Language used about Bowman raises concern
By Lethbridge Herald on March 18, 2022.
Editor:
After reading the Herald’s March 9 article on the future of the Bowman, I was angered to read that Mike Bruised Head, Travis Plaited Hair and Tanya Pace Crosschild appeared to use a type of language that would guilt or threaten progress on native reconciliation issues.
“Rejection perception in the community,” implied “negative far-reaching implications,” “NIMBY” seem to be used to press for a free building or previous work and good relations may be ruined.
The native bands have huge purchasing power.
Remember every reserve receives hundreds of millions of dollars every year that could be used for the good of their band members. They can well afford to purchase land, build and operate a building on their own if they want to. The City should not be responsible to provide a building.
I agree with continued encouragement, education, emotional support and mentoring to advance positive changes as the City works together with native interests. Just make sure they bring their checquebook, please!
P. Kenny
Lethbridge
9-8
I don’t understand why people have such grandiose ideas of how tribes get their funding and how they should spend it.
First off, none of the funding to tribes comes from taxpayer dollars; and secondly, all of that funding has to be spent on reserve. What it’s spent on is paternalistically dictated by the two departments formerly known as “Indian Affairs” in Ottawa.
Anything “off reserve” is in partnership with the municipality and province. None of the funding that goes to reserves can be spent “off reserve.”
The kicker is that almost all of the funding that goes to reserves doesn’t stay on reserve, because there’s little to no services out there, so it is spent on the surrounding communities economy. Blood Tribe alone adds an estimated $100,000,000 to the Lethbridge economy every year. Compared to the $12,000,000 (less now because of Jason Kenney) that the university brings in annually.
Honestly that $100,000,000 would do better to stay on reserve, but the “Indian affairs” depts prevent that from happening, due to their paternalistic rules of what infrastructure can and is built out there.
But whatever, y’all think they’re just a bunch of drug addicts anyway you rednecks.
So tell me UncleBuck just where does the money come from that the government pays out? Does it fall from the sky? Does it grow on the trees in the forest?
What kind of smoke are you inhaling to think like that? Over $17 billion is spent to support the Indigenous/Inuit annually, along with many other ‘payouts”! So do you think the government just prints the money to pay for that? Every dime spent comes from the taxpayer, whether it is municipal, provincial or federal!
Your comment shows how much you lack the knowledge on these matters, as usual! AND Lethbridge lost it’s great international image, tarnished after the SCS opened and we were labelled as the busiest consumption site in the world. That cost alone is worth more than $100 million! Lethbridge and all taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions on programs/services due to the addiction issues in the past few years!
To threaten our elected Council, who are standing up for our citizens as a whole is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated!
Money isn’t everything and in my mind they can take their $100 million and spend it elsewhere, but I actually heard them say they spent $200 million in our city last year, although I would like to see where and to who!??
The citizens of the City of Lethbridge do not want the Resource Hub in our downtown, period!
I would suggest you do some research and below is one of the duties of a Councillor under the act!
https://www.alberta.ca/roles-and-responsibilities-of-municipal-officials.aspx
The Municipal Government Act (MGA) provides that councils can only exercise the powers of the municipal corporation in the proper form, either by bylaw or resolution.
Councillors
Under the MGA, councillors have the duty to:
-consider the welfare and interests of the municipality as a whole and, to bring to council’s attention anything that would promote the welfare or interests of the municipality
-participate generally in developing and evaluating the policies and programs of the municipality
-participate in council meetings and council committee meetings and meetings of other bodies they are appointed to by the council
I have a lot more to say about your uneducated response but will end with this:
This is the City of Lethbridge is an incorporated city that has been built by the blood, sweat, and tears of generations of taxpayers and investers!
It is not part of the Blackfoot Confederacy and is not on Blackfoot land! Unless you want to tear up the treaties and by all means I am for that!
I am really glad you asked where the money comes from! It’s actually around $36,000,000,000 annually that pays for the reserve system in canada. That’s Thirty Six Billion dollars.
So where that comes from is resource revenues from reserves themselves. Indigenous People’s resources are bought, sold traded, and the money is kept in the capital account in ottawa, where all told it comes up to be about $2,000,000,000,000. That’s Two Trillion Dollars.
The reserves then have to beg back for the money if they want any funding to go anywhere, which is like pulling teeth. SO annually, a small percentage of that is disbursed as funding from the feds while the rest goes to invest in canadian infrastructure and crown corporations. That small percentage is the $36 billion in funding for the reserves. Any time funding is sent to reserves it comes from the Indigenous People’s own monies. As for the investment in crown corporations and canadian infrastructure, it’s the other way around than you think. Indigenous People subsidize canada, not canadian taxpayers subsidizing Indigenous People.
This is all in the Indian Act and Treaties, which you should read, as Treaty 7 is the basis of why Lethbridge is here. If you do want to tear up the treaties, you do realize that under law, the title of the lands held in Treaty by the Crown go BACK to Indigenous People, which is why canada never can and never will tear those treaties up, if they want to keep canada that is.
Only place govt gets money is from taxpayers. Get your head out of the sand!
The Indigenous community have put Lethbridge on the map as a drug and crime capital of Canada for several years in a row. Migrating into our city by the droves, this sordid segment of their society create nothing but problems for us. We chase after these homeless, drug and alcohol addicted indigenous that stagger around our streets and its costing us millions – all to no avail. The ‘indigenous hub should focus on teaching their people parenting skills because that’s the root of their problem. Hub should be located as far away as possible from the Bowman and downtown core. Allowing a hub to be established in the Bowman will only increase racial problems and further destroy our library that has become a major hangout for drug dealing and shooting up. We need to also think of the tax dollars we will lose if we allow this hub to go in. Indigenous will not pay a dime in taxes nor will they pay for maintenance while they occupy the premises. It’s a lose-lose proposition no matter how you look at it. Bus shelter in front of the library should be removed.
Last year, across canada and the USA, fentanyl has killed more people age 18-45 than suicide, homicide, heart disease, cancer, and Covid put together.
Framing the opioid crisis as an indigenous issue ignores the MANY people in Lethbridge who are non native and housed who are struggling with addiction, and only reveals yourself as an undereducated racist.
But that’s okay with me, because your deficiency of heart and mind is your problem. Your deficiency is something that should be pitied, and healed, by you, rather than berate you for it.
I thought we were done with Tim Slaney! Maybe if you didn’t push the failed harm reduction program that has been used for 18 years in BC and continued to increase the fatal overdoses, the numbers of addicts/homeless and crime there wouldn’t be so many deaths. But again, your stats are disinformation! Just like the stats the SCS released often to get more funding!
Oh well, you just can’t cure Stupid!
Truer words were never spoken, as much as many on this forum will deny. Open your eyes, folks. Get your collective heads out of the sand.
Really glad to see the Lethbridge Herald continue to provide a platform for local chuds like P. Kenny to voice their ‘thoughts’ and embarrass our community further.
Obviously you have no clue what the word HUMBLE means! It was a good letter to the editor and nothing will ever embarrass the community as bad as the SCS or the Alpha House!
Appears to be a about a 50/50 split here comment wise. A source of excellent reading about building a “collective” of tool kits under the guise of a “campus” is Michael Shellenbergers “San Fransicko”. He is a lifelong Democrat who changed to “no party preference” last year. As an alternative the website is michaelshellenber@substack.com. Excellent reading for those with an open mind. He is running for Governor of CA. Union Plaza In San Fransisco is is ground Zero for their “campus” and of course is a disaster zone.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/conrad-black-no-exaggeration-needed