From CBC.ca

First Nations brace for 'nefarious' funding cuts

Grand Chief says cuts could "bankrupt" Nishnawbe Aski Nation

Jody Porter - Nov 14, 2012

Grand Chief Harvey Yesno sets a new nation-building agenda at the Nishnawbe Aski Nation chiefs' meeting in Thunder Bay Nov. 13. NAN and other First Nation organizations are facing huge federal funding cuts. (Jody Porter/CBC News)

First Nations leaders in Northern Ontario are preparing for looming federal funding cuts and caps that could slash their budgets in half.

"We're vulnerable right now," Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Harvey Yesno told almost 50 chiefs gathered for a meeting in Thunder Bay on Tuesday. "With the funding cuts that are going to happen, this organization could be bankrupt."

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Harvey Yesno says federal funding cuts make NAN "vulnerable." Jody Porter/CBC News (Jody Porter/CBC News)

Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) received more than $10 million in funding from the federal government in the 2010/11 fiscal year, although only a fraction of that was so-called core funding.

The federal government announced in September that political treaty organizations, such as NAN, will have their core funding capped at $500,000.

'We're going to have to rely on our communities'

Yeso said NAN will deal with the cuts by changing the way it operates, but he sees opportunity.

Being freed from government money, means being free to do real advocacy, he said.

"So we're going to have to rely on our communities to contribute and finance some of the research and perhaps some of the litigation that's going to take place in the future as we promote and defend our rights," Yesno said.

Other leaders aren't as optimistic.

Wabun Tribal Council executive director Shawn Batisse says funding cuts are a "direct attack on First Nations." (Jody Porter/CBC News)

Tribal councils will see their budgets cut in half by 2014 as the federal government eliminates funding for "advisory services."

'A direct attack on First Nations'

The executive director of the Wabun Tribal Council, near Timmins, said that funding helps First Nations do business.

Shawn Batisse said Wabun's six member First Nations have struck numerous deals with mining and energy companies recently with the help of the tribal council's advisory services. He sees something "nefarious" in the Conservative's cuts and the way they're trickling down over several years.

"To me it seems like it's a broader strategy on weakening First Nations capacity on dealing with things like environmental assessments, dealing with companies, [and business] agreements," Batisse said.

" It really doesn't make sense," he added. "I think it's a direct attack on First Nations governance and capacity institutions and they're taking that away."

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External Links

Funding Summary - Aboriginal Representative Organizations -

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From First Nations Strategic Bulletin

Harper Launches Major First Nations Termination Plan: As Negotiating Tables Legitimize Canada's Colonialism

By Russell Diabo

On September 4th the Harper government clearly signaled its intention to:

1. Focus all its efforts to assimilate First Nations into the existing federal and provincial orders of government of Canada;
2. Terminate the constitutionally protected and internationally recognized Inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty rights of First Nations.

Termination in this context means the ending of First Nations pre-existing sovereign status through federal coercion of First Nations into Land Claims and Self-Government Final Agreements that convert First Nations into municipalities, their reserves into fee simple lands and extinguishment of their Inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty Rights.

To do this the Harper government announced three new policy measures:

• A "results based" approach to negotiating Modern Treaties and Self-Government Agreements. This is an assessment process of 93 negotiation tables across Canada to determine who will and who won't agree to terminate Inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty rights under the terms of Canada's Comprehensive Claims and Self-Government policies. For those tables who won't agree, negotiations will end as the federal government withdraws from the table and takes funding with them.
   
• First Nation regional and national political organizations will have their core funding cut and capped. For regional First Nation political organizations the core funding will be capped at $500,000 annually. For some regional organizations this will result in a funding cut of $1 million or more annually. This will restrict the ability of Chiefs and Executives of Provincial Territorial Organization's to organize and/or advocate for First Nations rights and interests. 
• First Nation Band and Tribal Council funding for advisory services will be eliminated over the next two years further crippling the ability of Chiefs and Councils and Tribal Council executives to analyze and assess the impacts of federal and provincial policies and legislation on Inherent, Aboriginal and Treaty rights.

These three new policy measures are on top of the following unilateral federal legislation the Harper government is imposing over First Nations:
- Bill C-27: First Nations Financial Transparency Act
- Bill C-45: Jobs and Growth Act, 2012 [Omnibus Bill includes Indian Act amendments regarding voting on-reserve lands surrenders designations]
- Bill S-2: Family Homes on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act
- Bill S-6: First Nations Elections Act
- Bill S-8: Safe Drinking Water for First Nations
- Bill C-428: Indian Act Amendment and Replacement Act [Private Conservative MP's Bill, but supported by Harper government]

Then there are the Senate Public Bills:
- Bill S-207: An Act to amend the Interpretation Act (non derogation of aboriginal and treaty rights)
- Bill S-212: First Nations Self-Government Recognition Bill

The Harper government's Bills listed above are designed to undermine the collective rights of First Nations by focusing on individual rights. This is the "modern legislative framework" the Conservatives promised in 2006. The 2006 Conservative Platform promised to:

Replace the Indian Act (and related legislation) with a modern legislative framework which provides for the devolution of full legal and democratic responsibility to aboriginal Canadians for their own affairs within the Constitution, including the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Of course "modern" in Conservative terms means assimilation of First Nations by termination of their collective rights and off-loading federal responsibilities onto the First Nations themselves and the provinces.

One Bill that hasn't been introduced into Parliament yet, but is still expected, is the First Nations' Private Ownership Act (FNPOA). This private property concept for Indian Reserves-which has been peddled by the likes of Tom Flanagan and tax proponent and former Kamloops Chief Manny Jules-is also a core plank of the Harper government's 2006 electoral platform.

The 2006 Conservative Aboriginal Platform promised that if elected a Harper government would:

Support the development of individual property ownership on reserves, to encourage lending for private housing and businesses.

The long-term goals set out in the Harper government's policy and legislative initiatives listed above are not new; they are at least as old as the Indian Act and were articulated in the federal 1969 White Paper on Indian Policy, which set out a plan to terminate Indian rights as the time. 

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE STRATEGIC BULLETIN