The Fraser Institute says per capita government spending on Aboriginal Canadians is at an all-time high and has increased at twice the rate of government spending on non-Aboriginal Canadians since 1949.
The study, which is adjusted for inflation, looks at per capita spending from 1949 to last year. It finds federal spending has increased from about $900 a year to more than $9,000.
The senior author of the study is Mark Milke. He crunched the numbers to find out what the trend has been over the past six decades. Milke says the numbers are a starting point for discussion:
“Well, the study was meant to answer two questions. Are Canadians generous, in a broad sense, when it comes to Aboriginal matters? The answer to that, I think, is ‘yes’. And where has Aboriginal spending gone over the decades? And the answer to that is it has gone up, for the most part.”
Milke concedes there is widespread poverty in the Aboriginal community, particularly on reserves, but says more money is not necessarily the solution:
“Well, I think the people that should be outraged the most about money spent on Aboriginal matters should be those on reserves who are not necessarily always getting the money.”
Chief Perry Bellegarde says he doesn’t buy the paper’s argument that spending on Indian people is at an all-time high
He says the auditor general has pointed out that funding to First Nations people isn’t based on needs or total population and doesn’t keep up with inflation.
Bellegarde says it’s misleading to say money to Indian people has increased:
“Because the other point he didn’t point out in his report is how much of those dollars really go to pay for the bureacracy within the department of Aboriginal Affairs, not only nationally but regionally? So there’s really very little money coming out to the communities where it’s needed.”
Bellegarde says the report should have taken into account where First Nations rank on the world’s quality of living index.
He adds First Nations pay PST, GST like everyone else and also shared their land so everyone could benefit.