Leave cash out of settlements - Reform MP

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The Minister of Indian Affairs is a trend-setter, according to Reform treasury critic John Williams.

Minister Ron Irwin has started the ball rolling with extremely generous cash and land settlement to Natives and he's starting an expensive trend, Williams said.

The minister should leave cash out of Native land settlement deals and negotiate only in the services Ottawa is willing to provide, said Williams.

The St. Albert MP said Canada has identified $8 billion in land claim settlements and anticipates another 504 settlement are in the works. If the current trend of generosity continues, there won't be enough money in the country to pay for them, he said. Williams suggested a change in negotiating tactics.

"We are obligating ourselves to dollars when, in fact, it is services we should be committing ourselves to."

The government is converting the intergenerational assets, like the land treaties into cash, said Williams.

"Cash is transient in what it will purchase, so if you pay so much cash over the long term, the value of the cash won't buy you what you thought it would or it will buy it 10 times over," he said.

What will result is eventual dissatisfaction on someone's part as to what was negotiated.

"We should be leaving cash out of agreements, and if we feel that we are obligated to provide education or health care, or housing or roads and sewers or infrastructure of whatever we are saying that we are going to do, let's put that in the agreement and let's leave the dollar figures or the cash out of it."

Judy Gingell, chairman of the Council of Yukon Indians, said Williams' suggestions are completely inappropriate. Aboriginal groups are trying to get arm's length from the government and away from the notion government is master over them. It's a matter of control and self-determination, she said.

The land claims Williams refers to did not recently materialize since the Liberals took office in 1993, said Gingell. The recently settled Yukon land claim settlement has been in negotiations for eight years. The Reform Party took great pains to stall its passage through the house last July, saying the $163 million agreement was too rich for Canada's blood.

Gingell said it was an insult to the Yukon Indians to insinuate Liberals are being generous, as though Natives were sitting back while government was dishing out favors. The settlements were negotiated and many organizations were involved, she said.

Gingell thinks Williams is speaking out of turn and without the depth of understanding needed to make an informed statement about land claims. She said the entire Reform Party could benefit from some background on Aboriginal issues.

She is encouraged by the recent announcement the party intends to send an Aboriginal task force across the country to gather information that will help it develop a policy on Aboriginal issues.

"They should do their homework. They should have done it a long time ago."

Chief Sydney Garrioch of Cross Lake First Nation agrees and said Williams' comments were just 'fast talk'.

"Their statements are coming out with no education or knowing any formal background of the treaties at all. All of these people under the Reform Party are very uneducated in regards to the treaties."

Williams admitted he didn't give a lot of thought to the philosophy which governed land claim negotiations, self-government or treaties when he made his statement.

"I was just looking through the public accounts of Canada and said 'Hey, we're on the hook for $8 billion here, and another 500 claims are coming down the pipe'."