PDF Documents: 

press release -under funding of aboriginal communities.pdf

Chronic Underfunding of our Communities: QNW Request a National Anti-Poverty Program
Kahnawake, December 12, 2011- Attawapiskat, a Cree community in Northern Ontario, is experiencing a housing crisis of such magnitude that the Red Cross has recently sent help. The first reaction of the federal government was to impose a third party management, accusing the community of mismanagement. The community of Attawapiskat will also be forced to pay the salary of this outside manager, which amounts to $ 1300 per day. In Quebec, two Aboriginal communities in northern Quebec were still immersed in the dark with temperatures nearing -20o C last Wednesday from a major power outage that occurred there over 48 hours earlier.

Quebec Native Women (QNW) joins many organizations such as Amnesty International and AFNQL to denounce the pressing problem of underfunding suffered by our communities, particularly the remote and semi remote communities and the federal government's inaction:
"Instead of pointing the finger and searching for somebody to blame, the federal government should sit down with our First Nations authorities, acknowledging our rights to self-government, to develop a real program of poverty reduction”, Michèle Audette, President of QNW. “Our women are particularly affected by poverty which than affects the progress of all our communities. Moreover, this poverty also affects the whole of Canadians who cannot take advantage of our enormous potential and expertise".

QNW wishes to emphasize Canada's 63rd World ranking in terms of quality of life of its Indigenous inhabitants, a less than glorious position considering the fact that Canada ranks 8th among the countries with the highest quality of life for the rest of its citizens, according to the Human Development Index. Many times, the growing gap between the living conditions of Aboriginal communities and the rest of the Canadian population has been criticized among others by the former Auditor General of Canada, Sheila Fraser and many international human rights bodies. The government has ignored both the criticisms and the corresponding recommendations. 

To end this growing gap that is tied to a long history of colonization and assimilation policies that are still in practice today like the Indian Act, we ask that a National Program to Fight Poverty specific to First Nations be established in collaboration with our authorities.