AFN hopeful, but remains vigilant in wake of new budget

The 2009 federal budget delivered on Jan. 27 has fallen well short of expectations voiced by First Nations leaders, and the result will be increased lobbying to get those needs met.
"It is hopeful, but it is missing two of the key ingredients needed to eradicate poverty and certainly improve the lives of First Nations people no matter where they live," said Angus Toulouse, Assembly of First Nations regional chief for Ontario.
The budget included a $515 million infrastructure investment that is intended for school construction water quality, safety and police.
National Chief Phil Fontaine said that the federal budget provided a fair and helpful response in terms of First Nations infrastructure, "but we also need to build First Nations skills and First Nations economies."
He said that is where the budget falls short.
"Without those investments, First Nations will fall further behind and be forever in need of fiscal stimulus. Building schools is not an end in itself. We want our students to graduate from those schools. We want our students to have the opportunities to fully participate in the economy and society."
In mid-January, Fontaine presented his economic stimulus package to the first ministers of Canada, the provinces and territories during a dinner meeting held in Ottawa. That package called for $4.4 billion in expenditures to be divided among three areas: Infrastructure, education and repayable loans to provide support for partnerships between First Nations and the private sector.
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget earmarked only $1.4 billion to meet Aboriginal needs. Identified in the budget is $200 million to support Aboriginal skills and training; $400 million to address on-reserve housing; $515 million for urgent on-reserve needs, such as school construction and drinking water; and, $325 million for the delivery of First Nations and Inuit health programs and child and family services.
Toulouse said the AFN is still analyzing whether the $1.4 billion announced is on top of the $10 billion the federal government invests annually on Aboriginal priorities or whether some of that money is simply "repackaged resources."
Either way, he points out, $1.4 billion doesn't come close to meeting the basic needs identified in separate surveys carried out in Ontario and British Columbia earlier this year. First Nations in those two provinces identified close to $4 billion would be needed to meet the needs of their communities.
Nor does the budget come close to meeting the needs of Aboriginal women, said Beverley Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada.
"It's really disappointing and frustrating. They talk about an action plan and I don't see any action for Aboriginal women," Jacobs said.
She met with Prime Minister Steven Harper and the first ministers to provide information as to why Aboriginal women needed to be a priority in the budget, but she says none of this was reflected on budget day.
"Within the Aboriginal community, Aboriginal women have taken the hits of colonization, of being marginalized. To be included in the budget would be to be included in society," said Jacobs.
While Toulouse is pleased that skills training and infrastructure work, such as building schools, has been included in the budget, Jacobs doesn't know if either inclusion will benefit Aboriginal women. She points out that infrastructure and construction are usually work done by men. She would have felt better if specific training programs had been identified for Aboriginal women.
Both Toulouse and Jacobs agree that the work of their respective organizations is far from over.
"We will continue certainly to pursue (repayable loans) and continue to pursue the need for education," said Toulouse.
Jacobs said that with NWAC's limited dollars lobbying will continue in such areas as new shelters and transitional housing and skills training for Aboriginal women.
"It's more work we have to do and we don't have the resources to do more work," she said.
NWAC will start working with the opposition political parties to get them to carry forward the voices of Aboriginal women.
While "frustration" is a word used by both Jacobs and Toulouse, Toulouse said there is still reason to be optimistic with this latest budget.
The $1.4 billion committed to Aboriginal needs is "a hopeful sign in a budget tempered by challenges. It's a hopeful sign that there is recognition that these resources need to get to the communities and they need to get to the communities as quickly as possible."
BC regional Vice-Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo puts the $1.4 billion for Aboriginal peoples into perspective.
It does not begin to approach the $5 billion that was promised and then cancelled under the 2005 Kelowna Accord.
It is not quite one-third of the $3 billion in funding and $1 billion in loans that the Assembly of First Nations presented in its budget submission.
It is $200 million less than the $1.6 billion that the BC First Nations Leadership Council identified as the minimum for First Nations in the province, never mind the country.
The budget provision for $400 million for social housing on reserves Canada-wide amounts to only two-thirds of the $600 million needed for 8,000 homes just in B.C., and does not include support infrastructure, such as roads, water and sewers.
The budget provides $200 million for First Nations schools, but in BC alone $250 million is needed.
It is unclear how much of the funding is actually new money, as opposed to redirected former commitments, he said.
For example, the new two-year $1 billion community investment fund now includes unspecified money for communities affected by the mountain pine beetle disaster, which appears to mean the government's previous promise of $100 million a year for 10 years to address that situation in B.C. has now been swallowed up by this new program.
"The devil is in the details, and we have reason to be cautious as this budget appears to have abandoned previous promises that First Nations had been counting on," Atleo said.