First Nations leaders blast feds for attributing deficit overrun to Indigenous legal claims
CBC
First Nations leaders are blasting the federal government and calling for an apology after Ottawa attributed its latest deficit overrun to Indigenous legal claims against the Crown.
On Monday, the minority Liberals tabled their annual fall economic statement in the House of Commons amid a political uproar sparked when the person slated to deliver it abruptly quit, plunging the ruling party into chaos.
Before resigning, former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland promised to keep the federal deficit at or below $40 billion in 2023-24, but the statement revealed a deficit of $61.9 billion.
The Finance Department attributed the overshoot mainly to a "significant one-time" expense of $16.4 billion for settling Indigenous legal claims — something the grand council chief of the Anishinabek Nation swiftly and strongly condemned.
The comment was "utterly ridiculous" and "harkened back to the colonial mindset to villainize" and scapegoat First Nations, said Linda Debassige in a Tuesday news release.
"This type of slander is utterly shameful when the government said that there is no more important relationship than the one with First Nations."
Debassige, whose organization advocates for 39 First Nations in Ontario, called it preposterous and a deflection from reality for the Liberal government to explain its deficit by referencing these hard-won settlements.
"They are, in fact, money that is owed from resources taken from our lands which we shared with settler immigrants to our lands," she said in the news release.
"The Anishinabek Nation calls upon the government to apologize for this statement."
The Assembly of First Nations, an advocacy organization representing chiefs countrywide, also took exception to the explanation for the deficit.
"These statements are misleading as these claims are a result of Canada failing to meet its obligations to First Nations," said National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak in a statement Tuesday.
"Instead of spending resources on legal battles that question our inherent rights, the government must prioritize sustained, targeted investments that will grow the Canadian economy and advance reconciliation."
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) said the turmoil and political infighting in the House of Commons both before and after Freeland's sudden resignation "is not just disruptive — it's dangerous."
"It diverts attention from the critical issues affecting the most vulnerable," said acting grand chief Betsy Kennedy in a news release.
