M-494 Funding cuts for Aboriginal organizations

That the House agree that funding cuts for Aboriginal Representative Organizations and Tribal Councils announced by the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development in September of 2012 will undermine the capacity of Indigenous organizations, and effectively dismantle the collective voices of First Nations, Inuit and Metis in Canada; that the decision by the government to restrict future project-based funding for these organizations to “shared priorities” as determined by the government is a continuation of a harmful, top-down, unilateral relationship with Indigenous communities; that this approach fails to respect and uphold Indigenous rights or recognize and support the priorities of Indigenous communities; that the misguided and unilateral nature of these cuts has further undermined the already-strained relationship between the Crown and Indigenous Peoples in Canada and; that the House call on the government to reverse these cuts and restore the funding to Aboriginal Representative Organizations and Tribal Councils to 2010-2011 levels and remove the new requirement that project-based funding reflect “shared priorities” of the federal government.