTAWA — The quality of life on reserves is deteriorating to the point where Ottawa needs to overhaul its approach to funding First Nations programs, says Sheila Fraser in her final report to Parliament as auditor general.
Education, adequate housing, clean drinking water and child welfare are all in an "unacceptable" state, despite a large stack of government recommendations, initiatives and money over the years, a 10-year examination of First Nations policy concludes.
"I am profoundly disappointed to note ... that despite federal action in response to our recommendations over the years, a disproportionate number of First Nations people still lack the most basic services that other Canadians take for granted," Fraser wrote.
"After 10 years in this job, it has become clear to me that if First Nations communities on reserves are going to see meaningful progress in their well-being, a fundamental change is needed."
Both the Aboriginal Affairs minister and the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations say they're ready to make that change — and say this time, it will be different.
Indeed, as the report was being released, John Duncan and national chief Shawn Atleo were announcing a joint process to develop concrete goals for education, economic development and governance of First Nations.
The aim is to have the process culminate in a summit next winter, accompanied with measures in the 2012 budget.
"This is a new way of doing business. We've adopted a very collaborative approach here," Duncan said in an interview.
Atleo said he has watched many a government initiative flounder, and he says nothing will improve if the current First Nations culture of confrontation, blockades and court challenges persists.
So he is putting his hopes in a new process that should take the auditor general's advice to heart.
"You only have a few options, don't you. You either find a way to fully engage, or you end up finding yourself going down the mine shaft of despair and of conflict. And that has not produced the kind of results that we're looking for," Atleo said in an interview.
"I am very hopeful, but it's with clear eyes."
Fraser noted that she has overseen 16 separate audits on First Nations policy over the years, and says many of her key recommendations have either been sidelined or implemented half-heartedly, frequently leading to no change in conditions — or even a deterioration.
"In a country as rich as Canada, this disparity is unacceptable."
On education, the gap between First Nations students on reserves compared with other Canadians has been growing, the auditor general finds.
In the general population, the proportion of students who graduate from high school has risen steadily. But among First Nations, fewer than half are graduating, and improvements seem a long way off, the report says.
Funding formulas are based on 1980s information, and strategies for improvements have been left unimplemented or applied unevenly.
The report was released at the same time as a coalition of First Nations representatives and child advocates are presenting a report to the United Nations, asking that body to intervene in Canada under the Convention of the Rights of the Child, to ensure that each reserve has an adequate school.
"We know that the law says that the same standards of education must apply to both on-reserve and off-reserve schools. We also know that no off-reserve community would tolerate the shameful conditions under which we receive our education," the team says in its complaint to the UN.
On housing, the audit points out that the shortage of adequate shelter has increased, while conditions in existing housing have deteriorated. Rampant mould problems have been met with an information campaign on websites and pamphlets, rather than actual help or funding to eradicate the harmful spores.
When it comes to drinking water on reserves, the federal government has drafted legislation to ensure its safety, but concrete changes are years away, the report warns.
In the meantime, water-quality testing is being done sporadically, and key information is not being shared. More than half of reserves' drinking water systems are at risk, the report said.
On child welfare, Ottawa has not yet determined how to make sure children on reserves receive the same quality of services as other children, the report said. But the audit did give Aboriginal Affairs credit for properly funding its programming.
Generally, progress is blocked by the fact that there is no legislation defining the level and range of services the federal government is responsible for, Fraser says.
Funding arrangements are based on annual contribution agreements that make it hard for communities to know if they will receive timely and stable financing.
And most First Nations bands don't have the school-board or health-board infrastructure that other communities rely on to support delivery of key services