According to the Canadian Aboriginal Reserve website, approximately $261 Million dollars is funded towards construction, restoration, and renovation of Indian Reserves every year. Their data claims that 2300 new homes are constructed, 3300 are renovated, and nearly 25000 are subsidized. Dividing that down, that leaves only $203000 for distribution amongst the entire Aboriginal community of Canada. This money is used for food, supplies, gas, luxuries. If an Aboriginal household has an average size of 4, this means that each family only receives about $1444 from the government, no including their home and renovations.
The issue with this is that there are next to no jobs on reserves, and many jobs will not hire Aboriginals, and if they do, it is sometimes at a substantially lower wage than other workers. This means that most Aboriginals live in or on the verge of poverty. The Government of Canada has not drawn enough attention to the over 1 million people who have to raise a family on little over $10000 per year.
I think that the government can set aside additional money to help not with construction and renovation, but to sustain the people living on these reserves. Each family should get an additional 2-5000 dollars to pay for food and other necessities. The way of living on those reserves is almost inhumane and the government hasn't taken enough action to remedy it.
Great use of a hyper link.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't imagine living on $1444 a year...for myself, let alone my entire family. It is an unfortunate situation that some Native communities are reliant on government aid and are unable to better their lives because of systemic issues.
I can't help but think there needs to be fundamental systemic changes--such as investment in education and social programs--to actually see any improvement in the lives of people living in poverty.