@222Minutes Ok, here goes: on FN's, there is what we call a FNIB done every year. This is the infrastructure budget required. A budget (based on Indian Act formula) also is prepared for healthcare, housing, childcare. Sewer, water, housing builds all under infrastructure. Schools separate.
@222Minutes The budgets run yearly - April 1 to March 31, with budgets paid out normally in quarterly installment. There is a set formula, set $$ for everything and you can't move $ from housing to maintenance if you run short. Or vice versa. But the formula allows almost nothing on ops.
@222Minutes All infrastructure like water treatment plants, roads on reserves, schools come from federal $$. Environment covered by Environmental Canada, not provincial legislation. Healthcare by Health Canada, not provincial. Services used are billed back to the feds. No health cards!!!
@222Minutes Non FN - you get a provincial health card - FN, all you have is your Treaty card to access services. And that becomes a pain in the ass. But, let's go back to infrastructure. Water and sewer:
@222Minutes Feds procure, and manage every project for water and sewer. They procure the project manager, design, and the GC. They only flow the money to the FN that just acts as a flow through to the hired party. Not much control here by the FN on anything. So, feds build the plants.
@222Minutes Plants are built using lowest bidder, Feds and engineering spend millions on the white collar graft and web-based designs with no recourse by FN's on projects that have designs or builds that fail. FN's get plants that dont work as intended. Maintenance costs soar.
@222Minutes FN's then can no longer afford the chemicals, maintenance and operations. Energy costs soar. Plants break down in first few years of building - and then - holy fuck - a FN has no water or sewer services. Lines get buried without a plan that works, or oversight.
@222Minutes Lines don't get buried with grades for gravity - or lagoons are built for $40 million at an elevation 600-700 ft ABOVE the community and 2-3 mikes away. Oh, remember that shit flows downhill, ok? Remember the mention about environmental jurisdiction? When projects fail.....?
@222Minutes They feds say, it's ok - pump the sewage, or chlorinated dirty discharge into the surface waters because we are saying it's ok. Provinces freak out - they get told "no dice - you got no business on the FN" . The people? They get bent over with no lubrication. It's not pretty.
@222Minutes So, back to emergency operations - if a FN has no outside revenue streams other than a FNIB, or specific contribution agreements for projects - there is no money for anything outside of the budget. Circuit Rider might cover some quick repairs but not always. FN's wait.
@222Minutes Now, look at the state of FN's across the country. Do you see why every elected Band Council would be in support of economic development? A federal budget alone cannot repair the damage that feds made with poor building practices on reserves. Outside revenue is a must to live.
@222Minutes And trust me, if the Feds could prove and lead a project that actually worked as intended, within operational costs forecasted to the FN's in the first place, we would not be in this mess at all. Plants built in the stupidest locations, with designs that don't work.
@222Minutes Housing built without proper foundations due to budgets, contracts handed out to buddies and built in a shitbag fashion because they can - and the FN? They have to smile and wave as these garbage units get built. How about shipping millions in supplies on a winter road....
@222Minutes And the supplies are never stored properly because the feds woukd not approve storage costs in the contracts? Fuck, I could tell you stories about electrical panels, supplies laying in fields for months til they rot.
@222Minutes So - there you go. The budget system on First Nations is about robbing Peter to pay Paul every single year, and without a sufficient budget, nothing gets done as it should. And, emergency pushes of $$$ front one designated account to another? Not allowed by the Feds.
@222Minutes Not web based - shit based designs
@222Minutes Not prove design and lead. Twitter is messing with me already.
@222Minutes @threadreaderapp please unroll
