Quote:
Originally Posted by hipster duck
Here in Metro Vancouver, the FN bands are collectively sitting on maybe a tens of billions of dollars of real estate. They have a very active economic development team and they rake in cash. They built a giant outlet mall, messing with years of regional planning, and clogging the main artery to Vancouver Island with traffic.
|
It seems like an ad hoc system that is prone to corruption. There are some bands that have lucrative deals like this and others that don't. It's unclear how much of the money filters down to average band members. Supposedly one of the benefits for the Squamish Nation is you don't have to pay payroll taxes for native employees working at Park Royal. Does this mean that the H&M employees make a few more dollars an hour, or is it just more profit farther up?
Can the system of "nations" and the Indian Act ever work out well? There seems to be an incentive for bands to make the life of their members look as bad as possible and ask for reparation. There seems to be a temptation to skim money that goes to your band if you're in charge, and claims of sovereignty can be used to avoid oversight. It reminds me of the dysfunctional dynamics between major countries and tin-pot dictators. But I don't really know enough about the situation to pass judgement on it.
I have a feeling most Canadians are in the same boat. Not knowledgeable enough to have an informed opinion about a very complicated system.
Threaded Mode