| Stephen Hume |
| Vancouver Sun |
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Aboriginal populations in Canada have grown sevenfold over the past 50 years. This explosive growth rate shows little sign of slowing soon.
This is the moose in British Columbia’s “new relationship” tent. And if it’s politely ignored now, it won’t be for much longer. The moose is restless and promises big headaches for mainstream and aboriginal politicians alike.
Over the next 10 years, young aboriginals entering the work force aged 20 to 29 will increase by 40 per cent. They will need jobs and economic growth in the communities where they live, not northern Alberta or offshore Newfoundland. This is particularly significant for B.C. We rank second in Canada for aboriginal population.
In B.C., the treaty process is supposed to create a platform for economic growth.
However, as first nations leaders point out, despite massive investments of time and money, progress is glacial; despite hand-wringing over labour shortages, first nations poverty and unemployment is everywhere. Indeed, many bands are not even at the table because they reject preconditions set by government.
How long will the new generation now thrusting up tolerate leaders who can’t deliver? How long before it begins taking matters into its own hands to force change?
We have a politically disengaged generation that grows rapidly while the economy around it stagnates, Promises of redress stall repeatedly. Mainstream demands that first nations surrender constitutionally guaranteed rights in exchange for access to land and resources never surrendered in the first place produce a structural impasse.
Frustration is deep, expectations curdle; bands that had little money to begin with see unconscionable debts mounting and wonder how they will explain to a militant successor generation that governments intend to recover these costs from any future settlements.
Many of these young people are already alienated from a political process in which they are systemically marginalized by demographics. They are cynical and scornful of endless talk and little action. Their political disengagement is profound at a time when engagement is of paramount importance for fostering the sense of empowerment and ownership essential to any sense of citizenship.
This looks like a volatile and dangerous mix to me. However, there’s one simple thing Premier Gordon Campbell could do that would send a powerful message to first nations about the province’s sincerity. It might help defuse the political powder keg upon which we are all perched — native Indian and mainstream politician alike.
Campbell could encourage young aboriginals to re-engage with the political process by providing a genuine opportunity for them to become a legitimate part of it.
The government will soon decide how to redistribute legislature seats to better represent the province. Why not create an additional seven seats reserved for aboriginals, one from each region of B.C.?
For example, first nations could elect MLAs from Vancouver, from the Fraser Valley, from Vancouver Island, from the North Coast, from the northeast, from the central Interior, and from the Okanagan and southeast.
I say “for example” because it should be up to first nations to hold their own constituent assembly and decide the best way to set electoral boundaries, perhaps by watershed, perhaps by language group, perhaps by long-established tribal affiliations.
The structure could be further refined. Why couldn’t a first nations caucus elect one member to a reserved non-partisan cabinet post to advise the government of the day on issues touching upon aboriginal interests?
This shouldn’t be considered a substitute for aboriginal self-government and the exercise of aboriginal rights. But in a system that already accepts co-sovereignty and overlapping political jurisdictions, it’s an approach that could give first nations a direct stake in provincial governance.
This is not a radical idea. In New Zealand, which has roughly the same population as B.C., Maoris have elected members to guaranteed seats in parliament since 1867. In 2002, the number of Maori seats was increased to seven from five.
Not everyone’s happy with the New Zealand system, of course, but it has endured and expanded over 140 years. So Campbell has a working model and an opportunity to create a legacy by trying something new. And why not? The old way of doing things has produced precious little.
shume@islandnet.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
Filed under: All News, Youth Section
