Self Government

Today's National Post has an editorial in support of a Canadian Constitution Foundation proposal dealing with Native self government. The CCF's idea is the delegate power to First Nations. I emphasize delegate because there have been two different ways of implementing 'self government' on reserves in Canada in the past, via delegation and devolution.

Fueled by a promise in the Liberal Red Book, in 1994 the federal government and First Nations in Manitoba tried devolution through the Framework Agreement Initiative, which aimed to dismantle INAC and have First Nations take over and be fully responsible for all services.

The objectives of AFI were:

• Dismantle the existing departmental structures of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development as they affect First Nations in Manitoba;
• Develop and recognize First Nations governments in Manitoba legally empowered to exercise the authorities required to meet the needs of the peoples of the First Nations;
• and Restore to First Nations governments the jurisdictions (including those of the other federal departments);
• consistent with the inherent right of self-government, all of which is hereinafter referred to as the "Objectives".

Not one of these objectives were met.

Devolution means responsibility for success, failure, implementation, changes, all pass down to the First Nations. Without dwelling on the history of colonization and its effects on dependency, the people on the ground were simply not up to the challenge or responsibility of devolution. Millions of dollars were wasted. Dependency and devolution do not jive.

Back to the editorial. The current approach to dealing with self government is much more realistic and implementable. Consider this,

The Gitxsan, an ancient West Coast tribe, offered to give up its Indian status — which would mean losing its reserve and its people’s exemption from income tax and the GST, among other perks — in return for a share of resource revenue from its ancestral lands and something approaching municipal government control.
Nearby, the Nisga’a, who already have some of the control the Gitxsan are seeking, have passed a local law permitting members to buy and own their property on Nisga’a land — a first for any aboriginal community in the country.
Since local accountability and control follows property rights and personal taxation, these two moves promise to have profound effects on the future of native self-government.
Now the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is proposing a way to speed the transition to self-government while also preserving our Constitution: delegation of powers from the higher orders of government to aboriginal councils. This makes sense. It is the same way municipalities derive their powers from their provincial governments and works well in that context.

Delegation of authority would still mean that First Nations could exercise self government. It would mean however that the responsibility for 'governance' still rests in the federal government's hands (unlike a municipality as the editorial implies).

First Nations have never given up the right to self determination. What we have given up is the initiative to exercise those rights. Delegation of authority, which entails us acting on the federal governments behalf, is a realistic step towards self determination and self reliance.