Attawapiskat, and the intractable problem of Canada's Aboriginal people
This week Canadians awoke to a news story that arises with depressing regularity. The native community of Attawapiskat had declared a state of emergency. The population of around 2,000 were living in crowded, squalid conditions. Many were reduced to sleeping in tents, and there was no functioning water system. Winter comes early in the north and the community was in desperate need of help.
This is not an uncommon occurrence in Canada. Many of our native Canadians living in northern communities live in similar conditions. What is puzzling to many non-native Canadians is why this is so. After all, the Federal government poor billions of dollars into these communities every year. Where does the money go? Over the past 5 years the community of Attawapiskat has received about 92 million dollars from Ottawa alone.
This problem will not be solved by providing temporary aid to Attawapiskat. It will continually arise in other aboriginal communities and it's time we re-thought the way we "help" native Canadians. For starters there is a reluctance in polite circles to acknowledge that for many communities the band council functions like a feudal kingdom, rewarding supporters and harming dissenters. The band council system on many reserves could be very accurately described as a system of kleptocracy. If native self-government is not seriously addressed and we keep funnelling money to these dysfunctional band councils we will keep getting the same result.
Many of these northern reserves are in geographically isolated locations. Locations that have no road access during the spring and summer months. Some of the members of these reserves can earn a living as hunting and fishing guides, some work in mining operations (about 100 of the Attawapiskat reserve work at a local diamond mine). Nevertheless, the reality is that there is not sufficient employment for the vast majority of northern reserve residents. Native Canadians have the fastest rate of population growth of any group in the nation. It is time that we recognized that maintaining a young, geographically isolated, community is simply not economically sustainable. At some point incentives must be put in place to actively encourage aboriginal Canadians to do what people the world over have been doing for the past century - move to urban settings. Canada's urban aboriginal population has been growing very rapidly in recent years, but so has the population in isolated reserves. One great incentive to allow natives to move would be to allow residents of reserves private ownership of their homes and land. As the development economist DeSoto has said, private property was the basis for the growth in prosperity in western European nations - why would deny it to native populations?
In the short term the emergency on the Attawapiskat reserve needs a response. In the medium and longer term a complete reassessment of the relationship between the federal government and aboriginal governments needs to be rethought and when this happens everything should be on the table. The status quo isn't working and hasn't for decades.
This is not an uncommon occurrence in Canada. Many of our native Canadians living in northern communities live in similar conditions. What is puzzling to many non-native Canadians is why this is so. After all, the Federal government poor billions of dollars into these communities every year. Where does the money go? Over the past 5 years the community of Attawapiskat has received about 92 million dollars from Ottawa alone.
This problem will not be solved by providing temporary aid to Attawapiskat. It will continually arise in other aboriginal communities and it's time we re-thought the way we "help" native Canadians. For starters there is a reluctance in polite circles to acknowledge that for many communities the band council functions like a feudal kingdom, rewarding supporters and harming dissenters. The band council system on many reserves could be very accurately described as a system of kleptocracy. If native self-government is not seriously addressed and we keep funnelling money to these dysfunctional band councils we will keep getting the same result.
Many of these northern reserves are in geographically isolated locations. Locations that have no road access during the spring and summer months. Some of the members of these reserves can earn a living as hunting and fishing guides, some work in mining operations (about 100 of the Attawapiskat reserve work at a local diamond mine). Nevertheless, the reality is that there is not sufficient employment for the vast majority of northern reserve residents. Native Canadians have the fastest rate of population growth of any group in the nation. It is time that we recognized that maintaining a young, geographically isolated, community is simply not economically sustainable. At some point incentives must be put in place to actively encourage aboriginal Canadians to do what people the world over have been doing for the past century - move to urban settings. Canada's urban aboriginal population has been growing very rapidly in recent years, but so has the population in isolated reserves. One great incentive to allow natives to move would be to allow residents of reserves private ownership of their homes and land. As the development economist DeSoto has said, private property was the basis for the growth in prosperity in western European nations - why would deny it to native populations?
In the short term the emergency on the Attawapiskat reserve needs a response. In the medium and longer term a complete reassessment of the relationship between the federal government and aboriginal governments needs to be rethought and when this happens everything should be on the table. The status quo isn't working and hasn't for decades.
posted by Greg at 7:59 PM
1 Comments:
Some reserves already have this private property system. But many of these reserves were designed to be failures in the first place. Many are the worst and most inaccessible lands possible. How would private property change this situation? I would be in favour of incentives to move into urban settings, and it is an emotional issue, you cannot deny people the right to their language and culture. Would giving First Nation's people private property merely result in another Dawes Act, 1886?
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