$880,000 thousand dollars spent over the last 2 years???
So what's changed?
I'm betting aboriginal people themselves are no better off.
Seems to me,all that's been done is to creat some jobs for a few paper pushers.
Exactly what is expected to change and when?

$880,000 equals $36,666.67 per month spent on: Communications (telephone, fax, internet bills), Employment (hired people to run program), Health (gave employees benefit package), Learning/Education (employees attended some courses), Lifeskills/Housing (what they get from what they are doing). Now, how much actually went back out into the urban aboriginal communities? Or even to the urban aboriginals? Many of whom, by the way, have been urbanized for years and living off the system all this time.

Now the budget has been increased to $41,666.67 per month for the next 5 years?

If anybody is interested in seeing the "aboriginals" succeed in becoming self propelled then society has got to stop segregating them, giving them excuses for failure, treating them differently, reverse discrimination is costing millions of dollars. Those aboriginal people who themselves want to succeed, what the heck is holding you back? What group therapy excuse are you using to fail today?

Educate them about their choices, then let them make their choice. To live in poverty or to climb out of it, like the rest of the world has to do. A handout is too soon expected and never appreciated.

And before anybody slam dunks me for this I am an aboriginal person who has a job and pays taxes, just like all you immigrated white folk, and oh ya, my mamma didn't drink while I was invitro.

okay okay, feel free to slam dunk me for the poor choice of words!! replace invitro with something else, you pick, me stupid today!!

Good post "whynotyou'.
Pretty well says it like it is.
This is exactly the problem for natives.
The money NEVER gets to where it should be really going.
And through out it all,there is never any focus put on accountability.
I can't help but think it is just money thrown into the pot to shut them all up and keep them off the politicians backs.
It's got to stop if the situation can ever be expected to change!
And the stereotyping needs to end!

Racism is alive and well? How about "babe-ism"? I never see Betty the truck stop waitress working at Moxies. Ever. If the little black dress don't fit, hit the road, lady. Oh, by the way. Just prove it.

There lies the problem.
There is just as much racism directed at "white" people by certian ethnic groups but the difference is,we can't call it racism.
But it is,and it isn't just native against white.
As in..if you are not part of our ethnic group,we don't particularly like you or trust you.
I have often felt discriminated against in native communites, but I guess we can't really call it that....can we?
It works both ways, but stereotyping is the worst kind of discrimination.
Not everyone is the same no matter what culture they belong too.

This is a rather touchy subject, however suffice to say that there are thousands of Native who go to work every day, pay their taxes, etc; raise a family and have a good life . Quite often they are judged by those that we see in the downtown area, however that is the Minority, the same as it is for whites.

I grew up near a Native Family who's Father drove lumber truck for 30 Years, and I dont beleive he missed a day. He would take us **Whites** along for a ride once in a while which was great. He had quite a sense of humour. I also spent some time with another Native who worked at grading roads outside of Prince George, and in those days you hauled a trailer along with you and stayed at the side of the road. This man worked for years and years , on that job and on many others. Other Natives lived and fished in and around South Fort George and farmed and hunted, and again would take you along with them, and again they had quite a sense of humour.

The first time I ever saw a hundred dollar bill, was after a Native freind of ours got paid. At that time my Mother worked cleaning the South Fort School for $48 Dollars a month on which she raised 5 Children and got them educated.

Most people to-day never went to school with an empty stomach, when breakfast was bread soaked in milk, lunch would be a peanut butter sandwich, and sometime supper would be more bread and milk. Clothes were hand me downs, and your shoes were lined with cardboard inner soles to keep out the snow. Outside toilets, and packing your water from the river was the order of the day. This lifestyle was all that was available for a lot of natives and whites in those days, and I have very little time for some of the **hot shots** on these posts, that would have difficulty tying their shoelaces.

To quote an old saying we used to chant.

**Him talk a lot but him not so hot, him heap big smoke but no fire**

Walk a mile in their shoes.

I remember one Native when he came back from the Second World War, he was dressed up in his Uniform and would laugh and dance and have a good time (Big Drinker) unfortunatly he committed suicide.

I dont like to see what is happening to some of the Natives to-day in regards to alcohol and drugs, however as with the white population who do the same things, I do not know what the solution is.

If it was a simple solution Im sure it would have been taken care of a long time ago.

This whole Country is going to hell in a hand basket, and no one seems to be in charge.

well....that just about say's enough Palopu!
and thanks....damn fine post for those of of us... who remember.
Some things many of us old farts forget.
It is always important to remember where you came from, because that is what makes us all who we are today!

qwaszxter - I would say to that young boy "you are better than working in a place like that", because he would be. A place that harbors that much hatred is no place I would want to be employed.

Yes, he may have to try harder, yes he may have to work harder, but if he wants to succeed, HE WILL. There are lots of other doors he can knock on for work. How he portrays himself when he is knocking, the measure of self confidence he displays is important. If he walks up to the door feeling like a second class citizen, that is how he will be viewed. If he walks away from THAT door with the attitude of "I do not want to work for you, your morals are unacceptable", then he is the winner, the store owner is the loser.

Your comment "he cleans up real nice" is a slam, I would say that this kid is "growing up clean".

I myself waitressed for a time when I was young and still in school. Guess what, if 100 people ran out on their food bill, 99 of them were natives. On welfare wednesdays we used to get the young kids coming in off the street while their parents sat in the pub next door. The kids would be tired, cold and hungry, not to mention penniless. Their parents told them to come and sit, eat, and run away. I think it is nasty to ask for payment up front, it is also rude and discriminatory. What is the solution?
When the natives bring their law "the rules don't apply to us" to town, all hell is gonna break loose and the regular hard working citizens are gonna foot the bill.

Education is a good start. Educate the kids on their choices, teach them their rights as human beings not as natives. Don't just offer free seats at the universities and colleges, that's just a smoke screen. Like the big hoopla going on as per this article.

So zwaszxter - tell that young man he deserves all the good he goes after, he can hold his head up and be proud of WHO he is, not WHAT he is.