Canada PoliticsGovernment spending on Aboriginal programs at an “all-time high”: Fraser Institute
One year removed from Chief Theresa Spence's hunger strike and the height of the Idle No More protests, the Fraser Institute has released a new report analyzing how much government money is spent on Aboriginal programs.
It's a lot of money.
The increase in spending on Canada’s Aboriginal peoples has been significant regardless of the source looked at. For instance, accounting for inflation, in the department of Aboriginal Affairs, spending on Canada’s Aboriginal peoples rose to almost $7.9 billion in 2011/12 from $79 million annually in 1946/47. Per First Nations person, such spending rose to $9,056 by 2011/12 from $922 per person in 1949/50. That constitutes an 882 percent rise in spending per First Nations person. In comparison, total federal program spending per person on all Canadians rose by 387 percent, to $7,316 in 2011/12 from $1,504 in 1949/50.
The researchers of the study admit that their analysis is a little crude in that their accounting isn't exhaustive — they've only included Aboriginal expenses from three federal departments while municipal and territorial spending was altogether omitted.
But the report's thesis — if you will — seems to be that government funding of Aboriginal programs is significant contrary to the common refrain which perhaps suggests otherwise.
"Any debates over the ‘proper’ amount of taxpayer dollars spent on Aboriginal people should include existing spending levels, which are at historically elevated levels. Over the decades, governments have spent more and more on Aboriginal communities yet the situation in many of these communities remains dire," author Mark Milke said as part of a press release which claims that government spending on Aboriginal people has hit an "all time high"
"While it’s important for Canadians and policymakers to question Aboriginal spending levels, perhaps the most important questions aren’t about dollar amounts but rather about Aboriginal prosperity and the best way to achieve it."
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Milke's comments seem to be right on the money: Many First Nations still live in dire conditions: the suicide rates in First Nations' communities are about five to six times higher than in the general population; less than half of First Nation children graduate from high school compared to 80 per cent in the non-Aboriginal population; and, in 2008, the Aboriginal incarceration rate was nine times the national average.
To their credit, the federal government is experimenting with new program delivery models. In September, the feds facilitated First Nations taking over their own health care services in British Columbia. The transfer of powers involves a First Nations-led authority taking control over a $377.8-million annual budget that funds all health care workers who serve the 150,000 aboriginals in that province.
And currently, according to the Globe and Mail, the Harper government is working with First Nations groups to create a new education funding model which would allow the creation of First Nations education authorities, "similar to provincial school boards."
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"As to whether such spending is “enough,” the question is unanswerable, given that an answer would revolve around whether government spending is the most effective way of helping Aboriginal Canadians," the Fraser Institute report concludes.
"Beyond the unanswerable question of whether existing government spending on Aboriginal Canadians is “enough,” excessive, or misdirected, a positive and useful question to investigate is: what will promote Aboriginal prosperity?"
(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)
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