Indian and Northern Affairs/ First Nations transfer payments

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

The Indian and Northern Affairs Department provides essential services for Aboriginal people living on Reserves. These include education, social assistance, housing and capital facilities, land claims and management of money under the Indian Affairs Act. The Department did not appoint a senior person to direct the Year 2000 Project until June 1998. No test plans were prepared as of June1998. The Auditor General's Report claims that there are no details of activities planned to address mission critical systems and no details reported on resources available for the 2000 project. COntingency plans were to have been submitted to the Secretariate by August 1998. The Report does not say whether this happened. This is a critical Department for First Nations People. In essence, if you live on a reserve and this Department fails, the entire social system of Aboriginal communities is at risk in rural areas. If the Department is not held accountable, unfortuneatly, aboriginal people will pay the price once again. Interestingly, non of the Canadian news articles I have seen about the Auditor's Report have focused on this Department. Get the word out.See Auditor General's Report thread for URL.

-- Lisa (hagen@pangea.ca), December 02, 1998

Answers

the reserves will be better off than the cities, by far. ironically, the rural poor will be in reasonably good shape. i visited an old native woman several years ago, who lived in a little shack by a lake. she had a woodstove for heat and cooking, an outhouse supplemented by a 5-gallon pail potty in winter, manual pump for water. breakfast was fish from the lake. i figure this woman and the rest of her community will be fine. they also have y2k-compliant fiddles and cribbage boards for entertainment.

-- Jocelyne Slough (jonslough@tln.net), December 02, 1998.

What do you expect? The US Federal Govt. just wishes the entire Indian matter would just dry up and blow away. The first president in history who did not screw Indians in some way was Reagan - and he was villified by western ranchers for this.

Why do you think so many Indians have left the reservations entirely? I have known lots of Chippewas who have given it up and are living in places like St. Paul. The reservations never cut it - about the only hope now is casino gambling - which brings its own problems.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), December 03, 1998.


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