Ontario government cuts will hurt Native People

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When the Ontario government finally presented the much anticipated and dreaded provincial budget, statement Nov. 29, few people and organizations were saved from the axe, including First Nations.

The announced cuts prompted the Chiefs of Ontario to hold a press conference in Toronto the following day to discuss the implications of Premier Mike Harris' budgetary plans.

The conference drew some 400 people who hoped to discover how the cuts were going to effect them.

According to executive assistant of the Chiefs of Ontario, Richard Powless, the most critical and impending blow is the hike in tuition fees by up to 20 per cent.

According to Powless, since more First Nations people are attending post-secondary schools than ever before, the increase is going to make educational investment that much more of a burden for students relying on loans.

"The (kind of increase) is going to have immediate impact," said Powless, who foresees the exorbitant tuition hike seriously discouraging young people from entering or staying in school.

As equally severe is the proposed changes to Ontario's drug plan. The government announced that as of June 1, 1996 social assistance recipients and senior citizens receiving Guaranteed Income supplements will be required to pay an added $2.00 per prescription.

For individuals earning over $16,000 and households in the $24,000 and over bracket, they will be required to pay $100 annually, plus dispensing fees. The hardest hit by these changes are, quite obviously, the elderly, sick and poor.

While many of the other budget cuts are still too vague to fully assess their impact, the government did announce that Jobs Ontario Community Action Program will be completely eliminated by 1996.

Jobs Ontario has been running for three years and since its inception over $13 million has been provided to Aboriginal peoples and communities.

According to Powless, there are many other cuts that are pushing the divide between the haves and have-nots. Cuts to the Environment Appeal Board and Environmental Compensation Corporation, reductions to the Ontario Arts Council which provides grant money to artists and cultural organizations, and reductions to municipal airports are going to take a toll over the next few months and years.

Fly-in communities, for instance, are likely going to see an increase in imports and travel as airports try to recoup their losses. Harris' proposed plan to privatize TVOntario is going to have long-term and possibly negative effects. If TVO is sold it could mean valuable programming made available to northern communities will be dropped as an unnecessary money drain.

According to Powless, the major oversight of the provincial government is their regard of First Nations people as a "special interest" group.

"We want the government to understand we have constitutional rights," he said. "We're not special interest, which means we deserve consultation before cuts are made. We want them to sit down and work with us."

There are no plans yet as to how Chiefs of Ontario will follow up on these issues. Their annual meeting is not until next summer, Powless said, so they may have to call an earlier meeting to reassess the situation.