Majority of Canadians concerned about financial accountability on First Nations reserves: poll
Michael Woods, Postmedia News | Jan 15, 2013 6:29 PM ET
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OTTAWA – More than four out of five Canadians don’t want more money sent to aboriginal reserves unless proper, independent audits are conducted to ensure financial accountability. And fewer than one in three thinks the money spent by the federal government on reserves is well-managed by the native leaders and communities who receive it, according to an exclusive Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Postmedia News.
The issue of accountability on First Nations’ reserves wasn’t on the radar until recently, according to Ipsos Reid CEO Darrell Bricker.
“People are looking for explanations and they’re pointing at a lot of people here,” he said, adding accountability isn’t seen as just an issue among non-aboriginals.
He suggested Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence’s much-publicized protest fast, which has gone on for over a month, hasn’t achieved much traction with Canadians. Indeed the poll showed Spence, who was still continuing to refuse solid foods as of Tuesday, has only a 29 per cent approval rating among Canadians.
Thirty-eight per cent of those surveyed approved of the grassroots Idle No More movement, which was reportedly planning a day of protest Wednesday.
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Spence came under fire last week after an audit of Attawapiskat’s finances dating back to 2005 showed evidence of mismanagement and a lack of financial documentation. She dismissed the audit as an attempt to discredit her.
The Assembly of First Nations, whose leadership took heat from some aboriginal chiefs for meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other government officials last Friday, had the highest approval rating in the poll, at 51 per cent nationally.
Harper personally drew the approval of 46 per cent of those polled for his actions on the aboriginal file – an encouraging number for the prime minister considering his Conservative government was elected in 2011 with less than 40 per cent of the popular vote, the pollster noted.
Canadians’ overall level of concern about the problems plaguing First Nations communities is solid, but remains unchanged from two years ago, despite the Idle No More movement and Spence’s action, the poll indicates. Sixty-three percent of Canadians think the federal government should act to raise the quality of life for Aboriginal peoples, the same as in July 2010.
Canadians are frustrated with the conditions on some First Nations reserves but are pointing fingers at everyone involved, the poll shows. While only 27 per cent feel that the Harper government generally is being fair and reasonable on First Nations issues, fewer – only 17 per cent – think Canada’s First Nations are being fair and reasonable.
People “think that this has been going on for a long time, and nobody seems to have a plan to fix it,” Bricker said. ‘There’s a lot of blame to go around.”
The belief that most of the problems First Nations people face are brought on by themselves has risen among Canadians from 35 per cent in 1989 – just before the Oka crisis began – to 60 per cent today, an increase over time that Bricker calls “shocking.”
That rise is partly caused by Canada’s changing demographic over the past quarter-century, with millions of new immigrants who have arrived since 1989 and “aren’t really in touch with these issues,” thus taking a harder line on them, Bricker said.
The Ipsos online panel surveyed more than 1,000 Canadians and is considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.5 percentage points, 95 per cent of the time.
