Liberal budget will make Northern Manitoba First Nations ‘fight for scraps’: chief

A northern Manitoba chief says the federal government’s budget is mostly bad news for First Nations in Manitoba and leaves communities “fighting for scraps.”

“The money that is going to be set aside is going to be put on a table just slightly out of our reach, and we’re going to have to fight as First Nations for every scrap of money that is there,” Pimicikamak Cree Nation (PCN) Chief David Monias said during a media conference in Ottawa on Wednesday.

“And I will be fighting for every piece I can get for my community.”

PCN, also referred to as Cross Lake, is a remote northern community of more than 6,000 on-reserve residents with issues that weren’t addressed in Tuesday’s budget, Monias said.

“I wish there would have been better news for us,” he said.

Monias said he is concerned about a lack of investment in First Nations housing and infrastructure, as he says a lack of adequate and affordable housing and the infrastructure to offer basic services to homes and businesses is one of the biggest challenges currently facing PCN.

“For my community we have 2,000 people on a list who need homes, and those homes need infrastructure, they need sewer and they need clean reliable running water just to maintain health and wellness in our communities,” Monias said.

“I was hoping for better news when I came here, but we will continue to fight for our people for every scrap of money we can get, to make sure that our people are healthy, that they live longer, and live in healthy homes, and not in run-down homes.”

Monias added he wanted the budget to allow for economic development and job opportunities for First Nations.

“I was hoping for more investment in economic development so we can get jobs and opportunities for our people so they can prosper, and we don’t have to keep begging for money.”

The 2024 budget outlines more than $9 billion in new funding for Indigenous people across five years, including $2.95 billion for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Key investments include nearly $2 billion for health, mental health, and combating anti-Indigenous racism in health care, $918 million dedicated to Indigenous housing and infrastructure, $467.5 million over five years for policing, and nearly $2 billion to support exercising jurisdiction under the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children, youth, and families.

The federal government earmarked up to $5 billion in loan guarantees to help Indigenous communities invest in natural resource and energy products.

Monias was joined at Wednesday’s media conference by Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse, who also blasted the budget for a lack of investments in First Nations, and for what she said was a “troubling” lack of investments in infrastructure.

“Long term investments and a fundamental shift in approach are required over an extended period,” Woodhouse said. “We are not seeing that in this budget.”

Woodhouse says she will invite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to sit face-to-face with First Nations leaders to explain the decisions made in the budget at an AFN meeting in Montreal in July.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun