The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
It's no surprise that Churchill MP Niki Ashton opposes a new federal job-training program for First Nations. The First Nations Job Fund, as it is known, will send new job-training money to First Nations on the condition that young welfare recipients are forced to participate. Ms. Ashton has labeled the program 'workfare,' a term for social assistance that requires claimants put in some sort of work for their cheque. I don't know if forcing someone on welfare to attend job training will magically transform him and wash away the conditions that led to him going on welfare in the first place. I don't know if the minimum-wage job that often awaits people who complete these basic job-training programs is better for a single mom with multiple kids than simply staying home. But all of it certainly begs the question that if trying this approach on reserves is so wrong and doomed to failure, what alternatives is Ms. Ashton willing to explore? I have never (and I say this with all due respect) been totally clear on what Ms. Ashton would do to improve conditions on the First Nations that surround Flin Flon (and all other reserves). In an interview last September, I asked her the following question: 'We all know that the problems on First Nations communities in our region are abundant, from chronic unemployment and substance abuse to suicide and broken homes. What specific steps would you like Ottawa to take to improve the lives of these individuals? Should there still be reserves where no economy exists?' Ms. Ashton responded with this: 'The Third World living conditions facing Aboriginal people in Northern Manitoba and across Canada are unacceptable. 'The federal government must work in partnership with First Nations. Education, health care and infrastructure are notoriously underfunded for First Nations people. 'In order to move forward, the federal government must become a willing partner in creating a brighter future.' I agree with some of that answer. Reserve conditions are aptly described as 'Third World,' and if basics like education and health care are indeed underfunded (I don't know if they are), then that's hardly fair to those communities. But what exactly does 'a brighter future' look like on the countless reserves with no economic foundation and little prospect of ever having one? How can the future of any such place be anything more than continued welfare dependence and the addictions and social problems that accompany it? I'm not being facetious here, I really want to know. What can be done differently? What sort of solutions have eluded Canada's governments, from both the left and the right, over all of these decades? If Ms. Ashton has that answer, she should certainly bring it forward. Introduce a bill and have parliament strike a debate. Ms. Ashton has a mandate to oppose the Harper government, and she is again living up to that expectation in this case. But at least the federal government is trying new things to help bring more dignity to First Nations. Maybe those things are heavy-handed. Maybe none of them will work. Maybe the results will be mixed at best. But at least they are new things. They consist of more than pumping money into a failed system and somehow expecting different results. Local Angle runs Fridays.
