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First
Nations kicking welfare habit
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OTTAWA–Fighting
drug abuse, promoting education and reforming social policy are all in a
day’s work for Chief Todd Peigan, leader of the Pasqua First Nation in
Saskatchewan. Doing
his part to end welfare dependency in First Nations “They want to get up in the morning and put on their work clothes and go out and get to work and |
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| Dancers celebrate National Aboriginal Day. Part of the celebration is to recognize the Gathering Strength action plan. | |||||||||
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be proud of themselves that they’re earning a
living,” Peigan says of his people.
“They
want to be able to buy their daughter that Beanie Baby she always wanted
and their son the GI Joe he always wanted.
But social assistance doesn’t do that.
Social assistance allows you to live month to month, and
there’s nothing in there for living in luxury.” Peigan’s
plan to get his people off social assistance is well under way, with help from the federal government. In 1998-1999, the department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development launched a $2.8 million initiative to fund pilot projects like the one in the Pasqua Nation. This Income Security Reform Initiative aims to make the on-reserve welfare system take a more active approach, says Christine Loth, acting manager of the Income Security Directorate. “Instead
of giving payments to people on a monthly basis, we’re looking more at
how we can make investments in people in terms of training and education
and employment opportunities.”
communities. They represent the department respecting the fact that First
Nations "know best what their own community needs," says Trevor Sutter,
communications manager of Indian Affairs in Saskatchewan. “Traditionally,
the department has taken it upon itself in the past to kind of guess at
what the community needs and impose it. And sometimes it didn’t quite
fit.” According
to the department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, welfare
dependency on Canadian reserves is high and growing. In 1997-1998, about 45 per cent of on-reserve residents
received social assistance, compared to the national rate of 10 per
cent. The national
on-reserve unemployment rate was 26 per cent, versus 10 per cent for the
rest of the country.
Meanwhile,
Chief Peigan is working on step three: employment. The community plans to develop a recreational resort with a
golf course, campground, and marina to create jobs and attract business. Peigan is
looking for investors. The Income Security Reform Initiative is part of Gathering Strength: Canada’s Aboriginal Action Plan. The federal government implemented the plan in January 1998 to address the discrepancy in living conditions between Aboriginal Peoples and the rest of Canada.
The
Commission’s 3,500-page final report was released in November 1996 and
contained 440 recommendations. Besides
higher dependency on social assistance, the Commission found that
aboriginals have higher death rates, poorer housing conditions, more
health problems and lower education levels, to name a few. “Aboriginal people do not want pity or
handouts," the report states. "They want recognition that these problems are largely the
result of loss of their lands and resources, destruction of their
economies and social institutions, and denial of their nationhood.
“They seek a range of remedies for these injustices, but most of all, they seek control of their lives.”
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Following
the 1990 Oka crisis in Quebec, the federal government established in
August 1991 the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples to investigate
the sources of discontent for First Nations people.