ANISHINABEK NATION HEAD OFFICE (December 17, 2024) – The federal government’s fall economic statement — tabled just a few hours after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet and questioned her government’s recent handling of the economy — calls for more than $20 billion in new spending and says last year’s deficit has grown to $61.9 billion.

The federal government says that’s due to one-time costs, including billions related to Indigenous claims playing out in court.

Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige says that this statement is utterly ridiculous and tossing the First Nations under the deficit bus and can only be hearkened back to the colonial mindset to villainize First Nations for the Crown not paying the bills owed to them for rightful claims, which have been settled in and out-of-court.

“While the Liberal Government is using First Nation’s as its deficit scapegoat, they remain silent on the billions of Canadian taxpayer dollars continually leaving this country for foreign aid, relief, and investments; they continue to withhold documents relating to the Sustainable Development Technology Canada and its funds despite being Ordered to provide – resulting in a paralyzed House of Commons costing millions of taxpayers’ dollars being wasted as no business is being done and holding up critical business of Canada including the First Nations Clean Water Act,” says Grand Council Chief Debassige.

“It bears repeating that the money for settlements is not taxpayer dollars and references to these settlements as a reason for the Liberal government’s deficit is preposterous and is a deflection from reality,” says Grand Council Chief Debassige. “They are, in fact, money that is owed from resources taken from our lands, which we shared with settler immigrants to our lands. The Anishinabek Nation calls upon the Government to apologize for this statement.”

“This type of slander is utterly shameful when the government said that there is no more important relationship than the one with First Nations. The Crown is really showing how it views its relationship with First Nations people. It is not one of reconciliation, but one of an adversarial process that we see playing out in this Fall Economic Statement and in Land Claims and in Addition to Reserve processes. The First Nations would not have to rely on the Courts and out of Court settlements, if the Crown had been honourable in the first place. Courts are needed as we can see how the Crown continues to act in the way it has been in the habit of doing since Treaties have been signed.  The Crown needs to fully disclose the full value of all the resources in our Territories to our First Nations going forward.”

Grand Council Chief Debassige says that the decades of delays in settling claims and adding lands to reserves in has led to increased costs to the government, which can be directly attributed to Canada’s Department of Justice.

“In most cases, it takes over 30 years to add lands to reserve and about the same time to settle land claims. For years, we have been saying these delays are completely unacceptable to First Nations and their members. We have been saying this not only to Liberals, but to the NDP and Conservatives as well. The system is broken, and we look forward to working with any new Government to resolve these long-standing constitutional issues in a timely manner with the Crown. Just last February, Conservative Leader Mr. Poilievre said as it relates to First Nations: ‘…the direct result of the Ottawa-knows-best approach has been poverty, substandard infrastructure and housing, unsafe drinking water, and despair’. And Mr. Poilievre’s ‘focus for a new Conservative government’s relationship with Indigenous Peoples will be centred around economic reconciliation’. Economic reconciliation with First Nations will bring Canada out of this deficit and we welcome this type of statement as it falls in line with the Anishinabek Nation’s economic strategy.”