Funded groups fail to submit reports

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Money for nothing. That's what the federal government said they spent and got from some Native groups under the $8 million Intervenor Participation Program for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

The IPP report released last week shows 14 Native groups who received funding to make submissions to the commission either never delivered reports or submitted incomplete work for consideration.

The report identifies funding the grand Council of Crees at $40,000; the Metis Nation of Alberta at $21,250; the Yellowhead Tribal Council at $25,000; Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia at $30,000; Nicola Valley Tribal Council at $17,000 and the Ontario Metis Aboriginal Association at $37,500. The report says none of the groups submitted briefs.

But Metis Nation vice-president Lyle Donald said his organization did submit a 73-page report in November 1993. It was returned 11 months later with a letter asking the organization "to tighten up a few things," he said.

Donald complained that so much time had passed since the submission, the consultant that had worked on the brief had gone on to other things in another part of Alberta, he said.

The Metis Nation's brief may not have been identified in the IPP as being received because it was submitted well past deadline.

Written briefs and findings were to have been made available to the Royal Commission by March, 1993. This deadline was later extended to September and then a "period of grace" to Oct. 31 was granted.

"I'm teed off," said Hugh Braker, president of the courtworkers' association in response to the report. His group has yet to file its brief, but intends to submit a report soon.

The $30,000 granted the courtworkers was only half of what was originally requested, said Braker. It was barely adequate to cover travel and meeting expenses, let alone a salary for an individual to put the brief together, he said.

The group's submission became dependent on the availability of volunteers to do the work. Braker said it was only natural to expect the process to take longer.

Some people have criticized the group for approving the contract if it couldn't meet the requirements, said Braker, who dismisses the criticism wholeheartedly.

The Royal Commission was to be the big review of Native issues and the government is expected to base future policy on its findings, said Braker. If his association wanted to have any voice at all it had to be involved.

"It's unfair to say 'You have to play by my rules or don't play at all'," Braker said.

The Intervenor program was intended to provide 142 organizations with limited resources funding to enable participation in the royal commission.

While any program was more generously funded than any other similar intervenor program in the past, the $8 million seemed woefully insignificant when more than $36 million was requested from interested parties.

The Inuit Tapirisat of Canada was funded at almost $1.5 million. The Assembly of First Nations was funded at $1 million. Both the Metis National Council and Native Council of Canada received $500,000 each.

The Native Women's Association of Canada received $247,000 while the National Association of Friendship Centres received a total of $100,000. The remainder of the money was divided among the remaining 136 applicants.