The Broken Record

You could erase the dates in this article and aside from the monetary amounts there would be no way to tell whether it was written today or 5, 10, 20 or 50 years ago. No half-awake thinker need be perpetually stumped as to why an economic system premised on the Soviet model doesn’t suddenly produce great outcomes. Note to Canada’s developers of aboriginal policy: stop banging your head against the wall.

“Time after time, whether in housing, policing, safe drinking water or other critical areas, our audits of federal programs to support Canada’s Indigenous Peoples reveal a distressing and persistent pattern of failure,” Hogan said at a press conference Tuesday.

“The lack of progress clearly demonstrates that the government’s passive, siloed approach is ineffective, and, in fact, contradicts the spirit of true reconciliation.”

It’s the fourth time since 2003 that the auditor general has held the government responsible for unsafe and unsuitable First Nations housing.

18 Replies to “The Broken Record”

  1. Well, since there is no oversight on how the money is spent allowed, what do you think is going to happen, year after year.

    1. “Well, since there is no oversight on how the money is spent allowed, what do you think is going to happen, year after year.”

      Yes. Remember when the Attawapiskat thing happened, and the Harper government sent auditors to the reservation to get to the bottom of things and find out where all the millions of dollars had gone? And the natives suddenly *kicked them out* when they started getting too close to the truth? I was astounded that Harper did not respond with an immediate cessation of government funding until those auditors were allowed back on the reservation to finish their job.

      1. And along came Twinky Socks and that ended quickly.. Kickbacks being uncovered perhaps?

  2. Indians have two enemies. The federal paternal state that feeds them and enables the regal Chiefdoms while impeding their independence, and their own communism where private property rights are nonexistent and commerce, if any, is integrated with governance and shaking down non-indigenous operators is considered legitimate enterprise – all within the “legal” mush of “traditional territories” (all Crown land their ancestors traversed maybe) that they claim as their own “nations”. Please tell me what reconciliation looks like under that flustercluck.

    Not all Indians are confined to such horror. Many are independently employed or own fishing boats and pay taxes and live off reserves, for example.

  3. There is also the problem of personal responsibility. Because First Nations peoples have been largely treated like children, they have responded like children – they have not been allowed to grow up. This is not true of every First Nations citizen, but as a class, they are still children because they always place the blame for their own actions on others. An adult will take responsibility for their own actions and solve the problem. (The average Canadian voter has a similar problem with the “Government will save me with my own money” attitude)

  4. I had an acquaintance who lived on the local reserve and visited him there. He clued me in on what goes on there. The houses were all as good as mine or better, and all newer. But except for one, the yards were unkempt. There’s no pride of ownership when you don’t put anything into it. Besides, if they did make it an attractive, well kept dwelling, the chief/council would take it away and give it to a relative.

    One old native guy I know said his son moved the family off reserve, and he was glad. He hated to say, but the rez is not a good place to raise a family.

  5. something so basic, ubiquitous and often a matter of common sense as BUILDING CODES, aaaaaand they cant even get THAT right. they are indeed cocooned from the real world

  6. Does alcohol abuse enter the conversation anywhere?

    I don’t know much about reservations or reservation life, but I have read that alcohol abuse is a problem. Nothing much tends to improve when excessive alcohol use is in the picture, and that’s true pretty much everywhere.

  7. Maybe they should build their own bloody houses, and certainly pay for them.

  8. If one goes to get cheap smokes or gasoline at the Moraviantown reserve, you would notice a fire hydrant in front of EVERY household lot and even VACANT lots. Not at the concession front. Not every mile or so. Every lot with or without a residence on it.

  9. Politicos have a dilema.

    They must, not have to, they must, if it kills them give money to the natives.
    They can’t, absolutely can’t tell them how to spend it, lest they are racists, which thing they are.
    When you add all of the billions that the politicians gave to the natives, you would think they would live in a lap of luxury.
    Not so.
    Why?
    One can think that the bureaucracy steals at least the half of it before it gets to the natives.
    If you drive through the Standoff in the south of Alberta, you might wonder it you’re driving through a third world in a snap shot.

  10. Canadian Apartheid System.
    Best steal by the bureaus yet.
    With the added bonus of screwing up the Poor Brown People,while pretending to help.
    Laurentide Canadians are the most racist morons on the planet.
    As every accusation they make,is their confession.
    And they have accused tax paying Canadians of every evil under the sun.
    Fire every Indian Industry Bureaucrat and divvy up the money between all the “Status Indians” for 2 years and then cancel that welfare as well..
    Taxpayers and the welfare indians would all be richer,freer and healthier..

      1. we will NOT get propuddy rites as long as those, some of whom
        own propuddy, STOP voting LIEberal but that doesnt happen either.
        the conclusion the visiting space alien makes is that Canduhins DO NOT WANT
        propuddy rites which clears the way for all manner of tyranny

  11. just an observation, from the link “past 2 decades”, 2004-2024
    hmmm.
    *that* would include the entire Harper term 2006-2015
    comments anyone?

  12. Report: The Feds are hammering the natives into the ground.
    The Feds: Spend more on bigger hammers!

  13. The best ones choose to live off the reserve, the next best live on the perimeter of the reserve, the bad ones live in the heart of the reserve and the worst ones get kicked off the reserve and infest our cities with Indian gangs.

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