Ruffling The Headdress

A non Indian point of view.

Before everyone starts screaming "RACIST!" Let me clarify a few things. "Indian" by definition is: "a original inhabitant of North America" according to the Oxford dictionary. "Indian" is also the term used by the Canadian government and therefore the department that oversee's this group is called "Indain and Northern Affairs". I have friends from many nationalities and races. A very close uncle is Metis and I have two adopted cousins that are status Indians. Besides, ask anyone that knows me, I hate all humans equally so there is no possible way I can be a racist. Onward we go...

I was listening to Dave Rutherford yesterday morning. He was speaking with, if I remember correctly, Mr. Jason Goodstriker, a representative from the "Assembly of First Nations" on how much money is needed to fix problems. Rutherford asked many questions but never really got an answer to any of them. It was almost like listening to Question Period. The common vague answer's were "there is no question money is owed" or "the treaties" blah blah blah blah blah. I was hoping that I would gain some insight but was left disapointed. They did agree that a half hour was not enough time and that they would get together for another show at a later time. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

In the meantime....

From where I sit, no amount of money will ever fix the problems. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)budget for 2004 was approximately 9 billion dollars. According to INAC,(PDF doc page 13) the Indian population in Canada in 2004 was 733,626. 415,422 on reserves and 318,204 off reserve. If you do the math, ohhhhh, okay, I will do it for you.

$9,000,000,000.00 divided by 733,626 = $12,267.83 for each and every Indian in Canada. or $24,535.66 for a family of two or $36,803.49 for a family of three or $49,071.32 for a family of four or $61,339.15 for a family of five and so on and so on.

Now should all Indians recieve this money? Should only those who remain on reserves recieve it? I suggest that all Indians regardless of where they choose to live within Canada should share this income equally.

During my search for information on this post, I tried to find information regarding the "poverty Line" for Canada. What I found, is there as usual are various opinions on what it actually should be. Figures for 2004 for a family of four, varied from as low as $21,835.00(PDF doc) from the fraser Institute based on "basic needs", to a high of $37,791.00 based on Stats Canada's "Low Income Cut Off"(LICO). Keep in mind these figures are based on before tax calculations and I am basing my argument here that all of the moneys from INAC are tax free. I am also taking into consideration that INAC will be scrapped and therefore will not need an operational budget. Therefore all money dedicated to that department would be sent directly to the qualified persons or their gaurdians.

As you can see by the numbers, by dispersing the funds directly to each individual they would be well above the poverty line no matter what figures you choose. Keep in mind that this is more than likely not the only source of income. There are many other finacial factors involved. Indians do not have to purchase many of the licences nor are they bound to the same rules as required by the rest of society in regards to these licences. These would include fishing and hunting, which in turn lesson the costs incured for the purchase of food.

But now this does not take into consideration of the educational, health, housing, and other provided "needs" that are currently in the INAC budget. So how does Canada currently provide these things to the rest of the public? They tax our income to pay for these services. So now if you apply the same tax rules to this income as all other income it would obviuosly cover those cost would it not? Oh thats right. By law Indians do not have to pay taxes in Canada. Well this is not exactly true. They do not pay taxes on purchases or icome on any reserve. They do however pay provincial taxes, the GST and other taxes on purchases off of the reserve. They also pay income taxes on income that is gained from off reserve employement. More info can be found here regarding this issue. So for the sake of argument, lets call these "taxes", "transfer payments". A portion of each Indians "non taxable income" would be "transfered" to the reserves to provide the required services for its members. These would include the same services a typical municipality provides for its citizens. Water, sewer, roads, ect.....

As far as dealing with the housing problem. It is my opinion that ownership, or the lack there of, is the biggest problem. I believe that the "land" on reserves should remain the property of the reserve as a whole. Each "family" should be leased(transferable) a resonable portion of the land at no charge to build and maintain their own home which would be theirs to live in or sell to another reserve member as they see fit. Pride in ownership plus the possibility of increased value of that property would go a long way in preventing some of the neglect that is currently occurring to some of the housing on reserves.

O Ohhh... This is starting to sound too much like the non Indian way of life in Canada. This is not acceptable! This strays way to far away from the treaties and the Indians "Rights" in same. Yes it does, and for a good reason. The current system does not work! Basing everything regarding Indians and their way of life on treaties signed many many decades ago simply will not and cannot work in terms of todays reality. No one at the time of these treaties from either side could have imagined the changes that would take place in the decades to come. To continue trying to deal today using the terms set back then is absurd. Housing back then was something we all built using available free sources in the area we were in. Not built by a contractor making profits. Food was hunted, grown and gathered by each household or group. There were no supermarkets. Transportation was a horse, a canoe or by foot. Roadways were trails mostly created by the natural animals going along with there daily life. Not paved highways costing Billions to build and maintain. Need I go on?

We live in a new and forever changing world. We can choose to either accept that fact and move on for the betterment of all living here, or as some would like, continue holding on to the past rejecting enevitable change. I myself would love to go back in time and live in much simpler times. However this is not possible. I therefore accept the changes, grasp new technology and move forward. I would suggest that for their own good Indians should be doing the same. This does not conclude forgetting about ones heritage. That is something we all need to promote and encourage to our children and them to theirs. Its survival does not come through government regulations or legislation but by each of us teaching it to our children. This is the case whether you be Indian, French, English, Japanese, Chinese, ukrainian, ect...

To summerize, I guess what I am trying to say is that if we don't change the way things are. They will remain the same no matter how much money we dump into it.

You can have your cake and eat it too. However that cake comes with a price, and at times, that cake can make a bit of a mess that needs to be cleaned up.