Budget 2023 continues 'repetitive injustice' of underfunding First Nations, says national chief
CBC
The Assembly of First Nations national chief is calling the prime minister a "performative reconciliationist" and wants an economic new deal for First Nations following the delivery of a 2023 federal budget that she says continues a long-standing pattern of underfunding First Nations.
RoseAnne Archibald expressed exasperation Tuesday afternoon with what she said is a frustrating and unhealthy budgetary cycle that sees First Nations' "reasonable" funding requests continually denied.
"What we see the federal government do is chronically, intentionally underfund us, and so they're creating this cycle of poverty," she said in an interview following the tabling of the plan in the House of Commons in Ottawa.
"They're perpetuating an ongoing third-world condition for many of our communities. It's repetitive injustice. It's a deliberate pattern of harming our communities through underfunding."
Despite that initial reaction, Archibald welcomed the pledge of more than $100 million in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's latest budget for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
The budget also pledges $4 billion over seven years for a co-developed urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing strategy that will help Indigenous people living outside their home communities.
The spending plan offers a one-year $171-million top up for the Jordan's Principle program, which ensures Indigenous children and youth have access to essential health and social services without delay, and further pledges $827 million for Indigenous health.
It also promises to spend around $16 million over three years to help reduce the tuberculosis rates in Inuit communities.
It includes a $173-million package over five years for policy initiatives that help "return control and decision-making over the use of First Nations lands back to First Nations communities."
The spending plan otherwise emphasizes past commitments to Indigenous people, beginning its "advancing reconciliation" chapter with a checklist of prior cash pledges. Trudeau has previously promised to close the gap in infrastructure between Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous communities by 2030.
The AFN said in its 2023 pre-budget submission that First Nations need $63.3 billion through 2040 to bring on-reserve housing to levels comparable with Canadians. According to the document, First Nations also need $20.5 billion for general infrastructure, $4.5 billion for drinking water and wastewater, $10.2 billion for green infrastructure, and $6.9 billion for education facilities, all over five years.
Archibald said if Trudeau intends to meet the 2030 infrastructure target, he needs to strike an "economic new deal" that empowers First Nations to share in the wealth taken from their lands.
"This prime minister is a performative reconciliationist," Archibald said.
"First Nations are not looking for a handout. We're looking for the opportunities that are the birthright of our people."
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