First Nation funding agreements signing away their power over water, resource development
Agreement with feds signed 'under duress': First Nation
By: Mia Rabson - Posted: 04/24/2013
OTTAWA - The chief and council of God's Lake First Nation have accused the federal government of forcing it to sign its 2013 band contribution agreements "under duress."
God's Lake passed a band council resolution April 8 saying it only signed its contribution agreements this year to avoid having Ottawa hold back funding for health care, education or other services, but that it did so "under duress."
All First Nations must sign contribution agreements with Ottawa each year that outline how much funding will flow and certain conditions. This year, God's Lake received the documents Feb. 27 and were told they had to sign them and return them to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada by March 5.
Chief Gilbert Andrews wrote to AANDC saying he had signed the documents "conditionally" but still wanted to discuss the agreement with AANDC and the band's co-manager. AANDC wrote back to say that was unacceptable and demanded Andrews "retract" his letter saying he had signed it conditionally.
The band did that on March 5. A month later, after reviewing the details of the contribution agreements, the chief and council passed a three-page band council resolution slamming the whole process.
The resolution criticizes the agreements for requiring First Nations to agree with all existing legislation and government publications as well as any amendments or changes that might be made to them in the future. That includes requiring the band to agree to more than 50 policies, manuals and guidelines which could be "amended from time to time."
The day before that resolution passed, AANDC released a statement saying it was not true that the new contribution agreements will keep First Nations from challenging government legislation in the courts.
"AANDC is committed to streamlining funding arrangements and reducing unneeded reporting by recipients, while maintaining its ability to account to Parliament and Canadians for the more than seven billion dollars with which we are entrusted annually," the statement read.
God's Lake is the first Manitoba First Nation to speak publicly about this new requirement in contribution agreements, which many First Nations see as the government trying to use funding for basic services as a way to keep First Nations from criticizing federal legislation they don't like.
Bands in Alberta, B.C. and the Atlantic region have all come out to criticize the process and some have threatened to take their complaints to the United Nations if Ottawa doesn't tone down the language.
Sources tell the Free Press both Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak and God's Lake Chief Gilbert Andrews feel the federal government bullied the band into signing the contribution agreements without providing enough time to review them.
Nepinak and Andrews will be holding a press conference or releasing a joint statement today.
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AANDC Bullying Concerns First Nations Leaders
26 April 2013
WINNIPEG - AANDC Bullying Concerns First Nations Leaders. Manitoba First Nations Chiefs say that bullying, harassment and intimidation are being used by the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development bureaucrats. First Nations leadership across Canada have been forced to review and sign AANDC's 2013/2014 annual financial agreements with less than adequate time and opportunity to review the arrangements.
First Nations Chiefs call down federal bullying
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs charge, "Often times the constraints on time are one week or less. When questioned on the inadequacy of the funding to provide for basic human services, frontline bureaucrats at AANDC state that they are powerless in addressing issues raised by the communities but still demand signatures from leadership or face a shutdown of community funding".
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs are stepping up and speaking out today against the harassment, bullying and intimidation tactic being used by the Department of Aboriginal and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) in continuing a funding relationship that maintains extreme poverty and fails to provide for the basic human needs and rights of First Nations people. Manitoba First Nations communities are once again being forced to sign and operate prescribed and inadequate contribution agreements and accept legislation that is detrimental to a treaty-based relationship.
In recent correspondence between AANDC and the community of God's Lake First Nation, AANDC demanded under threat of discontinuing of funding, a rescission of a letter requesting basic clarification on terms of the funding arrangement. The letter, dated February 27, 2013, from Chief Gilbert Andrews, agreed to a conditional acceptance of the agreement on the basis that the funding was no less than the previous year and also reserved the right to seek clarification and discussion on future funding arrangements, including discussions of an index arrangement to offset the effects of inflation.
AANDC bureaucrats responded to the letter from Chief Andrews as a suggestion that he was signing under "implied duress" and demanded he rescind his request or risk having funding discontinued to the community. Signing a funding agreement under implied or expressed conditions of ‘duress' could apparently make the funding arrangements for less than basis human services null and void in Canada law according to Justice Canada advice.
"In light of no commitment from Canada to work with us to realize the treaties in the nation to nation, treaty territory by treaty territory process envisioned by our mutual ancestors, the Crown holds a duty to mimic the honour and integrity we taught them by helping them to survive and eventually flourish in our ancestral lands. The lack of respect this government shows in instructing their bureaucrats demonstrates that institutionally and at the highest levels of this government they have forgotten who the First Nations people are and the role we have played in establishing the Canadian identity that they enjoy today", stated Grand Chief Derek Nepinak.
"We as God's Lake Narrow Chief and Council do not agree with the process that took place for us to sign the 2013/2014 Contribution Agreement and the legal obligations we were forced to accept. We would like to know what exactly these legal obligations are. My Council and I felt that we had no choice but to sign the CFA before the March 5, 2013 deadline otherwise we would not have had funds for our community in April. We are trying to protect our community and Aboriginal and Northern Development Canada's tactics are not in the best interest for our people", said Chief Gilbert Andrews.
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs will support the God's Lake First Nation and any other First Nation in Manitoba that takes the position that they have been forced to sign their 2013/2014 funding agreement ‘under duress'.
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Feds ‘blackmailing' First Nations into signing away their power over water, resource development for continued funding
Aboriginal Affairs say it's not forcing First Nations to sign anything on Bills C-38 and C-45. But it doesn't say anything about Bills C-27 or S-8.
By BEA VONGDOUANGCHANH - 03/25/2013
The federal government is "blackmailing" First Nations into supporting its policies through revised funding contribution agreements and telling them to "take it or leave it," say First Nations chiefs.
"The government through its contribution agreements is trying to get First Nations to sign onto [their policies] or else be cut from their funding," said Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta.
Mr. Adam, who was in Ottawa last week with a group of Canadian and U.S. First Nations chiefs to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline going through their lands, told The Hill Times that the ACFN has refused to sign its contribution agreement worth more than $1-million because it doesn't agree with the federal government's omnibus budget implementation legislation and bills such as C-27, the Financial Accountability and Transparency of First Nations Bill.
"Some of the bills that were passed on Bill C-45 and C-27 are all put into our contribution agreement and we're saying we're not going to sign it because it hasn't even gotten royal assent, it hasn't even become law and yet they're saying we're breaking the law if we don't sign it, so therefore the Canadian government is more ways than one manipulating First Nations into signing a contribution agreement which they need to provide programs to their First Nation. I don't think it's right," Mr. Adam said.
He said, however, that some First Nations are reluctantly signing the agreements because they need the money even though they don't agree with some of the conditions. "The First Nations are saying no to some stuff in there, and yet they're signing into it through this contribution agreement, so what Canada will say is that ‘look, they have no issues because they signed the contribution agreement, everything we put forward, they've signed onto over here.' Well, they're blackmailing us into signing it. That's what they're doing."
Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul's, Ont.), her party's aboriginal affairs critic, told The Hill Times that what the federal government is doing is "appalling" and asked about the issue during Question Period last Tuesday.
"Concerns are being raised by First Nations that new federal contribution agreements include a clause that prohibits challenging government legislation through the courts. Surely, the new minister understands how completely inappropriate it would be for the government to hold First Nations funding hostage to such an undemocratic condition. Will the minister confirm today whether any Government of Canada contribution agreements with First Nations contain a direct or indirect threat to bar their access to the courts?" she asked.
Conservative MP Greg Rickford (Kenora, Ont.), Parliamentary secretary to the Aboriginal Affairs minister, responded: "These accusations are completely false. Changes to the funding agreements are solely administrative and do not create new obligations for First Nations. Our department is in contact with concerned First Nations and encourages any First Nation with questions and concerns to contact its local regional office."
When asked to comment specifically on these issues, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt's (Madawaska-Restigouche, N.B.) office repeated Mr. Rickford's statement, and added that "there is no explicit or implicit funding condition in any of the current or pending departmental financial agreements with First Nations regarding either C-38 or C-45, both recently passed legislation."
Mike Harris, a columnist with iPolitics.ca reported last week, however, that there were two Saskatchewan First Nations bands who also did not sign their funding agreements-the Peepeekisis Cree Nation and the Onion Lake Cree Nation.
"One of the council members took the whole appendix home and read it all. There were a lot of conditions never seen before. Some signed and some didn't," Christine Dieter, a First Nations woman in southern Saskatchewan, told iPolitics.ca.
Mr. Harris wrote: "The appendix allegedly requires the bands to support federal omnibus legislation and proposed resource developments as a condition of accessing their funding. Some bands have already signed the funding agreements out of necessity, noting that they did so under duress."
With a new fiscal year starting, that means as of April 1, some First Nations will have no funds "because they did not sign the agreement," Mr. Harris reported.
Mr. Adam told The Hill Times: "It's for all First Nations, right across Canada that they're doing it to."