I would like to start by thanking you for this opportunity to speak today. This is a critical study, and I'm pleased that the committee is undertaking the work.
I'd like to start by asking a foundational question: Do you accept that Indian Act bands are governments within the federation of Canada? If you do, then, as governments, first nations are entitled to the same revenue-raising tools and powers that other orders of government have available to them as they provide services for their communities. This is a central element of UNDRIP: self-government.
First nations have already demonstrated that they generate greater and better outcomes in delivering programs and services to our communities when we exercise fiscal powers to raise revenues, rather than being funded through federal grants. The pay-as-you-go system that we are dependent on today is far removed from what any other level of government would accept. The status quo is holding indigenous people back from closing socio-economic gaps, reducing the cost of poverty and building economic success.
The 2003 Harvard project on American economic development looked at why some nations break free from poverty and others do not. They found that they do not build success on the basis of natural resources, education or even geographic location, but rather because they're able to exercise their rights to self-government within the capacity to govern themselves through strong institutions.
This is what the fiscal management act institutions provide. The financial management board supports nations to build their administrative, governance and financial management capacity to support their jurisdictions through the First Nations Tax Commission.