Brian Giesbrecht: Canada’s Indigenous Model Is Unsustainable

A burned-out house in St. Theresa Point First Nation, Man., in January 2011. A former band constable who rescued a toddler from a burning home on the reserve says he’s haunted by a baby he wasn’t able to save who perished in the fire. The Canadian Press/HO, RCMP via Manitoba Law Courts

Commentary

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux recently pointed out the significant rise in Canada’s contingent liabilities related to indigenous claims. Today’s estimated $76 billion is many times the $15 billion it was when the Liberals took power in 2015.

This is only one part of the massive increase in spending on indigenous matters that has taken place since then.

Federal spending per indigenous person has always been much higher than spending per non-indigenous person. The higher level of spending has been justified because most indigenous people do much worse on virtually every health and social indicator than the general population. Their health is poorer, and their lives are shorter.

Since Confederation, there has existed a large rural and urban indigenous underclass that does poorly compared to the general population. The stated purpose of the extra indigenous spending has always been there, and its virtual explosion since 2015 is meant to fix that problem. But these massive expenditures have now reached the point where they risk destabilizing the country.

Perhaps it’s time for Canadians to ask if the “nation-to-nation” reconciliation plan on which the spending is based is working. Is it fixing the problem?

A recent CBC report proves that it’s not. Instead, the problems are getting worse.

The CBC investigated an indigenous community in St. Theresa Point, Manitoba, where 24 people sometimes share one house. Almost all of the houses in the community are crumbling and need to be replaced. Families struggle to achieve basic hygiene. Living conditions resemble what one would expect to find in a Third World community and not in wealthy, modern Canada.

St. Theresa Point is typical of hundreds of other remote indigenous reserves. Most are almost totally dependent on the federal government for survival. There is virtually no real employment. The poorest people in those communities are directly dependent on welfare cheques, but even the chief, councillors, and other employees receive their paycheques from the transfer payments sent by Ottawa. In reality, almost everyone living there is on welfare of some type.

Unlike in other rural communities, people on poor reserves tend not to move when economic opportunities decline. In small-town Canada, the rules are simple: If the towns or farms can’t supply enough jobs, one moves to the city where the jobs and careers are. But on remote reserves, most people stay put, even if there are no jobs or careers there for them. And most of those who do move to the city do not do well. With poor job skills and a lack of education and motivation, reserve residents tend to move to the mean parts of town where many end up in gangs, crime, and prostitution.

The result is that the people who stay in uneconomic remote reserves become more and more dependent. Low education levels sink even further. And succeeding generations become ever less likely to be able to provide for themselves and their families.

To make matters much worse, addiction problems are endemic. At one time, alcohol was the drug of choice. Now, amphetamines, fentanyl, and prescription drugs have been added to the list, with the family violence, sexual abuse, crime, teenage pregnancy, and fetal alcohol births that inevitably follow from chronic drug use.

And reserve populations are growing. Although status First Nations people living on reserves currently comprise only about 1 percent of the total population, they are the country’s fastest-growing demographic. The cost of operating these communities is crippling now, but in a few years, it will be completely unsustainable. Pretending that these desperately poor reserves are sovereign “nations” that will somehow magically become prosperous and self-supporting is a cruel joke on the young people hopelessly trapped there.

The prospect of hundreds of dependent reserves teeming with unemployed and largely unemployable young people, with massive social problems, is a frightening dystopia. But it’s where we’re headed. To make things worse, the government-promoted “genocide” and “missing children” narratives have made many of these people very angry.

Although there is no treaty right or any other right to free housing on a reserve, the reality is that if the government did not provide housing for the reserve residents, they would be unable to provide housing for themselves. The strange result is that Canadian taxpayers—many of whom will never be able to afford to buy a house themselves—pay through their tax dollars for houses for the rapidly growing reserve population. These houses deteriorate quickly, because they are considered “free” by the residents and have to be fixed and replaced in a wasteful and expensive cycle.

And it’s a national disgrace that most reserves are dead ends for most of the young people born there.

The late Farley Mowat described northern indigenous settlements as “unguarded concentration camps.” That might be a somewhat harsh way to describe reserves, but at best most are human warehouses, plagued with social problems. The young people living there deserve some hope, and Canada’s current plan for them offers them none.

So, Canada’s current indigenous plan is clearly not working. Is there a better plan for success?

Maybe we should ask Wab Kinew, Manitoba’s new premier. He is indigenous and highly successful. How did he get there?

Manitoba NDP leader Wab Kinew delivers his victory speech, alongside his wife Lisa Monkman, after winning the Manitoba provincial election in Winnipeg, Man., on Oct. 3, 2023. The Canadian Press/David Lipnowski

The formula is actually not complicated. It has nothing to do with massive welfare giveaways, “nation-to-nation” utopias, or incredibly expensive “reconciliation” projects. It definitely has nothing to do with staying in a community that lacks economic opportunities, and waiting for handouts. It involves education, hard work, and going where the jobs are.

Kinew’s parents realized that a stable home and education were key. Wab did the rest. He worked his way up the ladder in the usual way, and went where the jobs were. He did that with his indigenous identity intact.

Not every young person has Kinew’s talent, but everyone can follow the formula that made Kinew, and many other indigenous achievers, successful.

The alternative—spending ever-increasing amounts on a steadily increasing list of demands from a growing dependent reserve population—is not an option. We don’t need the parliamentary budget officer to tell us that it’s unsustainable.

As for remote, uneconomic reserves, like St. Theresa Point, they should be gradually and humanely closed down. It has been recognized for many years that reserves long ago had served their purpose and should be phased out. As far back as 1911, it was said:

“Department officials were increasingly coming to the view that reserves had outlived their usefulness. Frank Pedley suggested that they resulted in the isolation and segregation of Indians, and thereby hindered progress … and encouraged the tribal form of government.”

The reserve system was not ended in 1911 because the chiefs and ruling families refused to give up their privileged positions. It isn’t happening today for the same reasons. We still have the same Indian Act and reserve system that have held back indigenous people for almost 150 years. (Senior Ontario lawyer Peter Best describes the toxicity of the reserve system in his important book, “There Is No Difference.”)

So, the long-term plan should be to find a way to overcome that resistance and find a fair way to phase out reserves and the antiquated Indian Act. The reserves that are economically viable can merge into existing rural municipalities or become standalone municipalities. Opportunities should be made available for young people from uneconomic communities to move to job centres and receive help to succeed there.

In the meantime, the example of Wab Kinew is proof that there has never been a better time or place than today’s Canada to be an educated and ambitious young indigenous person who is willing to study, work hard, and go where the jobs are.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.