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Excellent article on the whole Kesheshewan story. It hits rez life square on the nose!
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First Nations - CF help, protests, solutions, residential schools, etc. (merged)
- Thread starter UberCree
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One thing about the whole Kashechewan thing still makes me wonder.
Why, during the whole period during which the community was under a boil water advisory, did the Band not act to fix the water treatment plant? I understand it is INA responsibility, but when people are getting sick and dying, where are the local leaders?
The guy who eventually fixed the plant stated that it could be done for 3000$ - where was the Chief? Why did he not use his discretion (and budget) to remedy the situation a long time ago?
Why, during the whole period during which the community was under a boil water advisory, did the Band not act to fix the water treatment plant? I understand it is INA responsibility, but when people are getting sick and dying, where are the local leaders?
The guy who eventually fixed the plant stated that it could be done for 3000$ - where was the Chief? Why did he not use his discretion (and budget) to remedy the situation a long time ago?
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A very good question perhaps it wasn't done to bring attention to other problems such as not getting enough gas for the trucks. I saw a photo in the National Post a couple of weeks that showed a woman and her son in their laundry room and the floor was covered in garbage with an empty garbage pail against the wall. Perhaps they need the government to pick it up too.
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UberCree said:
That was with labour transport etc included.
It just seems to me ( I grew up a white kid on a res) that everyone who lives on reservations is so willing to point fingers and demand solutions, but they never take a proactive approach to solving their own problems.
From this article - "graffiti scrawled walls" who put it there? People from outside the community?
"broken windows... garbage strewn about" I suppose that the members of the "tightly knit" community would'nt do these types of things to their own homes - so who was it?
Why is it always the government's responsibility to solve all of the problems of aboriginals?
I'm not trying to be a jerk here - I really want to know!?
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GO!!!!!! makes a valid obsergvation, and I will add one of my own:
Way back when I was with One Brigade, we would often go for road moves into the more obscure corners of Alberta. Often, we would end up driving down some road with the horrifying third world looking "Res" on one side, and beautiful ranches or farms on the other. Weirdly enough, when we got to a town or villiage and asked about this, we would be told the farms and ranches were owned by natives who had moved off the reservation, and no longer had anything to do with it.
The corrosive living conditions on the Res are due in a very large part to the idea that "someone else" is responsible to do things, provide things or generally make things better. BZ to the people who took it upon themselves to get off the "Res" and take responsibility for their own lives. Until we get the parts to pull the plug on the welfare ghettos we created on the reservations (which will probably require a "cold turkey" withdrawl of all welfare and special privilages) stories like Kashechewan will continue to happen.
Way back when I was with One Brigade, we would often go for road moves into the more obscure corners of Alberta. Often, we would end up driving down some road with the horrifying third world looking "Res" on one side, and beautiful ranches or farms on the other. Weirdly enough, when we got to a town or villiage and asked about this, we would be told the farms and ranches were owned by natives who had moved off the reservation, and no longer had anything to do with it.
The corrosive living conditions on the Res are due in a very large part to the idea that "someone else" is responsible to do things, provide things or generally make things better. BZ to the people who took it upon themselves to get off the "Res" and take responsibility for their own lives. Until we get the parts to pull the plug on the welfare ghettos we created on the reservations (which will probably require a "cold turkey" withdrawl of all welfare and special privilages) stories like Kashechewan will continue to happen.
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It's too easy to say the problems could be solved by any one approach. As the article above implies, there are many factors involved. You gotta remember as well that there are many many First Nations communities that do not make the news, because things are going well. My community is one of them. We have a thriving economy, growing economic development, people buy their own houses through an agreement with BMO (Otherwise you cannot finance your own house on reserve, if you do the terms are severely punishing), and we have a large number of vets in the community. We take responsibility for where we are.
Now other communities, I'll name Garden Hill Manitoba as one (effectionately known as Garbage Hill) the complete opposite is true. Dependance is encouraged. The newly elected chief, every two years, picks a house he likes and takes it over. Incest is rampant. No one owns anything, the band owns everything. No one takes responsibility for anything, even miniscule things like changing lightbulbs and doorhandles.
The newly elected Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (Ron Evans) says pretty much the same thing a_majoor says. He is telling the feds to stop putting more money into social assistance and more into economic dev. Ron Evans is a liberal party member, as is Phil Fontaine. These guys regularly donate money from band coffers to the liberal party so you would think that they may have some influence... we'll see at the first ministers conference comming up I suppose. My guess is it is no coincidence that the Aboriginal leaders are invited to this one, but that their long term payments to the liberal party are finally paying off.
Now other communities, I'll name Garden Hill Manitoba as one (effectionately known as Garbage Hill) the complete opposite is true. Dependance is encouraged. The newly elected chief, every two years, picks a house he likes and takes it over. Incest is rampant. No one owns anything, the band owns everything. No one takes responsibility for anything, even miniscule things like changing lightbulbs and doorhandles.
The newly elected Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (Ron Evans) says pretty much the same thing a_majoor says. He is telling the feds to stop putting more money into social assistance and more into economic dev. Ron Evans is a liberal party member, as is Phil Fontaine. These guys regularly donate money from band coffers to the liberal party so you would think that they may have some influence... we'll see at the first ministers conference comming up I suppose. My guess is it is no coincidence that the Aboriginal leaders are invited to this one, but that their long term payments to the liberal party are finally paying off.
A
aesop081
Guest
UberCree said:
Anyone else see a problem with those statements or is it just me ? Didnt we just go trough a "small situation" about money going to the liberal party ?
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aesop081 said:
Unless the monies are from band generated revenues oil and gas for example) and not from federally allocated funds there shouldn't be an issue but you never know.
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This is a topic I wanted to start long ago but thought it would just be a flame war, well done so far for a good discussion.
I must admit I was rather sickened by a picture I saw where blame was being tossed around at everyone else while just above in the photo a stream, or culvert, was shown FILLED with household garbage and stuff.......IMO, its hard to cry foul if you won't swing a bat.
I must admit I was rather sickened by a picture I saw where blame was being tossed around at everyone else while just above in the photo a stream, or culvert, was shown FILLED with household garbage and stuff.......IMO, its hard to cry foul if you won't swing a bat.
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Very very interesting Article in the Globe and Mail yesterday:
By MARGARET WENTE
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 Page A27
"What caused the water crisis at Kashechewan? In the official version of the story, the one the politicians and the band endorse, the crisis was caused by years of underfunding and neglect of water treatment plants on remote reserves. Only billions of dollars in new government spending can bring the water systems up to scratch and prevent the native population from being poisoned.
There's another version of the story. In this version, the water crisis at Kashechewan was caused by a broken $30 part.
The man who fixed it was Chris LeBlanc. He works for Northern Waterworks, a small firm in Red Lake, three hours away by air. He flew to Kashechewan on Oct. 15 -- one day after federal health officials discovered E. coli in the water. It didn't take him long to find the problem. The chlorine dosing pump was stuck. He couldn't fix the broken part, so he got the spare pump working and hooked it up to the chlorinator. Meantime, he dumped a lot of chlorine bleach into the reservoir to kill the germs.
It took him six hours to fix the problem. Within a few days, the water was clean again.
Everything that happened after that -- the barrage of hysterical publicity from the band leaders' media team, the dramatic evacuation, the airlift of a 20,000-pound water purifier by Hercules transport planes, and the army detachment that went with it -- was mere political theatre. By the time the Rangers got their water unit up and running, the local water had been safe for two weeks.
Before Mr. LeBlanc was summoned by the feds, the water plant had been run by two local men. "Nobody really trained us," one of them complained. But that wasn't the real problem. The real problem was their failure to follow a few simple procedures that would have prevented the water from being contaminated in the first place.
Remember the sewage lagoon? The one that overflowed into the water supply and turned it brown? As the Toronto Star found in a damning report, the problem wasn't caused by faulty engineering. The problem was caused by beaver dams, which blocked the sewage discharge outlet and forced the sewage back up into the creek. Three years ago, an engineering firm told the band to destroy the beaver dams. It did. But the beavers built new dams, and no one bothered to get rid of them again.
There was also an alarm system that was supposed to go off when the water was bad. But it didn't work properly. It went off all the time, and annoyed people. So five years ago, said one of the water operators, "we just shut it off." After the chlorination pump broke down, the operators started guessing how much chlorine to add manually. When people complained they'd added too much, they cut back. "The community doesn't like the smell of chlorine in the water," said Chris LeBlanc.
It's easy to say that local water operators need better equipment and more training. Indeed they do. But not all the training in the world will help if they can't follow instructions, and don't know how to problem-solve, and can't get the beaver dams cleared away, and aren't held accountable for their job performance.
Not everyone in Kashechewan is mad at the water operators, who are among the tiny handful of those on the reserve with salaried jobs. Also, a lot of people are related to them. "They are incredible people," said a member of the band executive. When things go wrong at the reserve, well, it's easier to blame Ottawa.
Nobody can guess the final cost of the broken $30 part. The government spent $500,000 to fly people out; it's costing another $10,000 or so a day to put them up. Paul Martin has pledged to move the whole community upstream, at a possible cost of $100-million. He has also promised $3-billion or $4-billion more to bring all 600 first nations water systems up to scratch, on top of the $2-billion we've already spent in the past decade.
Meantime, back in Kashechewan, the Rangers have produced 300,000 litres of drinking water no one needs. They have entered into protracted negotiations with the band about where to store the stuff."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051115/COWENT15/TPComment/TopStories
By MARGARET WENTE
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 Page A27
"What caused the water crisis at Kashechewan? In the official version of the story, the one the politicians and the band endorse, the crisis was caused by years of underfunding and neglect of water treatment plants on remote reserves. Only billions of dollars in new government spending can bring the water systems up to scratch and prevent the native population from being poisoned.
There's another version of the story. In this version, the water crisis at Kashechewan was caused by a broken $30 part.
The man who fixed it was Chris LeBlanc. He works for Northern Waterworks, a small firm in Red Lake, three hours away by air. He flew to Kashechewan on Oct. 15 -- one day after federal health officials discovered E. coli in the water. It didn't take him long to find the problem. The chlorine dosing pump was stuck. He couldn't fix the broken part, so he got the spare pump working and hooked it up to the chlorinator. Meantime, he dumped a lot of chlorine bleach into the reservoir to kill the germs.
It took him six hours to fix the problem. Within a few days, the water was clean again.
Everything that happened after that -- the barrage of hysterical publicity from the band leaders' media team, the dramatic evacuation, the airlift of a 20,000-pound water purifier by Hercules transport planes, and the army detachment that went with it -- was mere political theatre. By the time the Rangers got their water unit up and running, the local water had been safe for two weeks.
Before Mr. LeBlanc was summoned by the feds, the water plant had been run by two local men. "Nobody really trained us," one of them complained. But that wasn't the real problem. The real problem was their failure to follow a few simple procedures that would have prevented the water from being contaminated in the first place.
Remember the sewage lagoon? The one that overflowed into the water supply and turned it brown? As the Toronto Star found in a damning report, the problem wasn't caused by faulty engineering. The problem was caused by beaver dams, which blocked the sewage discharge outlet and forced the sewage back up into the creek. Three years ago, an engineering firm told the band to destroy the beaver dams. It did. But the beavers built new dams, and no one bothered to get rid of them again.
There was also an alarm system that was supposed to go off when the water was bad. But it didn't work properly. It went off all the time, and annoyed people. So five years ago, said one of the water operators, "we just shut it off." After the chlorination pump broke down, the operators started guessing how much chlorine to add manually. When people complained they'd added too much, they cut back. "The community doesn't like the smell of chlorine in the water," said Chris LeBlanc.
It's easy to say that local water operators need better equipment and more training. Indeed they do. But not all the training in the world will help if they can't follow instructions, and don't know how to problem-solve, and can't get the beaver dams cleared away, and aren't held accountable for their job performance.
Not everyone in Kashechewan is mad at the water operators, who are among the tiny handful of those on the reserve with salaried jobs. Also, a lot of people are related to them. "They are incredible people," said a member of the band executive. When things go wrong at the reserve, well, it's easier to blame Ottawa.
Nobody can guess the final cost of the broken $30 part. The government spent $500,000 to fly people out; it's costing another $10,000 or so a day to put them up. Paul Martin has pledged to move the whole community upstream, at a possible cost of $100-million. He has also promised $3-billion or $4-billion more to bring all 600 first nations water systems up to scratch, on top of the $2-billion we've already spent in the past decade.
Meantime, back in Kashechewan, the Rangers have produced 300,000 litres of drinking water no one needs. They have entered into protracted negotiations with the band about where to store the stuff."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051115/COWENT15/TPComment/TopStories
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What did the people of Kashechewan do before European government came? I'm seriously asking, since Native self-government is considered the "Third Order" or something - how is it that they are totally dependent on somebody else to provide them with drinking water? ???
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In that region they probably dispursed in the winter months out to family areas (later traplines) then gathered in settlements in the summer near a fishing / food source.
Back in the day you could drink the water in most of the rivers in Canada remember. I don't think I would now. The whole decline culturally and economically IMO began with settlements that could not support populations. This was encouraged because the gov't of the day wanted Native people to assimilate and it was thought we would assimilate faster in communities (access to churches and schools etc.). The catch was people had to give up their traditional means of land based subsistance to do this and ended up losing the skills in many cases. Welfare was encouraged because it made people stay in one area. Up north the gov't / RCMP went so far as to kill off dog teams so that people couldn't move around on the land.
These are background factors... not excuses for what is happeneing in this community and others today.
Back in the day you could drink the water in most of the rivers in Canada remember. I don't think I would now. The whole decline culturally and economically IMO began with settlements that could not support populations. This was encouraged because the gov't of the day wanted Native people to assimilate and it was thought we would assimilate faster in communities (access to churches and schools etc.). The catch was people had to give up their traditional means of land based subsistance to do this and ended up losing the skills in many cases. Welfare was encouraged because it made people stay in one area. Up north the gov't / RCMP went so far as to kill off dog teams so that people couldn't move around on the land.
These are background factors... not excuses for what is happeneing in this community and others today.
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The Rangers are running a ROWPU? Really? Sure it isn't the water supply troop from 2 CER?
I'm afraid that Wente's article only scratches the surface of the sad tale of mismanagement in too many band administrations. I believe that many aboriginal people would like to see their governance system overhauled, and their officials made more accountable, but I suspect that there are too many vested interests, both Govt and aboriginal, who do not want that to happen. Until our First Nations can get governance in place that approximates the bare minimum standards of competence and capability that we would expect from the average Canadian municipality, there will be more Kashechawans, all on the backs of native people.
Cheers
I'm afraid that Wente's article only scratches the surface of the sad tale of mismanagement in too many band administrations. I believe that many aboriginal people would like to see their governance system overhauled, and their officials made more accountable, but I suspect that there are too many vested interests, both Govt and aboriginal, who do not want that to happen. Until our First Nations can get governance in place that approximates the bare minimum standards of competence and capability that we would expect from the average Canadian municipality, there will be more Kashechawans, all on the backs of native people.
Cheers
There are good bands and bad bands. In a bad band, even if the guys did their jobs at the water plant, once a new chief gets elected, he could fire them, hire his relatives, use the trauining and upgrading money to build his relatives new houses, sit back, and blame Ottawa. And the feds and the media don't dare rock the boat by figuring out the truth - that you can't trust semi-litterate drunken hillbillies in Walkerton to run a water plant, so you might want to take some HR precautions elsewhere as well.
Tom
Tom
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"City officials in both Peterborough and Sudbury say the federal government's offer was clear: provide a home for some of the displaced Kashechewan residents and we'll pay all the bills.
So why did Ottawa later send around an agreement that would have municipalities sharing some costs?
And why are the cities involved still negotiating a deal for 100 per cent funding nearly a month after that commitment was made?
The answer, unfortunately, is that governments do this all the time. They say yes, they support the program and the money will flow. But the final agreement always seems to take more time, become more complicated and â “ in many cases â “ deliver less than was promised. "
----
The Feds still won't pay up.
So why did Ottawa later send around an agreement that would have municipalities sharing some costs?
And why are the cities involved still negotiating a deal for 100 per cent funding nearly a month after that commitment was made?
The answer, unfortunately, is that governments do this all the time. They say yes, they support the program and the money will flow. But the final agreement always seems to take more time, become more complicated and â “ in many cases â “ deliver less than was promised. "
----
The Feds still won't pay up.
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Here is an interesting piece by John Ibbitson in today's Globe and Mail. It is reproduced below under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20051124.IBBITSON24/TPStory
I would argue that the key problem is leadership or, more precisely, lack of leadership.
I suggest that the blame for the lack of leadership problem lies about 2/3 with aboriginals themselves and 1/3 with the federal government - which consists of politicians devoid of ideas, ever since Trudeau's failed attempt at assimilation (again), and an inept and often corrupt bureaucracy - which is too often excused for both failings because it has an aboriginal preference affirmative action programme. (Giving preference to aboriginals is not a problem - not holding them to the same high standard which ought to be required of all public servants is. Such a policy infantilizes aboriginals and perpetuates the myth that, somehow or other, aboriginals are not quite as good as us white folks. The policy is, in fact, racist because it assumes that aboriginals cannot or will not adhere to the high standards we ought to expect but we must not blame them for that.)
In fairness to aboriginals we - Canadian society at large, the values of which are, and have been for 135 years, reflected in the laws and policies our elected 'leaders' enact - have trained them to fail. Our policies have actually rewarded venality, corruption, paternalism and nepotism. Why are we surprised that some - and some is too many in this case - aboriginal 'leaders' reflect back what we have indicated is right? Our federal government has, consistently, rewarded failure and ignored or even punished success - is it so surprising that many aboriginal communities have endured generations of inept, venal 'leadership'?
I do not pretend to have any, much less some or all, of the answers to the aboriginal communities' problems - they are many and varied and not, I suspect, amenable to simple, one-size-fits-all solutions. I am certain that nothing much is possible until the leadership void is filled: in Ottawa and in some (many?) of the communities.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20051124.IBBITSON24/TPStory
I would argue that the key problem is leadership or, more precisely, lack of leadership.
I suggest that the blame for the lack of leadership problem lies about 2/3 with aboriginals themselves and 1/3 with the federal government - which consists of politicians devoid of ideas, ever since Trudeau's failed attempt at assimilation (again), and an inept and often corrupt bureaucracy - which is too often excused for both failings because it has an aboriginal preference affirmative action programme. (Giving preference to aboriginals is not a problem - not holding them to the same high standard which ought to be required of all public servants is. Such a policy infantilizes aboriginals and perpetuates the myth that, somehow or other, aboriginals are not quite as good as us white folks. The policy is, in fact, racist because it assumes that aboriginals cannot or will not adhere to the high standards we ought to expect but we must not blame them for that.)
In fairness to aboriginals we - Canadian society at large, the values of which are, and have been for 135 years, reflected in the laws and policies our elected 'leaders' enact - have trained them to fail. Our policies have actually rewarded venality, corruption, paternalism and nepotism. Why are we surprised that some - and some is too many in this case - aboriginal 'leaders' reflect back what we have indicated is right? Our federal government has, consistently, rewarded failure and ignored or even punished success - is it so surprising that many aboriginal communities have endured generations of inept, venal 'leadership'?
I do not pretend to have any, much less some or all, of the answers to the aboriginal communities' problems - they are many and varied and not, I suspect, amenable to simple, one-size-fits-all solutions. I am certain that nothing much is possible until the leadership void is filled: in Ottawa and in some (many?) of the communities.
