Urban natives caught in jurisdictional bind
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 3, 2006 | 1:11 PM ET
CBC News
Many, such as Victor Pierre, are cut off from financial assistance from their bands, while municipal and provincial governments say the reserve or the federal government should help them out.
According to the 2001 census, almost 30 per cent of aboriginal people in Canada live in a metropolitan centre – and the number is growing.
Pierre, a member of the Roseau River First Nation who has spent most of his life in Winnipeg, wants to take a carpentry course at a Winnipeg school. But when he applied to various programs for help with tuition, he was told he should try to get the money from his band.
His band, however, said it doesn't have enough money to assist off-reserve members, so he should look to other levels of government for assistance.
"If I'm a First Nations person, treaty status of Canada, why is it so hard for me to access funding?" he said. "There is a gap in this country, a void, between on-reserve status aboriginal people versus off-reserve."
Legislative overhaul, funding increases proposed
Pierre put his dilemma to federal candidates in his Winnipeg South Centre riding at an election event at the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg, organized by CBC News.
- RIDING PROFILE:Winnipeg South Centre
Anita Neville, the Liberal incumbent for the riding, said the federal government has set up a $50-million program for cities with large urban aboriginal populations in an attempt to deal with issues like Pierre's.
"It deals with 12 cities who are developing pilot projects. Believe it or not, Winnipeg is probably the most advanced in the urban aboriginal strategy, in terms of what it's doing, where it's giving moneys out," Neville said.
"Many of the organizations in this building, in fact, have benefited from moneys from the urban aboriginal strategy."
Conservative candidate Michael Richards said the federal government must update federal legislation to reflect the fact that many aboriginal people live off-reserve.
"We need a fundamental overhaul, and it starts with the Indian Act, which is the most antiquated piece of legislation on the books," he said.
NDP candidate Mark Wasyliw said the federal government needs to give native bands more money so they can properly fund off-reserve members.
"Your chief and council can only give you money if they have it," he told Pierre. "The federal government, the Liberal government, has been starving these aboriginal communities of money."
The other candidates in Winnipeg South Centre are Vere Scott of the Green party, Dale Swirsky with the Progressive Canadian Party, Magnus Thompson with the Canadian Action Party, and Independent Jeffrey Anderson.
As for Victor Pierre, he hasn't yet decided how he will vote, saying he's been too busy trying to raise the money for his carpentry course.
