AFN at the Taxpayer Trough
Barely two months on the job and already Assembly of First Nation’s Chief Phil Fontaine is standing in line at the taxpayer funded government hand-out trough. Phil
Fontaine has asked the taxpayers of Canada to provide his lobby group with approximately $1.2 million in new spending.
What does Phil Fontaine plan to do with an additional $1.2 million of your tax dollars? Almost $900,000 will be used to set-up his Ottawa office, including a near doubling of his office staff to 18. Yet up to $250,000 will be used to compensate AFN staff who were fired shortly after Mr. Fontaine regained the top job. Sorry, but staffing issues at the AFN are an internal problem of the organization, not a problem of Canadian taxpayers.
Almost $300,000 is pegged to renovate the AFN’s national headquarters in Ottawa. Did Mr. Fontaine forget that he renovated the national chief’s office when he was there in 2000? In fact, his office was upgraded to include oak flooring and cherry wood wall panels. That’s a far cry from the “Dilbertesque” cubicles most Canadians work in.
According to Access to Information documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), the AFN has been handsomely funded. The total grants and contributions received by the AFN from the Department of Indian Affairs for the year 2001-02 was approximately $11.7 million. The CTF expects to receive the 2002-03 data shortly.
The AFN is a lobby group, which receives the bulk of its operating funds from Canadian taxpayers through the Department of Indian Affairs. The role of the organization is to lobby on behalf of over 630 Indian communities in Canada for aboriginal self-government – read sovereignty – and for increased funding for Indian communities. This begs the question – why are taxpayers funding lobby groups? Individual Canadians should be given the choice to decide for themselves what lobby groups and/or special interest groups they wish to support.
The AFN, like any other lobby group, should be self-funded. In other words, if the lobbying efforts of the AFN are valued by the individuals and groups that it represents, then those individuals and groups should fund the AFN – not taxpayers. (Note: The CTF is a non-profit, non-partisan, educational and advocacy organization funded by free-will contributions.)
In tough financial times, most businesses cut spending and look for ways to increase productivity and efficiency. Perhaps Phil Fontaine should consider a similar approach. Or at the very least, pursue other means of financing – namely one that doesn’t use tax dollars.
By Tanis Fiss, director,
Centre for Aboriginal Policy Change
Click
Barely two months on the job and already Assembly of First Nation’s Chief Phil Fontaine is standing in line at the taxpayer funded government hand-out trough. Phil
Fontaine has asked the taxpayers of Canada to provide his lobby group with approximately $1.2 million in new spending.
What does Phil Fontaine plan to do with an additional $1.2 million of your tax dollars? Almost $900,000 will be used to set-up his Ottawa office, including a near doubling of his office staff to 18. Yet up to $250,000 will be used to compensate AFN staff who were fired shortly after Mr. Fontaine regained the top job. Sorry, but staffing issues at the AFN are an internal problem of the organization, not a problem of Canadian taxpayers.
Almost $300,000 is pegged to renovate the AFN’s national headquarters in Ottawa. Did Mr. Fontaine forget that he renovated the national chief’s office when he was there in 2000? In fact, his office was upgraded to include oak flooring and cherry wood wall panels. That’s a far cry from the “Dilbertesque” cubicles most Canadians work in.
According to Access to Information documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), the AFN has been handsomely funded. The total grants and contributions received by the AFN from the Department of Indian Affairs for the year 2001-02 was approximately $11.7 million. The CTF expects to receive the 2002-03 data shortly.
The AFN is a lobby group, which receives the bulk of its operating funds from Canadian taxpayers through the Department of Indian Affairs. The role of the organization is to lobby on behalf of over 630 Indian communities in Canada for aboriginal self-government – read sovereignty – and for increased funding for Indian communities. This begs the question – why are taxpayers funding lobby groups? Individual Canadians should be given the choice to decide for themselves what lobby groups and/or special interest groups they wish to support.
The AFN, like any other lobby group, should be self-funded. In other words, if the lobbying efforts of the AFN are valued by the individuals and groups that it represents, then those individuals and groups should fund the AFN – not taxpayers. (Note: The CTF is a non-profit, non-partisan, educational and advocacy organization funded by free-will contributions.)
In tough financial times, most businesses cut spending and look for ways to increase productivity and efficiency. Perhaps Phil Fontaine should consider a similar approach. Or at the very least, pursue other means of financing – namely one that doesn’t use tax dollars.
By Tanis Fiss, director,
Centre for Aboriginal Policy Change
Click