Native programs won't suffer with cuts - Cardinal

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Natives in Alberta will not be affected by Premier Ralph Klein's recent cut backs to provincial funding, the Ministry of Family and Social Services said.

Native programs escaped the Conservative government's Jan. 17 announced funding cuts to health, education and social services because most of them are handled at the community level, said Mike Cardinal.

"None of the cuts will affect negatively the Aboriginal communities. In areas where there is high unemployment people will continue to receive the basic assistance that's there."

Provincial funding cuts included $1.6 billion to the Social Services Department in 1993 and an additional loss of $1.5 billion in 1994. The department also hopes to reduce welfare payments by $185 million this year, taking 55,000 people off the dole, in addition to 55,000 recipients cut off in 1993.

Social services can run the same number of programs with the same level of service in spite of the cuts, Cardinal said.

"There could have been better use of the dollars that were out there and this is exactly what we are doing...The cut backs are really a re-direction of how we deliver programs. And there was strong support to get people back into training and employment."

But those cuts could still be felt at the community level because many Native social programs work in concert with non-Native programs, said Dave Des Jardins, the Feather of Hope Society's executive director.

"I would be hard pressed to say that the cuts wouldn't affect us directly or indirectly."

The society, which provides counselling services for Natives with AIDS, receives some funding from Health and Welfare Canada. But losing even a small amount of the $19,000 that Alberta contribute each year would affect services, Des Jardins said.

Cuts to other non-Native programs which the society relies on will undoubtedly affect both service and quality of service to clients, he said. The society's annual budget is slightly more than $135,000.

More Indian communities and reserve, including Wabasca, Desmarais and Calling Lake, are, however, already running their own economic and social programs because they can do a better job than the government, Cardinal said.

"The more authority we give to Native communities, the better off we will be," he said.

The main hardship facing Aboriginals in Alberta is the adjustment that comes with returning to the work force, he said.

"We created dependency and people became inactive. The adjustment and the attitude change is going to be a major step right now."