AFN: It's Time to Cut the Apron Strings

In spite of some of the absurd and racist declarations made by Chief Terry Nelson, if one looks under the anti-white rhetoric an intellegent person can decifer flashes of a vision for a better future of First Nations relations with the Federal goverment through a truely representative AFN.

During the Assembly of First Nations leadership campaign of 2009, Chief Nelson's platform was to remove the AFN from being dependant on the Canadian federal government. In his normal adversarial role, in an interview with John Ivison of the National Post, he says, "“As long as the AFN is dependent on government funding, it will be ineffective,” adding that he would explore funding from the Chinese government, which is interested in resource extraction on native land. “

Contrary to the attention seeking militant Chief Nelson, the leader Chief Nelson is 100% correct. This is a prime example of a much needed vision and boldness in First Nations politics. An organization that gets $7 million from the federal government annually has no business lobbying the federal government directly. They have, in essence, become a branch of the federal government.

Which brings me to the announcement made this week by the Treasury Board of Canada, the people that hold the purse strings for government. In a letter to all senior government administrators the TBC states,"Crown corporations, departmental corporations and shared governance organizations for which the Government of Canada has direct responsibilities or which expend funds reported as Government assets in the Public Accounts of Canada should not engage consultant lobbyists to communicate with the Government of Canada." In other words,
people that are funded by the government should not use that same government money to hire lobbyists to work on their behalf to get even more government money. The letter goes on, "... the use of consultant lobbyists for this purpose is unnecessary and an inappropriate use of public funds." Pretty straightforward and clear.

Is the $7 million the AFN receives every year an inappropriate use of public funds? My guess is Terry Nelson would say so. Well in effect he did say so. In effect Chief Nelson is asking, 'who does the AFN really work for?', 'Does it work for us First Nations people, or the government of Canada?'

Some might say that this is a conflict of interest. Back in the days of Liberal government, when many of the AFN senior political advisors were ex Liberal policy advisors and active party members, it would be hard to deny this.

The best way to avoid this potential perceived conflict of interest is to have First Nations fund AFN directly. If First Nations funded the AFN directly, the AFN would be held accountable not to the federal government, but to us Native people. When you spend your own money on something, you make damn well sure that it is being used effectively. Our elected chiefs could then set clear achievable goals for the AFN to accomplish on our behalf.

If the over 600 First Nations in Canada each contributed directly to the funding of the AFN it would roughly cost them $11,000 each. If the contribution amount was per capita (as First Nations voting for National Chief should be, but I won't get into that), this amount would of course vary. As would the demand for results.

The AFN needs to represent and work for First Nations peoples. If we want to assert our 'Nation' status, move towards greater independence, and govern ourselves, it is time that the apron strings were cut.