OTTAWA REPORT

Page 2

Everyone has to die sometime. But if you're a status Indian and if you care about the well being of the loved ones you leave behind, the auditor-general has some advice for you.

Don't die of old age. Don't get a heart attack. And don't get knifed in a bar. Kenneth Dye says the best way to die, from an accounting standpoint, is in a traffic accident.

Of course, the auditor-general didn't put it exactly that way in his recent annual report but the message is there nevertheless. In his report, Kenneth Dye showed how the Department of Indian Affairs is failing in its job as the trustee for Indian people. One of its responsibilities is the handling of Indian estates. The department has some very clear and very specific responsibilities, the auditor-general points out.

By law, the department has to be involved when an on-reserve Indian dies without a will and leaves an estate of more than $2,000. The department handles thousands of such cases every year. If you die in bed and if you don't leave a will, chances are your estate will be handled by the department.

Your estate is automatically turned over to your next of kin when you leave less than $2,000. But if you leave a will or a large amount of money, the responsibility for settling the estate is turned over the province. If you die in a traffic accident, an insurance claim is usually involved as the department turns your estate over to the province as well.

The provinces settle estates quickly and efficiently, the auditor-general says. Once you learn how the department handles estates, you'll know why it's better to die in a car crash and let the province wrap up the details.

As the trustee for Indian people, the department is required to prepare a detailed list of everything the deceased owned, owes or is owed. The department is also responsible for protecting the estate by insuring the assets and collecting any money owed to the deceased.

What happens in real life, though, is something else. The department usually allows friends, relatives or volunteers to do most of the work. Fine. I don't think anyone wants civil servants poking around in a dead relative's personal effects.

The problem is that the government is legally and financially responsible for any mistakes made by the volunteers. No matter who does the groundwork, though, it's still the department's responsibility to make sure that the proper heirs and beneficiaries get all the assets from the estate. The auditor general says the department does a lousy job of administering estates.

Here's why: For one thing, it doesn't have enough people on the job. With 6,000 people on the payroll that may sound hard to believe, but the Department of Indian Affairs is woefully understaffed to handle estates.

In Manitoba, the department can handle 150 cases a year with the present staff. The trouble is the region gets twice that many new cases every year. In Ontario, estates are not considered overdue until they are at least three years old. Some people died 20 years ago in that province but their estate has not been settled.

Not only is the department short-staffed, the auditor general says, it's also poorly trained. Most are clerks with little training and little supervision. Since they rarely ask for help or advice, the auditor general says the staff makes mistakes - mistakes that could result in costly lawsuits. The department is in the process of gradually reducing its size.

It admits, as a result, that the problems of administering estates will get even worse in the future.

In its defence, the department has asked the Treasury Board to review the overall management of its trust responsibilities. In the meantime, the department says it will train its staff and improve its procedures.

The department has made those kind of promises before. In fact, the department has known about the estate problems for some time, but the auditor general says "there is no evidence that the department has taken steps to reedy them."

The estates problem was just one of several identified by the auditor general. He devoted even more space in his report to the mismanagement of lands, trust accounts and education.

His report demonstrates the ridiculous nature of the present situation as well as the crying need for change ...specifically the need for Indian self-government. Until self- government becomes a reality, though, Indian people will continue to die and will continue to get the same treatment.

So if your doctor tells you that you've got just six months to live and if you don't want the department to handle your estate, here's my advice. You can get the province

to handle your estate by writing a will. Or you can go to the bar at closing time, find the drunkest person there, put them behind the wheel of a car, climb in beside and head for

the open road at a lethal rate of speed.