More nonsense

What have I said many times?  That the Indigenous and Métis have one fall-back position when it comes to resource development:  No.

That's because their billions are not dependent on any resource development whatsoever.  They get their funding regardless.  

It's insane.  But to drive home this ingrained position, David Chartrand, Manitoba Métis Federation chief, has announced he's flatly refusing to even meet with Carney to discuss any proposed initiatives.  His reasons are both silly, juvenile and uninformed.

Chartrand digging in his unreasonable heels.

"We won't attend the meeting alongside another Métis group that has no reason to exist," Chartrand announces.  Apparently, the problem Chartrand has it that he doesn't recognize any Métis people outside of the Red River nation.  "Ontario and Western Métis have no claim to the heritage and are infringing upon Chartrand's territory.  

Really?  Officially, the definition of a Métis is anyone of mixed European and Indigenous race, but Chartrand doesn't think so.  He calls everyone outside the Red River "fake".  That's his silly reason.

In his press conference, he said he expects Ottawa to respect "my government".  "To the prime minister, the door is open.  If you want to come and sit down with my cabinet in a government-to-government relationship, we will meet.  But if you want to insult us, they we'll see each other in a different political realms in the future."

The problem is, Chief Chartrand, you're not a government.  Like we do for the Indigenous, Canadians fund you.  You don't fund yourselves.  Federal funding for Métis communities is substantial and multifaceted, encompassing areas like infrastructure, housing, skills training and health. 

Budget 2024, for example, includes:

• More than $860 million for early learning and childcare; 
• $690 million for housing and more than $400 million for skills training and economic development; 
• A significant investment of $867 million for mental health and chronic disease management; and
• More than $360 million for the Métis Nation Post-Secondary Education Strategy. 

These figures represent a broad commitment to supporting Métis self-determination and well-being, says Wikipedia (colouring theirs; can't get rid of it.) 

Based on the financial facts, the above are his uniformed reasons.  It's always in the numbers.  That's the curtain you have to pull back, if you want the truth.

Speaking of money, Carney just announced a doubling of the loan guarantees for Indigenous bank projects.  The figure now is $10 billion.  That means that any project bankrolled by the Indigenous bank, funded with money Canadians give it, that fails will be covered by the federal government -- i.e., you and me.  Same people!

Huh??!!  I'm no economist, but then again, neither is Carney with his PhD in philosophy.

Projects don't even have to have a deadline.  So, an Indigenous group can go to the bank and lay out plans for this-project-or-that and then sit back and do nothing, while taking the money.  

I kid you not!  That doesn't work for any project you or I go the bank for funding for.  We have to have plans and deadlines and guarantees and on and on, or else the funding is not granted.  The banks are accountable to shareholders; the Indigenous bank has Canadians as guarantors -- no questions asked.

Why don't people wake up?!