A do-nothing approach requires nothing at all [editorial]

It seems to us that the Aboriginal Affairs ship being captained currently by MP John Duncan has been set adrift by its political master, Prime Minister Stephen Harper. It’s not only just off course; there seems to be no course charted at all, and that’s a disgrace after all this time. Aboriginal Affairs is just a cork bobbing in high seas, aimless, directionless, hopeless, hapless and of no good use to anyone at the moment.

Unless there is some method to the scattershot of recent cuts to Aboriginal programming, including the cuts from Health Canada, that have yet to be completely communicated, it seems that the only work being done is to tear down the work of others with no clear explanation to the benefits of such.

Perhaps the federal government doesn’t wish to burden us with details, seeing how fatigued we are with consultation, at least according to Joe Oliver, minister of Natural Resources, who recently announced his intention to revamp the environmental assessment process, presumably to help friend Enbridge through a difficult time during its review process for the Northern Gateway project.

Still we are left to wonder if doing nothing, except destroying previous effort, is a strategy in itself.
What are we about to lose? Well, the National Centre for First Nations Governance, for one.

Governance and building the capacity to govern. That’s basically what this organization is all about. This is how the centre explains what they do.

“We are passionate about supporting First Nations engaged in Nation rebuilding. The goal of Nation rebuilding is to restore economic prosperity to our Nations, improve social conditions in our communities and bring a renewed sense of honour and well-being to our people. Nation rebuilding uses the values and traditions of our past to build effective, independent governance for the future. It means examining our languages, culture, spirituality, history and territories. Nation rebuilding is a long-term project involving everyone in our communities, especially our youth.”

Now, what could be wrong with that? Isn’t that what the Conservatives would want? Good, open and honest-to god effective, independent governing?

We know that the centre worked extensively with treaty nations—Maa-nulth and Tsawsassen—during their constitution-making and law-building phases leading up to implementation. So, what is this cut signaling to the treaty process in British Columbia?

The BC Treaty Commission has been calling for some time for a re-commitment from the federal government to the treaty-making effort. There is a serious concern that there has not been enough return on investment after some 20 years since the commission was established.

And then there was that Common Table experience that urged the government to get its treaty making mandate in line with actual current Canadian law. The feds have, it seems, abandoned that effort.

James Lornie, the special advisor on the BC Treaty Process that was appointed by Duncan last year, has submitted his report to government, but where is it? A summary is floating about with the chiefs, but the actual report?

Lornie was to give his advice about how to kick-start negotiations. Perhaps what we will see is that Canada’s government isn’t actually interested in kick-starting anything at all.

Do nothing. A simple approach that requires no vision, no leadership, no effort, no money. Sounds like a plan.
Of course, we’re just speculating.
Windspeaker