“Teach a man to fish….” This is an old adage that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) has turned on its head repeatedly over the history of the department. INAC is not designed to assist aboriginal peoples as much of the general public has been led to believe, but rather to manage them. The basis of the department’s strength metaphorically lies in the federal government’s ability to inhibit their independent growth. INAC is in the position to keep aboriginals from doing their own “fishing” and replace it with a means of controlling how many “fish” the department wishes them to have.

Much of a band’s resources are focused on learning INAC rules and filling out forms, etc. to access much needed funding. This is money to which aboriginals are by law entitled. If an application has so much as a box unchecked, the department simply throws it out.

The federal government operates a gate-keeping system that, if it doesn’t shut down growth and development entirely, at least slows it down so that funding trickles down to the communities.

No sooner than the councils manage to figure out a program, it is removed and sometimes replaced with an entirely new program. This is commonly referred to as “moving the goalposts”. And how can one win if the rules are constantly being changed?

In the case of the Loan Loss Reserve Fund, where INAC has guaranteed to protect select non-aboriginal banks while denying the same to AFIs, the referee has simply taken the game ball and handed it to the visiting team.

It’s time to start forcing INAC to play fair.

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