AFN restructuring will be on agenda in Ottawa

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Chiefs attending the Assembly of First Nations confederacy in Ottawa during the first week of December will get a look at some preliminary plans to change the way the nation-wide chief's assembly does business.

Critics of the AFN say the organization's charter does not give the elected leader the freedom to lead. The regional vice-chiefs have power equal to or greater than the national chief's. The vice-chiefs constitute a majority of the AFN executive and the current executive contains supporters of the previous national chief, Phil Fontaine, whose approach was in many ways completely opposite to National Chief Matthew Coon Come's. This has resulted in the AFN fighting the election over and over again on every new issue, a development that seems contrary to the intentions of the member chiefs who gave Coon Come the mandate to lead with their votes in July 2000.

Although Coon Come thinks it's foolish for anyone to expect that such a diverse group will ever be completely united on any issue, he agreed that the organization could be more effective.

"I think we have a structural problem," he said on Nov. 19. "My executive has agreed with me that we have a structural problem. We will discuss and we will present something at this confederacy in regards to restructuring. We're going to look at what's been done, what are problematic areas and how we can improve this organization. Everybody agrees the present structure, the way we operate, it's hampering our coming to some kind of agreement. There's questions on the status of chiefs committees; there's questions on the status of the role of the vice-chiefs who are elected by their own regions. So we have to look at the whole structure of the AFN. There are various scenarios that are out there and are now being discussed and considered. Across this country, I think people are ready to look at restructuring the AFN again, in light also of our budget being cut."

Coon Come sees a silver lining in the budget reduction that has clouded the AFN operations in recent months.

"When the minister unilaterally cut our budget, I think, if you try to look at it on a positive, it gets us to look inward and see how we can best use those resources to concentrate on specific areas and be the real political organization that the Assembly of First Nations was intended to be. It is no secret that I as national chief have stated that the AFN was becoming a super band office. I would have much preferred to have had a plan of a transition as opposed to a drastic, unilateral decision by the minister to cut the AFN budget. That was very unfortunate because, as a national organization, that affected 70 positions. Consequently we had to re-organize and do some multi-tasking as to some of the work that needs to be done. So, in essence, we are restricted in terms of what we can do. But it also, I believe, is an opportunity. I don't think we'd have ever down-sized as fast as the minister has unilaterally decided," he said, "but it does give us a chance now to look at the whole re-structuring of AFN and see how are we going to organize ourselves as a national organization.

"It also gives us an opportunity to look at the role the AFN plays, which I believe should be facilitating, lobbying and co-ordinating, and be concerned with the national issues and develop a national agenda that we can tackle without worrying about whether we've met certain deliverables and run into situations where we're competing for funds with the First Nations."

Coon Come said he's pushed for community driven initiatives to tackle the poverty, suicides and the incarceration rate of First Nations.

"We have to deal with health care, with education. You cannot talk about Aboriginal rights and treaty rights with people who are concerned with trying to put food on the table and the way your child graduates from high, but can't attend post-secondary when education could be our ticket."

He believes the chief have to stop impotetly pointing the finger at the federal government and start producing results.

"We need to tackle those issues so our people can believe us when we talk about certain issues, because if they can't see it, if they can't feel it, if they can't walk into an Elders' home or youth reception centre or a school, nobody's going to believe us," he said.

Rumors that the AFN was thinking of sending letters to First Nations asking for financial contributions to help off-set the funding cuts turned out not to be true, but Coon Come said the idea has been discussed from time to time by Native leaders.

"There was no such letter. The idea was thrown out of asking our members-not just the chief and councils, but our members -if they'd be willing to contribute to the national organization, if they really believe in protecting their treaty rights and Aboriginal rights, etc. I think we'd have to look at that as one of the options if we want to separate ourselves and not rely on governments who control the purse and if they don't like what you're saying they'll pull the plug on it and next thing you know you have no funding and you're restricted and you can't do anything.

"I think we'll have to start looking at some of our own source revenue and that's one of the options we've already looked at and pondered bringing it back," he said. "There comes a point where you'd have to ask, not just the chiefs, but I think your members if they really believe in a national organization. And if you do are you willing to contribute towards it? I think we have to challenge our people so we don't have to rely on government handouts and on the goodness of the minister of the day."

Coon Come said there's an unchallenged-but mistaken- idea floating around Indian Country that leads people to feel they have to decide between a conciliatory approach to government that opens the doors to funding increases or a tougher position that closes those doors.

"I don't think you can use the same measuring stic as you used for Phil Fontaine when he was cozying up to the federal government and supposedly being seen as receiving more money. I think across this country people will disagree with you, because that was competing for funds that our people were entitled to in the first place. People will disagree with the notion, because they would feel that was their money and every time they asked for additional money, they were told to go to a national organization and get that money. I don't think there was any new money that they were dealing with. It was just taken from the First Nations and given to the national organization," he said. "So that's a dispute. What I'm trying to say is you cannot use the same measuring stick of, because the national organization got so much money, well, that tells us that they're doing their job. I helped the Crees get $3.5 billion. I worked on it for the last 12 years. But they got the money. It didn't come to AFN. I can go right across Canada to areas where they've asked us to be involved. We as a national organization should be lobbying and then let the monies go to those regions and help them and give them advice. They get the money. It doesn't come to us."

He was reminded that many of his executive members are Fontaine supporters and were in favor of what he called the "super band office" approach.

"Why do you expect us to agree and be in unanimity? At the local level you never have unanimity. When chief and council call a meeting, there are people who disagree. Never mind the federal Parliament. They have five parties. They never agree on anything," he said. "We have the right to disagree. Within our executive we have very good debate and I don't expect unanimity. We have different approaches. We're so diversified in terms of culture, tradition, custom and beliefs, even in the way we deal with government. So I don't think it's fair to try to expect within a national organization that we could all agree."

They tried to impeach him i Halifax, he was reminded.

"It wasn't the executive that wanted to do it. It wasn't the executive. I only got in with not even 58 per cent, right? So there are people out there who still would like to see me get kicked out. So, it doesn't matter what I do, they will try to impeach me. To me, that's neither here nor there," he answered.

The national chief seemed confident that his approach will bear fruit in the immediate future. He believes the next federal budget will contain several unprecedented initiatives that will benefit First Nations people. He has been lobbying in every corner of Ottawa and the Prime Minister's commitment to address First Nation social issues appears to be for real, he said.

"I think it will be interesting to see what will come out in the budget. I think some people will be surprised. If Minister [Brian]Tobin is able to get his connectivity budget in place-we worked hard on participating and receiving monies to connect our communities in the north and to have our own internet infrastructure in place with our communities. It's going to be interesting to see what's going to be actually in the budget."

Details of the proposal that will be presented to the chiefs are still being worked out. The presentation will be preliminary because the ideas must be introduced at one meeting, then considered, and then acted on in another meeting, probably an annual general meeting (AGM). The next AGM is scheduled for next July in Montreal.