Phil Fontaine on overcoming First Nations poverty 1/3

AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine - speech to the Empire Club, Toronto, April 6, 2006, part 1 of 3. Fontaine discusses the effect of the 2% funding cap on First Nations poverty and the First Ministers Meeting on Aboriginal Issues in Kelowna (Kelowna Accord). Gap in quality of life between First Nations and other Canadians, life expectancy, overcrowded housing, health issues such as tuberculosis, youth suicide rates, economy, economic development.

"Our leaders are forced to do more with less. They have to make ridiculous choices between building houses or keeping the fire engine working, for example."

"The effect of the 2% cap is real and devastating. Prior to 1996 there was measurable improvement in our quality of life; the gap was closing. But in 1996, when the Canadian government imposed the 2% cap, the improvement stopped. To this day, we continue to lag behind Canadians in every significant measure. The disaster, in other words, is man-made."

"So one solution is more equitable spending, so that First Nations citizens are not disadvantaged just because of who we are. But we also need better, more strategic spending, we need spending that is based on strategic investments. Right now we are pouring resources into a broken system which cannot compete. The way forward requires breaking new ground and abandoning methods which we know are not working and have never worked for our people."

"Poverty can only be undone by dismantling the structures which created it in the first place; structures like the Indian Act."

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[Indigence]

Rule of law needed to fight global poverty: UN legal commission :

4 billion people around the world ar robbed of the chance to better their lives and climb out of poverty, because they are excluded from the rule of law. Whether living below or slightly above the poverty line, these men, women, & children lack the protections & rights afforded by the law.

They may be citizens of the country in which they live, but their resources, modest @ best, can neither be properly protected nor leveraged.