FW: Conservatives axe First Nations statistics Crown corporation
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FW: Conservatives axe First Nations statistics Crown corporation
 
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Too much knowledge is a dangerous thing...
:(
(As an aside, given the high regard in which Canadian
First Nations and Canadian census/statistical activities are held globally, my
guess is that this agency could have been self-sustaining through international
consulting contracts within a relatively short period of
time...
M
-----Original Message-----
From: Rob McMahon [mailto:[hidden email]] Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 1:42 AM To: [hidden email]; 'Brian Walmark'; 'Susan O'Donnell'; 'Richard Smith'; 'adam fiser'; 'michael gurstein' Subject: Conservatives axe First Nations statistics Crown corporation Hi
everyone – not sure if you saw this but some bad news about
FNSI... Rob Conservatives axe First Nations statistics Crown corporation
Published on APTN
National News | shared via feedly mobile  By Jorge Barrera The First Nations Statistical Institute (FNSI), which was created through
legislation passed in 2005 during the Liberal government under Paul Martin, will
see its $5 million budget cut in half this year and eliminated next year,
according to the federal budget unveiled Thursday. Keith Conn, the FNSI’s chief operating officer, said the agency was in the
midst of 25 projects across Canada working with First Nations communities and
organizations. “Now we have to figure out what we can do for this year,” said Conn.
Conn said he found out about the cut while sitting in the budget lock-up in
Ottawa Thursday. The information was buried near the back of the budget document
under a section outlining total cuts to the federal Aboriginal Affairs
department. Aboriginal Affairs will see cuts of $26 million this fiscal year, $60 million
the next and $165 million the year after for a total 2.7 per cent reduction of
the $6.22 billion that was put on the table for review, according to the budget.
“I saw something in the tea leaves,” said Conn. “I told my board of directors
that I had an inclination. “I was connecting the dots on several activities
and inactivities.” The institute currently has 23 people on staff, but they won’t all be laid
off immediately, he said. “We will have to determine what some of those priorities are as an
organization”, he said. “We have projects that we may want to wrap up.”
The FNSI was created, through legislation along with three other Crown
agencies: The First Nations Tax Commission, the First Nations Financial
Management Board and the First Nations Finance Authority. Conn said the institute didn’t really get going until 2009 because it took
the Conservative government two years to pick a board, which was created through
cabinet orders in council. “Most Crown corporations have a pre-existing infrastructure, but this
particular one was a new concept, so essentially it was created out of thin
air,” he said. The institute was created to make up for the data gap that exists when it
comes to getting a clear picture of the demographics on reserves and from the
Aboriginal population in general. Many First Nations communities refuse to participate in the national census
and Aboriginal people living in urban centres often slip through the data cracks
because of their social conditions. “There are social and economic disparities that are widespread and so it was
important to provide data to measure progress,” said Conn. “There are gaps in
the urban populations for First Nations, Metis and Inuit people that are either
missed or excluded from the survey processes.” The institute was also helping communities make sense of their administrative
data to better plan for the education, housing and labour force needs, said
Conn. It was also preparing economic data for a project in conjunction with the
First Nations Financial Management Board that would see several communities
create a borrowing pool for bond debentures to access long term debt financing
to pay for infrastructure like roads and schools. “We were the first on the planet to deal with First Nations bond debentures,”
he said. feedly. feed your mind. http://www.feedly.com
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