Another Harumph!, but I'm reminded of the story of the seagulls.
On a certain coast line there was a healthy population of seagulls. This group of gulls taught their young to fish at an early age, and the young grew up to be proficient fisherbirds, and were self-sustaining. One day, a fleet of shrimp boats moved into the harbour. The seagulls loved all the shrimp scraps, and feasted daily. The shrimp boats prospered for several years. The seagulls loved the shrimp scraps, but over time, their young learned only how to take the scraps from the fishing boats, and the adult gulls stopped teaching their young how to fish, because there was no need. They had abundant food provided to them by the shrimping boats.
One day, the shrimp supply was exhausted, and the shrimp boats moved on. The adult seagulls were never taught by their parents how to fish, and they couldn't teach their young, either. They began to go hungry and starve to death by the hundreds. All because they took the easy way out and ate scraps instead of maintaining and passing on their fishing skills.
This is akin to the situation with indians in our country right now. We are the shrimp boats, and one day we'll move on and stop giving them hand outs. If they don't have training or ability to contribute to society and provide for themselves, they will be in trouble. I don't think anyone wants to see the indians starve to death or resort to illegal activity just to survive. I believe that we should help them make the transition into integrating into Canadian society. Let's do it intelligently so that we can help them to become self-sufficient. We can't just turn off the taps and pull the rug out from under them after hand feeding them for so long. We need to redirect some of the money that we currently hand to them in "res cheques", into training programs which will enable them to "stand on their own account". We need to find ways to train them to contribute to society either by getting higher education (start with making sure the young people attend and pass grade school!), tradesman training, etc. That way we can slowly wean them off the societal "bottle" that they're currently on.
Say we re-direct 10% of each of their cheques into an education and training fund, or a housing fund, or something constructive, for the first 2 years. Then 20% for the next 2 years, 50% for 5 years, 75% for 5 years, and then 100% of funding is eliminated. This gives them a chance to receive training or employment qualification over a 14-year span, and gently integrate into society. For the ones that currently receive free education and training, then the fund could be a housing fund. As soon as you qualify for a mortgage, you receive that fund towards a down payment.
We've gotta make this a feasible reality for them, and I believe there are ways to do that.
