Amendment may bring jobs back

Page 4

EDITORIAL

The proposed "Kamloops amendment" to the Indian Act has been greeted with jubilation by many of our leaders. The proposed amendment would allow Indian bands to levy property taxes on non-Indian businesses on reserves. Currently, the provincial governments tax these businesses but yet refuses to supply such amenities as sewer and water, to these businesses ? hardly a business incentive.

This naturally, has forced many Indian bands to provide these necessities out of their own pockets in order to encourage economic development which is so badly needed on many of our Indian reserves.

Hopefully, with this new amendment as an incentive, more business-minded individuals will look on reserves as business opportunities not as vast wastelands of government bureaucracy and red tape. And in time, as more reserves open their doors to entrepreneurs, there will again, be employment opportunities on the reserve for many residents.

No news is good news

That old adage of "only bad news makes news" is still the case with most newspapers, and we at Windspeaker are often as "guilty" as the mainstream media in honing in on the negative.

Recently, a number of complaints were received over stories printed regarding Metis settlements. One of these critic's opinions appear on the "opinion" page in this issue.

Windspeaker stands by these much criticized stories, but a fundamental journalist issue surfaces here. Should Windspeaker, a Native oriented publication, print "negative" stories?

Recently, during the National Aboriginal Communication Society annual meeting held in Banff, this question was raised. During the discussions, several journalists and readers expressed the opinion that, yes, the Native press does have an obligation to print those sometimes "unsavory" events that happen within the community.

The general consensus was that only through facing our mistakes can we ever hope to avoid them in the future. However, when questioned as to whether the Native press should uncover "negative" stories in that person's own community, the answer was "as long as you don't concentrate only on the negative."

In this Windspeaker issue several interesting, informative and essentially "positive" stories can be found. There is even an excellent story on the East Prairie Metis Settlement. Do we sniff out only negative news? No.

However, readers should remember that it is the negative and often "sensational" stories that catch the eye. We are often remembered for the so-called "negative" stories, yet our stories on communities, interesting people and culture do not stir up such strong reaction.