Budget suggests concerns for future

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OTTAWA - The recent federal budget holds no immediate misery for Native people in Alberta, according to opposition party critics in Ottawa. But it does present some concerns for the future.

A major concern is that the federal revenue department may be signalling its desire to get at money earned by Treaty Indians who work off, but live on, reserve.

In his budget speech last week, Michael Wilson said that the Indian (tax) Remission Order which keeps the taxmen off reserves will be extended for another year. According to NDP Indian Affairs critic, Jim Manley, this "is like telling your family that there will be food on the table for another day - the implication is that it might not be there tomorrow."

Liberal Indian Affairs critic Keith Penner says that he remembers from his time on the government that Revenue Canada would like to get its hands on a share what reserve Indians earn off-reserve.

Penner says there are sections of the budget that should actually help treaty Indians. He points out that while there are major cuts slated for DIA staff and operating budgets, all this money will be going to bands across the country.

More good news for all Native people can be found in the extension of the Indian Community Human Resources Strategies program for another year, with a budget of up to $40 million. But a concern arises out of even this good news.

There is a chance that the funds shifted over to the human resource program may come out of the $100 million cut from Health and Welfare programs that already serve Native people. Because of this, Native people may suddenly find that their employment has a lower priority at Canada Employment Centres. And the ICHRS program hasn't been all that efficient, so far. According to Liberal Critic Penner, around $2 million of the $24 million originally set aside for the program just disappeared into administration costs.

There is also concern about the restrictive nature of most of the new programs that are being pushed by Flora Macdonald at Health and Welfare will have criteria too restrictive for the needs of Native communities.

The basic view that the department now takes it that if a program doesn't have a large education component, it doesn't get priority. Penner says that there are programs that Native communities desperately need that may be dropped by the wayside because the resources to provide the training that new programs demand.

There is more bad news for Native groups fighting fort land claims and traditional rights through the courts. The $300,000 DIA budget for legal aid has been frozen.

Also, the two per cent cut that will be hitting every other ministry will be striking home at DIA.

It will take a while for the full meaning of the budget to strike home. The actual cuts and transfers of funding will have to run through the Indian Affairs committee of Parliament before anyone outside the minister's office finds out exactly what they are.

While the budget restrictions are not expected to affect DIA's plans to increase the number of people on entitlement applications (under Bill C-31), the hiring freeze that the government announced just before the budget may hold things back.

Though everyone at DIA says they want to clear up the backlog of over 20,000 applications, that requires more people. And with a hiring freeze on, that would mean that people would have to be transferred in from other departments or others sections of DIA.