From what I come across, it is common for northern Ontario reserves to be controlled by families through the reserve’s band council. These families take care of themselves before taking care of the general populace, so whoever has the largest extended family wins the election, while those outside of the family that is in control are left to their own resources, which usually are negligible, given that there is very little independent economic activity on reserves. Most of the funds that enter a reserve are controlled by the band council, which pays itself and which also pays the salaries of employees that the band hires. If a band councillor wants to stay elected, that councillor must see to it that his support base – his family – receives the benefit of the funds. This leads to bands usually having very large, very well paid band councils, and a disproportionate portion of funds going to administration and employee expenses along family lines rather than program delivery. Now let’s have a look at Attawapiskat’s numbers.
In Attawapiskat, $2,031,007 is allocated to the housing program, of which $60,512 actually goes to housing program delivery, while $403,342 is spent on administration and $1,374,128 is spent on wages and employee benefits. Why does only 3% of the housing program go to housing program delivery? http://www.attawapiskat.org/wp-content/uploads/2011-Non-Consolidated-Schedule-of-Programs.pdf
In Attawapiskat, $607,364 is allocated to the Chief and Band Councillors, not including travel. In Manitouwadge, an economically struggling non-native northern Ontario bush town that is a few hundred people larger than Attawapiskat, $94,200 is allocated to the Mayor and Town Council, including the election costs. Why are the Attawapiskat Chief and Council costs six and a half times higher than those of a comparable non-reserve community? http://www.attawapiskat.org/wp-content/uploads/2011-Consolidated-Schedule-of-Salaries-Honouraria-and-Travel-Expenditures.pdf http://www.manitouwadge.ca/uploads/documents/By%20Laws/2011%20Budget.pdf
How did a temporary band manager run up a transportation tab of $68,397 in only two months? http://www.attawapiskat.org/wp-content/uploads/2011-Consolidated-Schedule-of-Salaries-Honouraria-and-Travel-Expenditures.pdf
Why is a band co-manager the spouse of the Chief? http://www.attawapiskat.org/wp-content/uploads/20111205NoticeQuestionsAboutAttawapiskat.pdf
Why does Attawapiskat not even have a budget, despite INAC (the Federal government agency that provides Attawapiskat with most of its funds) requiring it? http://www.attawapiskat.org/wp-content/uploads/2011-Management-Letter.pdf
All in all, I think that there needs to be better oversight of funds given to reserves, with specific targets for deliverables, and specific consequences for failing to meet the targets without good cause. There is no reason why the bulk of a program’s fund should be bled away rather than be used to actually deliver the program.
I also think that personal property ownership combined with property taxes based on assessed property values would help bring some of the misdirected funds back into the community.
Ultimately, however, I think that very small, isolated communities that are nearly entirely economically dependent on government assistance are neither economically viable nor socially healthy. I do not think that there is a solution to this overarching problem, for the culture of people who live on these reserves will be destroyed through generation after generation of poverty just as certainly as it will be destroyed if there is a diaspora into the mainstream non-aboriginal Canadian communities to the south.