Thunder Bay's location depends on how you're interacting with it.
If you're a major national grocer supplying us from a warehouse in Winnipeg, we're in the west. If you're a major multi-national big box chain supplying us from a warehouse in Mississauga, we're in the east. If you're a resident of a First Nation flying in for health care or education, we're in the south. If you're a politician or specialist visiting from Toronto or Ottawa, we're in the north. I don't think any other city has this mixing of directions to the same degree that this city does.
But for the record, this sign is located about 10km
east of Winnipeg:
(And to avoid a semantic argument over which sign is correct, the actual point is exactly between them.)
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Originally Posted by shreddog
Do you know the name for Pie Island?
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I can't recall ever hearing an indigenous term for the island, actually. The two islands in the Kam River are unnamed as far as I know, as well. I don't think they named whole islands anyway, their method of naming places was based more on the physical landmarks the encountered and the waterways they used to get to them.
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Originally Posted by shreddog
BTW, do you know any local artists?? Per chance Tyler Tyance? He's part of the new crew but closely aligned with Roy Thomas's wife and working to carry forward Roy's style but with his own twist. Perhaps the next Roy or Sammy Ash??
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I don't know any of the better known artists but through my volunteering with youth I've met some kids who are very skilled in art. We offer art programming as often as we can. The local native high school's art programme was recently featured on the local CBC website, and the local shelter will give you art created by its residents if you pledge a certain amount on a monthly basis.
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Originally Posted by Pinion
Aren't they essentially socialists, though? I thought they did profit sharing and didn't buy the houses they live in.
This is an honest question - I was led to believe this is how it works.
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That might be the case for that particular community? In the case with the reserves around my hometown, it's not truly socialist in that the people collectively own and benefit from the company, it's more like a crown corporation where the government controls it but it still benefits the people.
With over 600 distinct communities there are going to be differences in how the operate, especially among the BC coastal communities as their culture is quite different from the interior and northern indigenous peoples.
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Originally Posted by ssiguy
That said, how does one go about creating a federal {federally seeing most money and policies effecting Natives is done at a federal level} framework when there is little consensus amongst Natives themselves?
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Same way we created Canada: democratically, on an on-going basis, with rigorous debate and many disagreements along the way. As long as it's being led by native people, it should proceed fairly smoothly. Better, I'd hope, than the current system.
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Originally Posted by ssiguy
We {very much myself included} tend to group Natives together as if they are just a homogeneous group while the reality is quite the opposite. Natives are very diverse in their culture, values, economic, politics, geography, and their needs. One positive iniative by the feds may help one tribe and be catostrophic for another.
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It's similar for the provinces, and that's why you need a multi-tiered government for it to work. Some policies can be implemented nation-wide, and some need to be done at more regional or local levels.
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Originally Posted by ssiguy
I know this sounds harsh but that doesn't mean it's not a reality..........most Canadians are upset by the situation of our Natives but conversely have little appetite for money to help fix the problems as they view it as nothing more than spending good money after bad.
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From the perspective of many indigenous people (at least the ones I know), the entire country—and it's 1.5 trillion dollar economy and 400 billion dollar federal budget—are derived from this land, which was taken from indigenous people through force, tricky, and bribes. It's going to take a lot more than a 20% increase in INAC's budget or some water systems to make up for that. We're literally still in the process of simply paying them for the parts of their reserves that we took after promising, through treaties, that we wouldn't take them.
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Originally Posted by ssiguy
Most Canadians also feel that Natives have an aversion to try to help themselves and have unrealistic expectations. Natives complain about high unemployment on reserves but still choose to live on those reserves which maybe 100 km from the nearest town or complain about the cost of food and poor diet when that is reality when choosing to live in an isolated area. Natives complain {often justifiably} that they do not get enough reserve funding yet the money they get often ends up in the hands of the Chiefs and their families. The Reserve system is positively fuedal but every attempt to get rid of it and the corruption it creates is met with scorn
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That's largely a problem involving the amount of control chiefs have over communities. Many reserves are set up with hereditary systems (like coastal BC), which are un-democratic but follow their traditions, and others are set up in a weird quasi-democratic state with requirements like "every family must have a representative on council" or "there must be a councillor for every 100 people" (which is why band councils tend to be so large compared to municipal councils of towns of similar size).
Corruption is an issue, and in many cases it's all the result of personal feuds, like a councillor deciding "Betty wronged me so her family doesn't get welfare anymore!" or in some cases, a councillor who is in charge of some aspect of finances finding a way to bring more money to themselves (because contrary to the stereotype of a noble savage, native people can be just as greedy as any other people). Because of the federal oversight instead of provincial oversight of First Nations governance, and the really ineffective bureaucracy of INAC, and the lack of teeth given to regional tribal councils (which can sometimes be just as corrupt as local councils), you end up with a situation where there isn't very effective accountability at the local level.
But, all reserves do have to get their financial statements reviewed by an independent accountant, and that information is published on their websites (in most cases; some communities don't have adequate resources or aren't properly managed enough to actually get it on the websites).
The variation between well-run reserves and poorly-run reserves is probably broader than the same among provincial municipalities, but knowing people involved with the government of one of Thunder Bay's surrounding townships, I can tell you that corruption, lack of accountability and bad decision making aren't exclusive to any one ethnic group or type of local government.
And another point on the financial side: The company I work for used to sell bottled water to a community that didn't have a functioning water distribution plant (they do now). They could only pay us for the water after we sent them a bill for the water, they proved they received it, and then INAC reviewed the paperwork and decided it was worth providing them funding.. They spent over a million dollars to shipping companies and water bottlers to provide water to that community (most of the cost was transporting, as it had to be trucked to the northernmost road in Northern Ontario and then flown to the reserve). The cost of the repairs for their treatment plant? Approximately $50,000 if I recall correctly (which is slightly more than the cost of 2 shipments of bottled water).
Because the bottled water was being provided for an
emergency, the funding provided for it was bottomless, so long as the emergency continued to exist (that is, as long as the water plant didn't work, they'd get money for bottled water). The repair to the water distribution plant, however, was considered
capital, and INAC wouldn't give capital funding for their water plant. So instead of spending $50,000 on repairs and ensuring someone was trained and employed to keep the water plant going, INAC spent over a million dollars bringing bottled water to that community while its water treatment plant sat out of commission.
That's the federal government that native people are used to. Do you think it might operate a little bit more effectively if it were run by native people? Perhaps at a regional level? I tend to think so.
Hell, this entire conversation was started by someone remarking how slow the process is to get a status card. INAC is probably the least effective bureaucracy in the developed world. (And, based on anecdotes I've heard from numerous people, in spite of its purpose many of its employees are racist.)
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Originally Posted by ssiguy
and when Harper introduced some form of accountability of where all the federal dollars where going, they received heavy resistance and even cries of racism.
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The problem with his particular policy was that it went further than similar policies for provincial municipalities were going, forcing band council members and chiefs to disclose
personal financial information, and all of that was combined with the fact that typically, when conservative White men talk about money and natives, it's done in an effort to discredit them to justify giving them less money, and that's the tone that they perceived coming from Harper. He was basically telling chiefs, "Embarrass yourselves, or I will make your people suffer". But at the same time, a lot of parts of that law were policies many native people did want to see implemented.
Back in 2006, during the Kashechewan water crisis (and back when I generally supported Harper), I repeatedly pointed out how he could have used the crisis to his advantage and introduced a wide variety of common sense reforms while also working to solve the community's problem. He didn't do that, though, and that, I think, set a negative tone for the rest of his premiership in the minds of indigenous people. By the end of Harper's reign in 2015, almost all of the problems that existed in First Nations communities when he took over still existed, and he was promising things that they considered antagonizing, which is partly why the mobilized against him so effectively. Reserves in Kenora Riding literally ran out of ballots because voter turnout far exceeded expectations.
And if you're wondering, Trudeau isn't faring much better. The "kids want canoe sheds" controversy a couple weeks ago was a huge step back for him. Liberals, like Conservatives, have a poor reputation among many First Nations, so they're not as pessimistic as they were under Harper but still not very optimistic under Trudeau. He's still got 2 and a half years to prove himself though and he's doing better than Harper was at this time.
Anyway that's what I have to say about the past few weeks posts. I've had some personal things come up that have taken a lot of my time so I might have to disappear for a couple weeks, again.
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