Harper's advisor recommends selling First Nation land to deal with poverty
From http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2006/11/16/flanagan-pressclub.html
Selling reserve land could help solve poverty: professor - November 16, 2006 - CBC News
One of the only ways to address poverty on native reserves is to enhance property rights, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former senior campaign adviser said Wednesday night.
The system in place now is stopping aboriginal Canadians from improving their economies, said Tom Flanagan, a University of Calgary professor and co-editor of Self Determination:The other path for Native Americans, a new book that takes a hard look at property rights on reserves.
The value of property on native reserves has gone up significantly, especially on the outskirts of cities like Calgary, he told a meeting held at the Ottawa press club.
Yet people on reserves live in poverty and their homes are falling apart, added Flanagan, whose 2000 book, First Nations? Second Thoughts, called native reserves dysfunctional although he admits he's never been to one.
Under Canadian law, many people on reserves face restrictions when it comes to selling or leasing land but Flanagan believes some of those should be lifted.
Aboriginal people should have the right to sell some of their land to business developers, who would make better use of their property and create jobs for native people, he said.
"I don't think native people have much choice in the matter because they are maybe three per cent of the Canadian population," he added. "They are surrounded by western capitalism everywhere."
That comment angered Wayne Courchene, an adviser to the Assembly of First Nations. He said Flanagan's views are narrow-minded and don't take into consideration the traditional connection aboriginal people have to their land.
"I was outraged by the remark," he told CBC News. "I didn't think it reflected what a lot of Canadians feel."
Flanagan, whose work also questions why First Nations should live in a tax-free environment with free housing, stressed that he's not advising the government on aboriginal issues.