Leader insists act is First Nations-driven

Page 10

Chief Tom Bressette of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation in Ontario, and Harold Calla, band councillor with British Columbia's Squamish Nation, met with Aboriginal media on March 28 to sell Bill C-19, the proposed First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management act.

Bressette is the chairman of the First Nation Statistics Advisory Panel, Calla, the chairman of the First Nations Financial Management Board. Both entities are the constructs of the federal government, set up in preparation of C-19 being passed.

Bressette and Calla are speaking out in support of the bill despite an Assembly of First Nations (AFN) resolution that rejected C-19 as part of the Indian Affairs suite of governance legislation proposed by Minister Robert Nault. They are speaking out despite action taken against their colleagues, Clarence "Manny" Jules and Satsan (Herb George), co-chairs of the AFN's fiscal relations committee, who were removed from their positions for lobbying on behalf of the bill.

The First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management act will create four institutions-a finance authority, a tax commission, a financial management board and a statistical institute.

Calla, an accountant by profession, said the concerns of those who oppose C-19 are unfounded. He said the bill will neither encroach on the tax-exempt rights guaranteed by section 87 of the Indian Act, nor convert reserve land to fee simple title, which would make it vulnerable to seizure.

"It won't affect land claims, treaty negotiations or Canada's fiduciary obligation," he said. "I see it more as like getting a tractor for a farm," a tool to make easier the work of meeting the needs of the community.

Calla cited the experiences of Squamish, which raised $45 million between 1992 and 2002 by taxing non-Native entities for their use of community land.

"After paying for municipal services-fire, water and police-we had $26 million left for facilities, language, culture and other community needs," he said. "The ultimate objective is to provide a better life for people in our communities."

Calla noted that the complaints he's heard about the bill are about the process, not the actual institutions.

"They question whether it needs to be done in federal legislation. People who haven't had the opportunity to deal with property taxation, to look at how you secure fixed-rate, long-term debt through bonds, don't necessarily appreciate why we need federal legislation; why we need to put some goal-posts around what Canada can do to instill some confidence in a market so that First Nations that embark on this journey are not going to have their knees cut out from underneath them. That's why we need this federal legislation," he said.

"If you talk to some of the major financial institutions in this country, the Bank of Montreal being one of them, the senior vice-president for Aboriginal banking, Ron Jamieson, has written a letter of support to the Prime Minister on this piece of legislation. Because he understands the purpose behind it and why it's needed and how it supports First Nations," Calla said.

In his support of C-19, Bressette said gathering and analyzing statistical information is the only way a modern government can function effectively.

"Our First Nation leaders currently do not possess the basic statistics that other levels of government in this country have readily available. And those areas include housing, employment issues, cultural areas, justice, education, health and the list goes on," he said.

Government policy is developed based on statistics, he added, but First Nations can't trust federal government institutions to analyze First Nation statistics and make decisions that are in the First Nations' best interests.

Bressette took aim at the argument that C-19 is tied to Indian Affairs controversial governance initiative. Bressette insists C-19 is a First Nations-driven initiative started in 1996.

"In 1996, Nault wasn't even the miister, so people can't say it comes from him," he said.

Bressette conceded, however, that his perception and that of the minister don't jive, that Nault, himself, thinks C-19 is part of his governance package.

"I think the reason is because he's the minister of the day. We've concluded our work and he has to take it into the House," Bressette said.

So, if this is a First Nations-driven process as Bressette and his colleagues claim, why is the federal government paying the bills? It's a question often asked by critics of C-19, meant to imply that bill supporters are doing the government's bidding.

"People certainly aren't going to put out their own dollars to come forward and being asked to undertake doing work." Bressette said. "A lot of them have been doing work, so we do provide travel and accommodations to bring them together. We have to develop this legislation to try and bring it forward that most meets the needs of First Nations. We've been having a battle on this. This has been no easy walk nor have we been giving in to the whims and wishes of the government. We've been fighting for First Nations' issues, that we have control and ownership rests with the First Nations of the data that we'll collect."

He dismissed the idea that taking federal money makes him an agent of the federal government.

"I'm a chief. My money comes from the federal government. I'm under the federal legislation of the Indian Act. Does that mean I'm working for the federal government? I think anybody who asks that question and belongs to organizations, where does their dollars come from to do the kind of work they do? "

Calla said a lot of the opposition to C-19 is based on fear. First Nation people believe they've been studied to death, but too often the data gathered in those studies is not used to the benefit of First Nations people.

"We all experienced that. I asked, 'Why is it so intense?' And one Elder said to me, 'Well, realize that if we actually registered our [children] six years later they came and took them.' So there is this inbred fear and justified inbred fear," he said. "Part of the challenge we face is that we have been studied to death. But we've never been able to utilize that information in ways to advocate our interests. In many cases that information either gets buried or the report's just ignored. The difference this time, I think, is that we're in a position where we have a First Nations-led institution that's going to utilize this data in ways to advocate First Nations interests. I think that's a dawning of a new era."