Stimulus funds found for aboriginal communities

Stimulus funds found for aboriginal communities

$170-million to address suicide and infant mortality rates that are disproportionately high in remote communities.  　

Campbell Clark

Ottawa — Globe and Mail Update

Mar. 04, 2010 　

The violence, poverty and social issues that plague Canada’s  aboriginal population will be targeted with millions of dollars in new funding announced in Thursday’s budget.

A small but symbolic amount of $5-million has been set aside in each of the next two years to look into the "disturbingly high" number of aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered.

A much larger amount – $170-million next year – will go to improving aboriginal health. Specifically, it will address issues including the suicide and infant mortality rates that are disproportionately high in the country’s remote aboriginal communities.

There will be $53-million more for child and family services. And another $30-million will be spent to improve elementary and secondary education for Canada’s first nations.

In addition, the federal government has allocated another $199-million over two years to provide counseling and emotional support to former inmates of aboriginal residential schools and their families. That follows a multi-billion settlement negotiated in 2006 with those who suffered physical and emotional abuse in those institutions and a subsequent apology from the people of Canada.

Not all of the promises to the first nations contained in the budget are monetary.

The government says it will make additional efforts to consult with aboriginal communities on energy and resource projects that affect them. And it will introduce initiatives that encourage direct taxation by aboriginal governments.

But the biggest measures contained in the budget for Canada’s aboriginal population are those that were announced last year when Ottawa embarked on a program of economic stimulus.

That spending package provided $285-million in the coming fiscal year for schools, water projects, health facilities and community services on reserves. And there are millions of dollars more for skills development and economic partnerships to foster job creation.