From tom brodbecks Winnipeg sun blog: I really don’t care whether Kelly Block’s private member bill C 575 goes through or not but I do think that our First Nations have to quit reacting to antagonistic Canadian Taxpayer Federation missiles and stay the course on making sure the “free ride” ends. As long as we accept the concept of funding, we lose. The issue is and always has been about race based rights.
We are dealing with immigrants to our lands. They set up immigrant governments who now control our wealth and try to make us into immigrants in our own lands. Taxation legislation does not apply to indigenous people, taxes are for the immigrants, not us. Taxes are an agreement between immigrants and their immigrant governments. They came from Germany, England, France, Italy, Russia, China, India and a host of race based countries where they left their sovereignty and became Canadians, subject to all Canadian laws. We as indigenous people did not leave our homeland and our sovereignty is not based on Treaties, it is on based on our race and it is inherent. Quite simply, we were here first, we own the lands and the wealth of the lands.
As long as they fund us from Taxpayer monies, they have the right to audit us. Years ago, it was not called funding, it was called “Indian monies”. Treaties are not about indigenous rights, they are about immigrant rights. For us the Treaties only confirmed some of our inherent rights, Treaties did not create our rights. The right of immigrant governments to tax Canadians does not apply to indigenous people because we never agreed to be taxed by the immigrants. I agree there has been a free ride and that free ride must end. We as indigenous people finance Ottawa, not the other way around.
I will move two resolutions at the Assembly of First Nations summit on December 14th and 15th 2010 in Quebec. One of those resolutions is on social services, the other is on U.S. Congressional Hearings on Oil and Oil Pipelines. The resolutions will be on line at the AFN website next week but copies of those draft resolutions are attached.
For me, as Chief of Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation, I and my council get absolutely zero from Indian Affairs funding for our salaries and travel. I get $48,000 a year for my salary and it all comes from our own source revenue. The little tidbit that interests me in the Canadian Taxpayer Federation arguments is for First Nations to reveal revenue from Casinos and other own source funds such as Gas Stations and commercial businesses on reserve. Brothers and sisters, it is still the same, the white man wants to control us. Like the Arabs with oil, we should be the richest people in the world but as long as we accept funding, we will never force the issue of gaining a share of our own resource wealth and getting the immigrants to make lease payments for the use of our lands.
I say to you white man, pay your taxes, you left your homeland, as a Canadian, you owe your immigrant governments whatever they want to legislate in taxes. For us indigenous people, we contribute over 700 billion dollars a year in resource sales revenue and availability of resources to the immigrants in these lands. You pay nothing for the gravel, the timber, the oil and the sixty different metals and minerals that are mined in Canada. Take your funding if you want, we will force your immigrant governments to pay us a share of our resource wealth. You pay your taxes to the government not to us, your governments are obligated to pay us, regardless of what pot of revenue they are getting the dollars from.
I doubt that anyone will answer the question when Kelly Block’s legislation comes to the floor, but as an indigenous person I would like someone to ask the question, how much does the provincial and federal governments get from resource revenue sales and how much comes from tax payers. If it was not for the resource wealth, just how much of the $1.5 trillion GDP would be gone without resources wealth paying the workers and taxpayers their salaries. I don’t really expect an answer, accountability and transparency has its limits, right, white man?
Hey Tom Broadbeck, doesn’t it just gall the sh1t out of you, you are a well known writer, and you slave away for a taxed $40,000 a year and those damn “Indians” are collecting what you can only dream of. Maybe you should get some poor Indian to nominate you for Chief, after all, under the Indian Act, anyone can be chief as long as you can get them to vote for you.
Chief Terrance Nelson
204-451-0740
the winnipeg sandbox
