Good morning, Madam Chair, and members of the committee. I'm honoured to be here today to speak about this very important issue.
I am Anishinabe, from the community of Kitigan Zibi, and the director of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council. I have over 16 years' experience in upper management at both the community and tribal council level. In this time, I have learned how communities end up in financial difficulty and how hard it is for them to get out of it. I'd like to give you my point of view on where the problems arise from and how we, as the directors of Quebec, would like to see things improve. I have always felt that just talking about problems without offering solutions is not productive, so I'd like to give you our suggestions on how we see things can be fixed.
If I were to briefly summarize the main root causes of what places first nations communities in difficulty, I'd state that they are mainly underfunding, shortfalls in capacity, lack of flexibility in the funding agreements, and administrative burdens.
In January, the Quebec directors were consulted regarding the new financial arrangements with government, including default prevention and management, and the root causes were repeated in all of these sessions. In Quebec this is a troubling issue, because in the past there were only a handful of communities that were in difficulty, and now about half of them are receiving some kind of intervention. We've heard repeatedly that the communities are underfunded, and this is a reality. The cuts made to band support funding and other programs, along with increasingly restrictive funding agreements, set into motion a chain of events that led us down this path. There are numerous examples of how communities are underfunded. I'd like to offer one glaring example.
Our communities are told that they're funded for the maintenance of their infrastructure at 80% of the cost. Where the other 20% is to come from we don't know. Our engineer at the tribal council conducted a study and found that in reality, the communities on average were being funded at only 50% of the true cost. This leads to infrastructure, such as roads and buildings, needing to be replaced before its life expectancy is up, or funds earmarked for other programs being diverted there, if they are able to be. Again, this is only one example.
With regard to capacity, it's hard for our communities to recruit and retain qualified personnel, especially in senior positions. One of my member communities, which is well-organized and not isolated, has been looking for a director of finance for about two years. In Quebec we have biannual meetings of the Quebec directors, and we see constant change, sometimes with as many as six new DGs within a six-month period.
The funding for the professional and institutional development program is limited and restricted to communities already in financial difficulty. The tribal council program was gutted in 2013, and it has severely limited our ability to assist our member communities. As a result of these cuts to the tribal councils, we have to wear so many hats that at times it's difficult to walk through the door.
There was talk about lifting the 2% cap on funding. Tribal councils receive no indexation on an annual basis, let alone the 2%. Our purchasing power is diminished on an annual basis, yet we're asked and expected to do more and more. Our communities need more support, but it's a real struggle to give them all that they need.
Under previous funding arrangements there was much more flexibility on how money could be spent. Now so much of these funds is delivered under secondary or targeted budgets, which can only be used for one specific purpose. This matters, because a budget is a budget. It doesn't matter if it's your household budget or a community's annual budget, you need flexibility in order to cover areas that need a supplement or to cover unforeseen expenses. Say, for example, in your household budget you have funds targeted for clothing, but your furnace is breaking down. If you can't divert some of that clothing budget for the furnace repairs, what happens? Eventually it breaks, your pipes freeze and burst, and you have water damage in your home. This is what our first nations administrators face in their communities with these budgets and restraints. The lack of flexibility causes a snowball effect that causes all kinds of different problems.
Finally, with regard to the administrative burden, it mainly relates to two issues: funding applications and reports. First nations administrators spend an extraordinarily huge portion of their time filling in applications year after year. In addition to the time lost filling in applications, this type of competitive approach is a further disadvantage to the communities that are already in difficulty and those with capacity issues.
I'll skip ahead to the solutions.
First, properly fund communities and tribal councils. Look at the areas causing first nations to struggle and properly fund them. With regard to tribal councils, in 2008 there was a comprehensive national study produced by the department in collaboration with tribal councils when the tribal council program was being renewed by Treasury Board. The findings of this report should be used as a basis for examining the program. It showed the important role tribal councils play in proper functioning for their member communities, the funding gap they face, and how the program could be improved. By bolstering tribal councils, you can help bridge capacity gaps within communities.
Second, allow first nations flexibility to set their own priorities and allocate the funding where they feel it is needed.
Third, remove the competitive nature of funding applications for programs that support capacity building. Consider flowing funds through tribal council such as for a professional institutional development program so all communities can benefit regardless of their situation. This helps those already in trouble and prevents others from slipping.
Fourth, wherever possible, provide funding in the form of grants. This is more in line with the concept of dealing with each other on a nation-to-nation basis and will help alleviate the administrative burden.
In conclusion, I'd like to share with you an idea that the Quebec directors have had for a number of years. We feel that instead of third party managers, ideally there should be a team of first nations administrators who assist communities directly and whose employment is not contingent on the clientele being in financial difficulty.
For the 2017-18 fiscal year my tribal council, along with the tribal council of Mamuitun and Mamit Innuat, have submitted a pilot project to work with three communities in difficulty. We want to hire resources to examine specifically why those communities are in trouble, and to make an action plan to remedy the situation, and then to commence with coaching them. We're hoping that even within this short time frame we can demonstrate the benefits of this approach. Our hope is that when it's shown to be effective, we can work with the department to ensure that each tribal council has one such resource to help each community.
Meegwetch.