The day after the new Liberal government delivered the federal budget, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde applauded it for making strides to close the gap in the quality of life between First Nations and other Canadians.
Bellegarde says the federal budget shows that the current government is listening.
“They understand that an investment in First Nations is an investment in Canada,” said Bellegarde.
“The budget begins to address decades of under-funding and neglect, which has perpetuated a growing gap in the quality of life between First Nations and other Canadians.”
According to Chief Bellegarde, that gap is reflective of everything First Nations leaders in this country are trying to communicate.
“That gap represents the high youth suicide rates, the 1,200 missing and murdered Indigenous girls, the 132 boil water advisories, the overcrowded housing, the discriminatory funding for child and family services on reserves, the equity in terms of education and it also represents the disproportionate number of First Nations in jail, so that gap is huge,” said Bellegarde.
“Maintaining the status quo is not acceptable and there is a high burden and cost in maintaining the status quo.”
Bellegarde said investing in First Nations across the country will help add billions of dollars to the economy.
When asked if there would be accountability for this funding, Chief Bellegarde said the systems are already in place to ensure the $8.4 billion in investments over five years to Indigenous issues are held accountable and put to the right agencies.
Saskatchewan’s only Liberal MP – Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale – says Bellegarde and other leaders led a standing ovation when the finance minister announced that dollar value.
Goodale is a former finance minister, and says his government plans to pick up where the Liberals left off when the Conservatives took over in 2006.
Goodale says the Liberals can now fully follow through on the Kelowna Accord, which was designed after two years of meetings with indigenous leaders to identify their needs.
“Now we have a majority government that can take the commitments that were made during the election campaign based on the spirit of Kelowna, going beyond Kelowna. Putting that into a budget, embedding that in legislation, that’s what makes it permanent,” he said.
Critics of the budget, like First Nations Child Welfare Advoate Cindy Blackstock, are saying the big dollar commitments for First Nations in the Liberal’s budget may look good at first – but are actually not set to deliver the promised funding for years.
Most of that money will come out during an election year, Blackstock says.
However, Goodale says his government’s promises are focused on lasting change, not on getting re-elected.
“This has to be permanent, lasting change and the game plan is there in the election platform from last year, the mandate letters that have gone to all cabinet ministers, the speech from the throne, now the budget. The details are becoming more and more precise with every passing iteration. The key thing is the budget to make the financial resources available to accomplish the objectives over the next four years, make this all tangible, make it irreversible and that’s what was accomplished by the budget,” he said.
He says in coming months he has two big meetings with the Assembly of First Nations here in Saskatchewan. One is to look at improving the justice system to better serve indigenous people, and another is to look at improving the federal role in emergency planning for things like wildfires.