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First Nations give federal budget a fail

First Nations give federal budget a fail

A federal budget any year, but especially in an election year, is a sermon for the party faithful.

Believe, it says. We are with you, it says. Toss a few coins in the collection plate, it says.

And so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to rattlers of the Conservative cage that the 2015-16 spending plan focuses on jobs, business and families.

But it is still a disappointment, says Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

“It’s a status quo budget when it comes to First Nations and the status quo is not going to do anything to close the socio-economic gap that exists between First Nations and non-First Nations people in Canada,” Bellegarde tells Yahoo Canada News.

“Maybe the Conservatives have discounted the First Nations vote,” Bellegarde says.

The federal budget tabled Monday highlighted $500 million previously announced last fall for the construction and renovation of schools on reserves.

It does include $200 million in funding over five years to improve First Nations education and $12 million over three years to continue Indspire scholarships and bursaries for First Nations and Inuit post-secondary students.

Another $2 million a year – starting next year - will continue mental health services in First Nations communities and $30.3 million over five years is set aside for First Nations to expand a Land Management Regime that allows for economic development opportunities on reserve land.

“The Government recognizes that in order to reach their full potential, Aboriginal peoples need support to build strong communities,” the budget says.

Another $33.2 million over four years – again, beginning next year – will pay for economic participation and socio-economic surveys of Aboriginal peoples.

Economic Action Plan 2015 also includes $215 million over five years – beginning this year - and $50 million per year after that for the Skills and Partnership Fund for skills development and training for Aboriginal people.

Approximately 400,000 young Aboriginal people will join the work force over the next decade, the budget document says.

“However, Aboriginal peoples continue to face barriers to employment, with many requiring additional education and training to meet the needs of the Canadian labour market,” it says.

“This training equips Aboriginal peoples for jobs in high-demand sectors of the economy, including in high-skilled occupations.”

Another $33.5 million over five years is earmarked for administrative support for the program and a pilot labour force survey.

Bellegarde says there was no extra money to address the basic infrastructure needs of First Nations, let alone to close the poverty gap.

Canadians overall rank sixth on the UN human development index for quality of life. When Canada’s Indigenous peoples are measured on their own, they fall to 63rd, he says.

“That gap represents over-crowded housing; that gap represents violence in our communities; that gap represents uneducated First Nations men and women and caps on education,” Bellegarde says.

First Nations communities are in dire need of at least 130,000 new housing units, he says, and there are 93 reserve communities living under boil-water advisories – some of them for two decades now.

On-reserve schools receive funding of $6,500 per student, compared to an average of $11,000 per student in provincial schools, he says.

Existing programs were renewed at reduced rates and the overall spending doesn’t even keep pace with inflation, let alone the burgeoning Indigenous population, he says.

Dawn Harvard, interim president of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, says the budget continues a status who that falls far short, especially for Aboriginal women.

“There’s nothing in there that gives me any hope,” she tells Yahoo Canada from New York, where she’s attending a UN forum on Indigenous issues.

Harvard says the government has made it clear they do not support an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, but she was still disappointed that no new funds were earmarked to address the crisis.

“Yet again, they have failed to do the right thing,” she says.

Bellegarde says First Nations need to mobilize their vote this fall.

“We could potentially impact 50 to 60 federal ridings,” he says. “There’s some political power we could start exercising, making sure our issues are deal with.”