Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
Top News - July - 2004
Volume 22 - Number 4
AFN budget could swell under new management
Nations rally against government tactics
APTN still reeling from near-death experience
Future Shock? - Editorial
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AFN budget could swell under new management
Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Saskatoon
A long list of new (or newly revived) initiatives that the Assembly of First Nations hopes to undertake over the coming months will cost a fist-full of money, some say upwards of $20 million.
Inquiries have shown that budgets for few of the initiatives have been finalized, but there is talk that the money flowing through AFN will again swell to an amount not seen since National Chief Phil Fontaine held office in the late 1990s.
The department of Indian Affairs (INAC), which provides most of the AFN's funding, scaled things down dramatically when Matthew Coon Come was national chief. Coon Come claimed it was a government tactic employed to punish him for criticizing the government for its lack of action on treaty and Aboriginal rights.
The AFN budget provided by INAC when Fontaine was elected in 1997 was just $3.6 million, the highest amount former national chief Ovide Mercredi had managed to negotiate during his previous three years in office.
Fontaine's first budget with INAC in 1997-98 was $6.8 million. It rose the next year to $15 million and then again to $19.9 million the following year.
In his last year before being defeated by Coon Come, the budget was $20.4 million. Coon Come presided over a precipitous drop to $10.7 million and then to $8.9 million in 2002-2003.
Fontaine managed to get the numbers up slightly after being re-elected last July, but there's a huge number of proposals being discussed that could raise the stakes significantly.
INAC sources say 2004-05 funding for the AFN from the department is $9 million, but Dianne Laursen, an INAC communications officer, said negotiation on special programs continues on a project-by-project basis.
During the three-day confederacy in Saskatoon in May, Fontaine said the AFN will create the following positions or programs: an auditor general for First Nations, a First Nations ombudsman and a chief medical officer for First Nations' health matters. He also said he will re-establish the women's and Elders' councils and create an urban desk, a northern secretariat and a Newfoundland secretariat.
Windspeaker asked Fontaine if the announcements were an indication that the AFN budget had been increased.
"Well, it's an interesting question because it took us a long while to resolve budget-related issues the previous year," he replied. "Because I came in mid-stream, so we had Minister Nault for five months, and we didn't conclude our negotiations until recently. And now we're working on . . . well, we have achieved some good success in terms of the current fiscal year. And we're in a much better position than we were when I was re-elected in July."
During his speech to the chiefs at the confederacy, Indian Affairs Minister Andy Mitchell referred to an AFN document that is currently being developed called Building a Joint Agenda. The minister also said the creation of a joint "AFN/INAC co-ordinating committee at a senior level is, I think, essential."
The national chief also talked about increased AFN activity at international bodies in Geneva, New York and Washington, and said the AFN was planning trade missions to China and India. Any budget that would allow that to happen has not been disclosed.
One additional item that is part of the budget is the AFN renewal process, which has been funded over two years for a total of $2 million.
Don Kelly, AFN director of communications, said there was no money yet allocated to most of the new initiatives announced by the national chief in Saskatoon.
He said there were proposals that had been submitted to government for the Elders', women's and youth councils. The women's council "is already active and has been resourced out of our existing budgets" he added, but more money is being sought.
Money for the AFN's health secretariat from Health Canada has not been confirmed and is not included in the global budget figure for this year. In past years, the health secretariat has been funded at about $2 million annually.
Kelly said it was likely that no funding decisions would be made until after the election because bureaucrats do not want to commit the future minister to any agreements.
"They don't want to tie any minister to any process that he or she may not want to pursue," he explained. "There's meetings going on but progress is sort of incremental."
Money for the planned increased activity at the international level could be sought from the Foreign Affairs department.
Additions to the budget could continue right up to the end of the current fiscal year in April 2005, Kelly added, saying that last year the budget wasn't finalized until the very end of the fiscal year.Nations rally against government tactics
Carl Carter, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Victoria
More than 2,000 Aboriginal people from across British Columbia, tired of having their rights ignored, marched in protest to the B.C. legislature on May 20.
Participants called for changes to provincial forest legislation and agreements that are being offered by government to First Nations that they say would compromise Aboriginal people's rights in exchange for limited economic benefits.
One of the organizers, Chief Stewart Phillip of the Penticton Indian Band, said there were hundreds of drum groups and many Elders who spoke at what he called a "very historic and emotional experience."
"I'm very excited. I'm very overwhelmed. I can't begin to describe the feelings the leaders had when they looked out over the people that had assembled outside the legislature," said Chief Phillip, who is also the president of Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and a member of the Title and Rights Alliance Steering Committee.
"What concerns us the most here in British Columbia is that the Gordon Campbell government is consumed with the notion of privatizing land and resources to third-party interests and we cannot allow that to happen," he said. "It represents a gross and unacceptable violation of our Aboriginal title interests, not to mention our responsibilities of stewardship to the land."
Phillip added that the provincial government through Forestry Minister Michael de Jong are using stall tactics and proposing agreements that offer little to First Nations. He said Native people are suffering. Poverty combined with drawn-out negotiations may cause some to sign unfavorable agreements.
De Jong held a press conference in his office before the rally took place. The minister said that some bands have come to the bargaining table and that 48-about a third-signed five-year agreements that provide access to timber land and a share of the $55.6 million in forestry revenue. De Jong also said the agreements in no way takes away their Aboriginal rights. There are another 12 agreements pending, but De Jong commented that many Native groups in British Columbia do not want to come to the bargaining table.
"I think for some First Nations it's much easier just to fight and hurl words of abuse. It's just an easier way to lead. It's easier to pick an external enemy and say, 'Those guys don't care about this,' when the evidence is very much to the contrary," said de Jong.
"I think there are some First Nations and some First Nations leaders, unfortunately, who are mired in the old ways of confrontation. Happily, there are, in increasing numbers, First Nations and leaders who are saying 'No, let's find a new way; let's actually work together to try and find a better way and employment for our people."
"The agreements that have been signed are nothing but trinkets and beads," said Chief Liz Logan in a press release put out by the Title and Rights Alliance. Logan is the chairperson of the Treaty 8 Tribal Association.
"We own the resources. Treaty 8 and all First Nations want to be part of decision-making about land and resources."
TopAPTN still reeling from near-death experience
Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Banff Alberta
The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) came within 10 days of disappearing from Canadian airwaves forever. A cash flow crunch put it dangerously in arrears with the company that transmits its signal.
Jean LaRose, the network's chief executive officer (CEO), was reached by phone while attending the Banff Television Festival in the Alberta mountain resort town.
"We were within 10 days of having the plug pulled. We would have been off air. We had to re-finance to keep the organization afloat. If we hadn't we would have tanked. I'm being brutally honest here. The network was in a very, very difficult financial situation," LaRose said.
APTN board chairperson Catherine Martin confirmed that the network had made mistakes during its first four years of life and had committed to programming that cost, on average, about $1 million per year more than it took in.
LaRose, who assumed the CEO position about 18 months ago, said the board and management have had to go through a very difficult reorganization process in the past year.
He has also had to deal with a barrage of complaints from Aboriginal producers who feel they're not being given the opportunity to get their work on the air.
APTN sent out a letter to producers on Feb. 25 that stated "In the first five years of its existence, APTN spent and committed to programming projects that exceeded by over $5 million dollars its actual and projected revenues. APTN was, and still is, in a tight financial situation because of those commitments and expenditures. Producers have had to deal with that reality because APTN has had difficulty in meeting the financial obligations that had been made. In the last year, as you are aware, we have had to delay or defer projects that would have been very interesting for the network but that APTN cannot afford. We have addressed our financial situation and have managed to reorganize our financial position to meet the challenge. However, we are still in a tight financial situation and many shows that are currently on air will not proceed or be renewed."
Martin weighed in.
"It's fair to tell you that we had a lot of programs that needed to be aired. We purchased programs and we needed to air them. We over-spent on our programming and we needed to come back and get a balance in the expenditures and balance out our assets," she said.
"From my side, as the overall manager of the organization, the chair is quite correct in her statement," agreed LaRose. "I don't mind putting the numbers out there. I've told it to the producers. I don't mind if people know," he said. "We over-spent by $5.5 million in the first four years of operation. That means that this year was a very difficult year. We have had to deal with the fallout of that. We've had to restructure, re-organize, re-define a lot of our priorities to make sure that we would be there for the long run for all the Aboriginal peoples of Canada who are counting on us to ensure that the trust they've placed in us with this unique cultural institution is preserved for generations to come. And that has meant some programming that we would have liked to take on, to license, could not be licensed. Because we just didn't have the money."
Martin said the network has corrected its course and is now in good shape to go before the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to make the case for a renewal of its licence. APTN is currently drafting its renewal proposal. The network launched in September 1999 with a seven-year broadcast licence. The renewal process takes about two years and is expected to begin this fall.
"I believe that we're in good shape in terms of what CRTC asked us to do. So I'm confident," said Martin. "We've overcome a lot of obstacles to meet those requirements but I feel we're going to go to the table having met our licence requirements. Of course, the other factor is the public support, and for every negative comment I get, I get 10 positive ones. I expect criticism. I want to see it. That's how we grow. If we don't hear from the people, we're not going to be able to change to make things better."
Anger has been growing in the Aboriginal independent television production community for some time. Many producers looked at the financial statements APTN posts on its Web site and wondered about the money spent on board meetings and travel. APTN, a not-for-profit charitable corporation, where board members are considered part of the volunteer sector by Canada Custom and Revenue Agency regulations, spent a total of $354,610 on board meetings in 2003. There is also a line for board travel expenses totalling $168,470.
Since APTN's average annual operating budget has averaged about $23 million a year and since not-for-profit charitable boards are not supposed to be paid, many producers wondered why the numbers were so high.
Windspeaker asked the board chairperson if the board members were being paid.
"No. The board of directors are not being paid to be board members. They get their honorariums and they're compensated for any additional professional services they provide," she replied, and provided an example of such a service.
"The executives and the chair are charged with evaluation of the CEO. Above and beyond what a director usually does, that's one of the responsibilities they're charged with which requires at least six to 10 more days of your time to evaluate, address it. That's just one of the many other things that boards do that you can't do as a committee, you can't do with 21 members."
LaRose declined to comment when he was asked if that answer didn't mean that some board members are being paid. He said that was a matter for the board to deal with.
The CEO did say that board members and management at APTN have cut costs.
"In the year-and-a-half that I've been there, the board has recognized that the organization has to live within its means. The board has been doing that. When we travel, we're never going to go to five star or four star hotels. I'm not going to say we're going to the corner motel, because that doesn't suit us for meeting purposes. We stay in reasonable accommodation. Nobody travels first class; nobody travels business class. If you want to make changes at the last minute, it's at your own expense," he said. "The board works hard to pre-book their meetings a minimum of two weeks in advance to get the best fares. In that regard, the board is making very prudent and judicious use of their travel money and that's why, if you look at the budget from two years ago to last year, you'll see that the travel budget dropped a lot."
Martin defended the board spending, saying the producers don't realize the costs associated with the operation of a board that has several members who live in the far north.
"The board budget isn't just about board members. It's about professional fees, legal fees. The board of directors receive honoraria for their meetings and they receive travel and for their committee teleconferences, they receive honoraria. So for 21 directors times four three-day meetings across the country, plus we have four committees on the board that meet at least once a quarter," said Catherine Martin.
"Look at all the parts of the country we fly people out of. One ticket for example from a northern point is $2,000-plus to get them here, takes two to four days to get them there and back. Then they're at the meeting. So some of the directors have to be gone for seven or eight days from their job or their community. I don't think that the honorariums are high. And they're not in relation to other organizations in the country, especially Native organizations."
Jean LaRose said the darkest days for APTN are over, but he is worried about one other threat to the network. He notes that the Conservative Party of Canada has pledged to scrap the CRTC and allow the broadcast industry to operate free of regulations. The CRTC has created protected places on the dial for channels that serve minority or special interest audiences and it ruled that all cable companies must carry APTN and pay the network 15 cents per subscriber. Each penny equals about $900,000 for APTN each year.
"If they dismantle the CRTC, which has been instrumental in the creation of APTN and ensuring it survives, if they were to just open it up, cancel everything like mandatory carriage and subscribers' fees, etc., networks like ours are dead," LaRose said.
