More Wailing and Gnashing of Liberal Teeth on Native Poverty
The Canadian Media and the usual liberal and social democratic whiners are now getting their undies in knots over revelations of extreme poverty at a native [Cree] village of approximately 1,900 persons, on James Bay. The Glop and Pail carried two articles on the situation in the December 10, 2011, edition, bemoaning the horrid conditions and hopeless future for the residents of this remote Indian village, and the alleged 'mistreatment' of the villagers by the Canadian federal government, as well as raising the implication that DeBeers, the mining company currently involved in diamond mining in the area, has not done nearly enough to save the village from its fate.
Aside from jobs made available by DeBeers at its mining operations [since 2008], a few retail or goods distribution businesses and government jobs of one kind or another, there are no processing or manufacturing businesses which can provide employment to the natives, three-quarters of whom are under 35 years. According to Wikipedia, hunting, fishing and trapping are the main occupations, mostly part-time, of most of those who work.
The village has been in its current location for 70 years or so. It has no permanent highway or road access to and from the south, with only a winter ice road and an airport.
As with many similar native reserve communities, the vast bulk of the people have few marketable skills and a low level of education, which, combined with their remote and inaccessible location, make it difficult or impossible to gain employment, even if employment was available.
According to the aforesaid articles, welfare money in one form or another provides the real support for most of the residents.
While the residents complain about the level of help received from the federal government over the years, and blame governments for their plight, the federal government has put over $90 Million into the community since 2006 - nearly $18 Million a year, or $9,000.00 per person per year. This does not include provincial welfare payments, or provincially funded hospital and education costs. Nor does it include the $2 Million per year DeBeers pays in land rent to the Band or the substantial money it has paid either directly to individual natives or, in the last few years, directly to the Band Council and Chief. The company has also spent over $350 Million through community-owned or jointly-owned businesses since the start of construction, amounting to $51 Million in 2011 alone.
Nevertheless, things are as bad as they ever were, according to the Indians themselves and the whining political and media critics. The Indians themselves, either directly or implicitly, have acknowledged severe financial mismanagement. The Band co-manager described things as a 'financial nightmare'. The federal government is reluctant to pour more money into the community before a forensic audit of the communities books is done.
However, the whiners are in full teeth-gnashing and moaning mode. Why is it that so many other people across Canada have left the communities where they were born and traveled far and wide seeking employment, often sending money back home to help those left behind, but the natives of remote, and in the cases of southern reserves, not so remote, but economically unviable communities, must be supported by taxpayers, and even corporations, forever and ever, at levels with which the whiners are comfortable, without the natives ever being required to help themselves?
As one such continually put-upon taxpayer I would like a sensible answer to that question, without more of the guilt trips and false 'mea culpas' so often seen or heard in the media from those self-same whiners.
Aside from jobs made available by DeBeers at its mining operations [since 2008], a few retail or goods distribution businesses and government jobs of one kind or another, there are no processing or manufacturing businesses which can provide employment to the natives, three-quarters of whom are under 35 years. According to Wikipedia, hunting, fishing and trapping are the main occupations, mostly part-time, of most of those who work.
The village has been in its current location for 70 years or so. It has no permanent highway or road access to and from the south, with only a winter ice road and an airport.
As with many similar native reserve communities, the vast bulk of the people have few marketable skills and a low level of education, which, combined with their remote and inaccessible location, make it difficult or impossible to gain employment, even if employment was available.
According to the aforesaid articles, welfare money in one form or another provides the real support for most of the residents.
While the residents complain about the level of help received from the federal government over the years, and blame governments for their plight, the federal government has put over $90 Million into the community since 2006 - nearly $18 Million a year, or $9,000.00 per person per year. This does not include provincial welfare payments, or provincially funded hospital and education costs. Nor does it include the $2 Million per year DeBeers pays in land rent to the Band or the substantial money it has paid either directly to individual natives or, in the last few years, directly to the Band Council and Chief. The company has also spent over $350 Million through community-owned or jointly-owned businesses since the start of construction, amounting to $51 Million in 2011 alone.
Nevertheless, things are as bad as they ever were, according to the Indians themselves and the whining political and media critics. The Indians themselves, either directly or implicitly, have acknowledged severe financial mismanagement. The Band co-manager described things as a 'financial nightmare'. The federal government is reluctant to pour more money into the community before a forensic audit of the communities books is done.
However, the whiners are in full teeth-gnashing and moaning mode. Why is it that so many other people across Canada have left the communities where they were born and traveled far and wide seeking employment, often sending money back home to help those left behind, but the natives of remote, and in the cases of southern reserves, not so remote, but economically unviable communities, must be supported by taxpayers, and even corporations, forever and ever, at levels with which the whiners are comfortable, without the natives ever being required to help themselves?
As one such continually put-upon taxpayer I would like a sensible answer to that question, without more of the guilt trips and false 'mea culpas' so often seen or heard in the media from those self-same whiners.
Labels: attawapiskat, natives
posted by politicalcommentariescanada | 3:49 PM
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