Harper to meet with Chief Spence/First Nations leaders

[grammafreddy]

If a group of people won't help themselves, using the heaters as a perfect example. They live in shacks and need heat. Wghat would you say about them?

Actually, I don't know what to say about all that stuff that was stored in that building and why it wasn't dispersed to the people who needed it.

Maybe we should watch that video again and listen a bit more closely to that part this time. I kinda got off on a tangent about those damn mobile homes and why they weren't finished off and made useable. I don't even know who that guy was who was doing the tour or why he was speaking to the media. Do you?

[zzontar]

On the news yesterday the media wasn't allowed onto the reserve but you could see some natives in the background getting into their Hummer, too bad they couldn't be interviewed... would have been interesting.

[Veovis]

Somewhere in the 42 million of buildings on the financials would be the sportsplex. Since it is a multi-use facility I'm willing to bet it cost 2 million or more to build.

Therefore millions.

also you should read your own postings

The link below spells out how the SportsPlex was funded in 1998. See pages 4 and 5.

http://www.attawapiskat.org/wp-content/ ... piskat.pdf

The bulk was built by loan, so I'm glad you think cupcakes built the entire thing but it's a false statement. Contributing 1% to a project means you contributed, not paid for entirely, as you like to imply.

Speaking as someone who lived in a small community is Sask growing up that needed a new rink I can assure you that working bingos, and raffling quilts, and bake sales, brought barely a drop in the bucket towards the costs of the rink. The town eventually came up with far larger fundraisers which did allow a rink to one day get built thankfully, but it wasn't done by cupcakes and neither was attawapiskat.

[grammafreddy]

On the news yesterday the media wasn't allowed onto the reserve but you could see some natives in the background getting into their Hummer, too bad they couldn't be interviewed... would have been interesting.

A Hummer may be more useful up there than a Ferrari or a Porsche - or a Pontiac Neon.

Has anyone got the link to the original video when Chief Spence "went public" and declared a state of emergency there?

[grammafreddy]

Somewhere in the 42 million of buildings on the financials would be the sportsplex. Since it is a multi-use facility I'm willing to bet it cost 2 million or more to build.

Therefore millions.

also you should read your own postings

The link below spells out how the SportsPlex was funded in 1998. See pages 4 and 5.

http://www.attawapiskat.org/wp-content/ ... piskat.pdf

The bulk was built by loan, so I'm glad you think cupcakes built the entire thing but it's a false statement. Contributing 1% to a project means you contributed, not paid for entirely, as you like to imply.

Speaking as someone who lived in a small community is Saks growing up that needed a new rink I can assure you that working bingos, and raffling quilts, and bake sales, brought barely a drop in the bucket towards the costs of the rink. The town eventually came up with far larger fundraisers which did allow a rink to one day get built thankfully, but it wasn't done by cupcakes and neither was attawapiskat.

I am well aware of what I posted, thank you. If you read what I posted and followed that link you would see that they did raise some funding for the SportsPlex as well as got a loan from BNS, shared by three different agencies - when the ever-changing rules set out by INAC allowed them to do so. You would also see the SportsPlex is also the home of a community centre and a gymnasium - funded from different places than the loan.

You growing up in Sask and your community wanting a new rink is apples and oranges when one has to deal with INAC. You didn't.

[LoneWolf_53]

The Harper government spent $7.9 billion on Aboriginal affairs last year ($40,000 per family of 5). This is up from the $6.1 billion in 06/07. How can anyone live off of $40,000 per year? Clearly Harper hates First Nations.

All things considered, that $40k should go a lot further for a native, than the same amount for a non native, who is obligated to pay taxes, and other things that we aren't exempt from.

A retired senior without fancy pensions, relying only on CPP and Supplement, has to get by on around $1,500 a month, much of which has to go toward housing.

[zzontar]

A Hummer may be more useful up there than a Ferrari or a Porsche - or a Pontiac Neon.

I think that's the first thing most people who claim to live in poverty should buy.

[Captain Awesome]

I think that's the first thing most people who claim to live in poverty should buy.

Well, they can live in it if their houses are so bad..

One million in vehicles they have on the books should provide plenty of living space.

[Veovis]

Where is this "native store" supposed to get the goods it sells? The money it spends on stocking it would go out of the community, wouldn't it? And government would tax those suppliers, right?

There is no evidence that Chief Spence has been using the community's money for herself at the expense of her people that I have seen as a proven fact. There's lots of speculation, though, as the media runs wild with that.

Point 1 - if there isn't one why can they not open one? Either way your logic is simply flawed to agree that if Theresa bought a car that she was then given a car and the person who she paid simply "took his money back". No he didn't, ha made an exchange of cash for product. Thankfully the tax rates on outside goods isn't 100% so they wouldn't simply be "giving it back that way either"

Point 2 - I agree and I haven't said she has. She might have, it may be some sick politician, it might be her boyfriend, it might be a different mix of all in on it, or it could simply be complete incompetence of financial use. The fact is we won't know until it is looked at, and they don't want it looked at. No matter, she and her predecessors have failed their people on an epic scale. I leave the door open, you however continually imply it's either INAC, or the government alone.

[SurplusElect]

One million in vehicles they have on the books should provide plenty of living space.

I wasn't going to say anything earlier but you push this 1 million so much...

F450's start at 50 grand, unfitted, without the cold weather package.

This is a northern community. They need a few heavy duty trucks to do municipal things, smaller trucks to do others. Tack on a few vans to move people and presto <insert Dr Evil voice> 1 MILLION DOLLARS worth of vehicles.

[Veovis]

And technically it's only a 300,000 value after depreciation which if all bought at once would be vehicles 4 years old. Since that's unlikely it's most likely a group of vehicles between new and 12 years old, and not entirely unplausible or unreasonable.

[Captain Awesome]

Hmmm, fair enough. I think I was wrong.

[goatboy]

You growing up in Sask and your community wanting a new rink is apples and oranges when one has to deal with INAC. You didn't.

If dealing with INAC is so hard, then why continue? Oh wait, because they give them money. Lots of money. Far more money than the small community in Sask ever received, I'm sure. I agree that bad things have happened in the past, but how long can you blame things that happened 50 plus years ago? Given all that is available to any native in Canada today, it's very hard to see how there is nothing but opportunity for them. If they choose in 2013 to continue to live in an expensive, remote part of Canada, then isn't that their choice? This will continue until the day ALL Canadians are treated equal, regardless of our race. This is 2013, not 1813, things have changed.

[zzontar]

I wasn't going to say anything earlier but you push this 1 million so much...

F450's start at 50 grand, unfitted, without the cold weather package.

This is a northern community. They need a few heavy duty trucks to do municipal things, smaller trucks to do others. Tack on a few vans to move people and presto <insert Dr Evil voice> 1 MILLION DOLLARS worth of vehicles.

Is there anything requiring trucks that they do that they don't contract out to?

[grammafreddy]

The Harper government spent $7.9 billion on Aboriginal affairs last year ($40,000 per family of 5). This is up from the $6.1 billion in 06/07. How can anyone live off of $40,000 per year? Clearly Harper hates First Nations.

All things considered, that $40k should go a lot further for a native, than the same amount for a non native, who is obligated to pay taxes, and other things that we aren't exempt from.

A retired senior without fancy pensions, relying only on CPP and Supplement, has to get by on around $1,500 a month, much of which has to go toward housing.

For a native family living on a northern reserve that $40,000 (per family of 5) would not buy as much as for a native family of 5 living on a southern reserve.

Senior natives might also get OAP and a provincial supplement and CPP (if they paid into it) so perhaps they do not get a share of INAC funding. I don't know.