Federal budget misses the mark on Aboriginal needs

The 2014 federal budget is a good start for Aboriginal peoples, but it’s not enough.

“First Nations have been working to lift the two per cent cap since it was brought in back in 1996 and it’s not just education, it’s across the full spectrum,” said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo.

But that didn’t happen in this budget, although concessions were made in a number of areas. The budget included continued funding for the First Nations Water and Wastewater Action Plan; $66 million to renew commercial fishing enterprises in the Atlantic and Pacific; and a two-year renewal of $22.2 million for the Aboriginal Justice Strategy.

The budget also included funding for Aboriginal Skills and Employment Training Strategy, and Skills and Partnership Fund, which the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples called “key programs that will … provide training-to-employment opportunities for Aboriginal Peoples living off-reserve.”

The budget also commits to $305 million in funding over five years to improve broadband in rural and northern communities, which, as part of the government’s focus on the north was “both welcome and positive,” said Terry Audla, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

Audia said in a news release that the ITK would continue to work with the government on access to adequate housing.  That is an area in which the Canadian Association of Social Workers has slammed the government for not doing enough in this budget.
Funding of $1.7 billion for affordable housing operating agreements is set to expire and this latest budget did not commit more dollars.

Without this commitment, housing affordability will be lost for many Canadians, including seniors, single-parent households, people with disabilities, Aboriginal people, new Canadians and the working poor, said the CASW in a news release.

This is “absolutely a concern,” said Atleo, noting that an estimated 130,000 housing units are required for First Nations.
“I do think there is a major, major crisis in the area of housing in this country and there has to be a major response to it that matches the depth of the crisis,” said Atleo.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada said the “budget does not go far enough to address violence against Aboriginal women in general” as there is no commitment to undertake a national public inquiry. The budget does, however, commit another $25 million starting in 2016 to reduce violence against Aboriginal women and girls as well as commits to creating a DNA database.
“We’re going to keep pressing for (a full national public commission of inquiry),” said Atleo, who adds that the continuation of the all-party committee on the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls is “a welcome reflection that parliament is beginning to understand how important” the situation is.

However, NWAC president Michèle Taïna Audette says there is not enough in the budget for Aboriginal women, noting that only $150,000 was allocated to Status of Women Canada in 2014–15 to increase mentorship among women entrepreneurs.

The government has also committed $40 million to on-reserve emergency management, although the dollars do not come through until 2015 and it is unclear as to whether the approach being entertained by the federal government is the provincial/reserve emergency management agreements that Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Minister Bernard Valcourt announced last November. While the additional funding is welcomed, Atleo said the control needs to be put in the hands of First Nations and not given to the provinces.  He gives a nod to the Alberta model used after spring flooding.

“What I witnessed was in some respects what I would hope would be the beginnings of it, when you have provincial ministers, federal ministers sitting with chiefs directly, face to face, talking about designing solutions that will work for the communities themselves,” said Atleo.

That approach, he added, is also needed when it comes to resource development.

Although the federal government committed to supplying $28 million over two years to the National Energy board to review pipelines, it did not offer any money to ensure consultation with First Nations was enhanced.

“Current initiatives or process, including the energy board, including the assessment review processes, do not meet the standard of the right to free prior and informed consent,” said Atleo.

“The budget has to go so, so much further and not only the resources but the way in which governments’ respond,” he added.