Canada is illegally taxing aboriginal people and is threatening to reduce transfer payments to First Nations once self-government is implemented.
So says an aboriginal organization that plans a protest caravan and rallies in Toronto and Ottawa on Oct. 18 against federal taxation policies toward First Nations. “The government of Canada is illegally extinguishing the hard-fought economic advances Aboriginal individual and businesses have made over the years,” says the Coalition on Aboriginal Inherent Rights and Economic Alternatives in a press release.
“It is trying to ensure that we remain in poverty and dependent on the government. By illegally seizing our inherent taxation rights the Canadian government is destroying the ability of Aboriginal individuals, organizations and business to become economically independent.”
The coalition fears that once aboriginal self-government is implemented, Ottawa will stop subsidizing native governments and entities. The only way left to raise money will be through on-reserve taxation. Ottawa also doesn’t plan to increase First Nations budgets when they adopt self-government and may in fact reduce their budgets, says the coalition.
The coalition welcomes new members. For more info call 613-563-0998 or 1-800-461-9495.
