The directors of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council (NTC) sat down with representatives of the federal government on Nov. 21 to talk turkey about Ottawa’s proposed 60 per cent cut to NTC core funding, a $750,000 hit that will take effect on April 1, 2014.
Ottawa’s top brass in British Columbia, Regional Director General Eric Magnuson, was among the federal contingent. He quietly took notes as NTC President Cliff Atleo Sr. described with incredulity the situation the tribal council finds itself in, the possible loss of 25 full-time jobs and impacts to programs and services.
When it was his opportunity to speak, Magnuson was candid. He said the best service he could provide was to be open and honest and not” sugar-coat” the reality. He encouraged the tribal council to continue to pursue political avenues to fight the cuts, but advised NTC to be prepared for the worst. He said there is every indication that “the ship has sailed” on this one. He said prepare for the transition to the new funding regime.
Magnuson said government received a mandate on election night, and its promise to the electorate was to make reductions. All departments within government are required to cut. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development will be cut by 10 per cent.
Aboriginal representative organizations face a similar cut, but the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council cut of 60 per cent was the largest in the province.
Quiet and thoughtful Tess Smith, chief of the treaty nation Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k:tles7et’h’, was equally candid with the RDG. Her community is the most northerly Nuu-chah-nulth community, accessible only by a long journey by logging road and boat travel or by plane.
“Decisions can be changed,” she told Magnuson. “They are not set in stone.” She said government needs to change this decision.
Smith said Nuu-chah-nulth-aht have spent many years building the tribal council and the programs and services it provides.
“To take it away now is an injustice.”
Smith told the federal representatives that Nuu-chah-nulth Nations have made contributions, but “it feels like we are begging for a handout and we are not. We have contributed,” she said. “I want to feel like our contributions mean something.”
She was sympathetic to the cuts being faced by the other groups.
“You have cuts too, but we are the little people,” she said.
Simon Read, the director of Community and Human Services, talked about some of the impacts the cuts would have on the organization.
“I’ll try to make you understand the burden you are putting on First Nations… I hope, inadvertently.” He said the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work well with smaller remote communities where opportunity and capacity are sometimes lacking and where two or three different job functions are actually performed by a single person. He said what looks good from a distance doesn’t always work in practise on the ground.
The cuts, he said, will impact the efficiencies and effectiveness the tribal council has worked for and has been successfully operating under.
Said Charlie Cootes of Uchucklesaht, another treaty nation within the Nuu-chah-nulth umbrella, “We are well-known for our services, like nursing, youth and child services and Usma, a delegated agency of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. He said the cuts attack the leadership and decision-making capacity of the tribal council and its transparency and accountability capabilities. Tribal council core funding is used to operate such areas as the capital projects department, administration department, communications department, leadership, and the finance department.
Cootes said you are forcing us to shrink our leadership and decision-making by more than half, a “huge no-no” by government, he insisted.
Magnuson said that a simplified new funding reporting requirement that will be less burdensome for accounting will be rolled out for 2014. That comment, however, was met with scepticism. In speaking earlier to this point—made in the press release Sept. 4 that announced the funding cuts, —President Atleo said “Oh, you have a comedy writer in Ottawa.” He said NTC is going to need some definition on what Ottawa means by “simplified” because the reporting requirements of Ottawa are currently onerous.
Magnuson said “We find ourselves in a unique situation” with government asking for more accountability, however the shift in focus is that First Nations will be more accountable to their citizens and not to government.
Magnuson said there were indeed programs that NTC delivers that have proven to be ahead of the curve, including the capital projects work being done. It’s something that Aboriginal Affairs would hope to replicate, he said. He promised to work with NTC on mitigating the cuts in this area. He said the cuts were not designed to decrease NTC’s ability to be creative and innovative in the way it delivers services.
“You are in the best position to deliver the services to your people,” Magnuson said.
Tseshaht First Nation Chief Councillor Hugh Braker thanked Magnuson and the federal representatives for attending the meeting. He understood they were the messengers only, that they don’t make policy. But he said Magnuson did have the ear of the policy makers.
Braker said in the 41 years of the tribal council, he could not remember a single time that the federal government accused NTC of wasting money. In fact, many times government had come to NTC with compliments on the design and operation of its programs and services and many times government partners with NTC on new programs to view their effectiveness.
“This is not an issue of waste,” said Braker. He said he was unaware of Ottawa’s opinion of other tribal councils, but he did not want to see NTC lumped in with any that Ottawa might have a concern with.
Braker told Magnuson that NTC was much stronger than any grant that it receives from the federal government.
“Of course, we will survive,” but the cuts will hurt, he said.
Braker said the effect of the cuts will not be to the services of our people, but the relationship we have with the department of Aboriginal Affairs.
“When you are reduced to a skeleton staff, the ability to communicate with government is going to be lost.”
Archie Little is the community representative at the NTC table for Nuchatlaht, a very small, remote nation currently trying to re-build its capacity to become self-sufficient. He said the first people the nation calls when it requires support are the ones working at NTC.
“I don’t mind change if we manage the change,” he said. “The day will come to say to the tribal council, ‘thank you but we don’t need you anymore,’ but it’s not today.” He said if there are strings to be cut, “we will cut the strings—and we’re doing it one string at a time.”
