“There’s so much untapped potential in this country. So much of that potential resides in your Nations and communities. For too long, you’ve been held back by a broken system that takes power away from you and places it in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats in Ottawa. That’s why I’m committed to ending the ‘Ottawa-knows-best’ paternalistic system.”
– Pierre Poilievre, addressing the Assembly of First Nations
Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Opposition, attended the 45th Assembly hosted by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) in Montreal last week. There he delivered a strong message to First Nations leaders in attendance that echoed many of the sentiments that have become his bread and butter, focusing on reducing bureaucratic overreach and empowering individuals and local decision-makers over gatekeepers; in this case, he emphasized the importance of restoring autonomy to First Nations. He took the opportunity to criticize the federal government’s “paternalistic” and “Ottawa-knows-best” approach towards First Nations, affirming that a Conservative government would focus on creating economic opportunities and growth for First Nations communities so that their children could become among the wealthiest globally.
Poilievre drew the strongest applause from the room when he talked about the First Nations Resource Charge, a policy developed by First Nations expert Manny Jules that would see First Nations collecting 50 percent of federal taxes from industrial activities on their lands, providing stable revenues. He was quick to point out that this optional policy would put First Nations back in charge of money from projects in their own territories without having the federal government as the meddling middleman, slowing things down with unnecessary bureaucratic processes.
