FELDSTED: Perhaps splitting Indigenous and Northern Affairs into two entities is less important than dragging the department from using a 19th century approach to dealing with indigenous people
New fire marshal's office will aim to prevent fatal fires in Indigenous
communities. 'They want us to do action on what’s causing people to die'
David Burke ~~ CBC News ~~ Jun 08, 2019
Homes hollowed out by fire have become an all-too-common sight in
Indigenous communities across the country, prompting a plan to create a
national Indigenous Fire Marshal's Office to fix glaring gaps in fire
prevention programs across Canada.
"Fire deaths on reserve [are] 10 times the mainstream average and
that's just unacceptable," said Arnold Lazare, a member of the Kahnawake
fire brigade south of Montreal and the project lead for the Indigenous
Fire Marshal's Office.
The federal government has no current data on the number of fatal fires
in Indigenous communities. It stopped collecting data regarding on-reserve
fires in 2010, according to a report of the standing committee on Indigenous
and Northern affairs that was released in June 2018.
The
initiative of indigenous people is commendable and underscores the reality that
given the resources, indigenous bands can care for themselves in a
self-governance model. We can also save a few hundreds of millions spent in
current low-quality management of indigenous affairs in the process.
Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations, Carolyn Bennett |
The
initiatives of Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and
Northern Affairs Canada is abysmal and unacceptable. Indigenous communities
have suffered from a lack of quality housing for decades. Hundreds of thousands
spent on firefighting equipment have fallen into disrepair and disuse.
Governments
are oblivious to their having removed a sense of community from indigenous
reserves. The equipment is brought in an installed by contractors who leave
when they are done. There is no provision for regular maintenance and training,
or even a firehall to keep the equipment.
Local
residents don’t enjoy any sense of ownership or pride in the facilities and
equipment dumped in.
An
indigenous fire marshal cannot order new firehalls, equipment, adequate housing
or set standards for housing supplied. At best, he can catalogue a long list of
housing and emergency equipment deficiencies and make recommendation for
addressing these issues.
Why
has Indigenous Services not established a list of community needs and
requirements?
What
are they doing?
How
can they properly serve indigenous people if they don’t know what they need?
Perhaps
splitting Indigenous and Northern Affairs into two entities is less important
than dragging the department from using a 19th century approach to
dealing with indigenous people. This appears to be another instance of show
over substance. Rearranging the department does not improve the quality and
usefulness of services provided.
Crown-Indigenous
Relations has about 3,198 employees and spends about $7 billion annual. Indigenous
Services Canada has about 4,268 employees and spends about $12.3 billion.
There
are about 350,000 indigenous people living on reserves. The departments
employ one person for each 47 that they serve and spend about $55,153 per
person on reserve.
In
fairness, spending includes overhead (such as operating expenses, equipment,
supplies and salaries, etc.). Spending also includes expenses for education and
training of indigenous people off reserve, and transfers to provinces to
reimburse them for health care and education services they provide, but the
smell of boondoggle hangs heavy in the air.
There
have to be reasons why governments are so resistant to giving up the indigenous
affairs portfolio. It is incomprehensible that we spend over $19 billion
per year on indigenous affairs and find irate indigenous people at every turn.
This boondoggle
should get the 26 million people eligible to vote irate. People running for
office in October must not be allowed to duck this issue. If they have no plan
to solve the indigenous people services problem, they are unfit for office.
John
Feldsted
Political
Consultant & Strategist
Winnipeg,
Manitoba
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