Canada subverts TRC:
It is apparent that 'Canada' will not allow the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be independent. Not only are they controlling the budget, but they have set up their own government TRC 'secretariat' paid for by TRC funds. The secretariat will consume the entire TRC budget!!!
To clarify: The TRC is a court ordered independent body investigating residential schools. The Government of Canada is the defendant and has an obligation to provide its information to the Commission. However, Canada's costs in doing so must not come out of the TRC budget! However, that is exactly what Harper and Strahl have done: They have informed Commissioner LaForme that he is paying for INAC's TRC secretariat out of his budget!
What is Canada still hiding that it is trying desperately to cover up by controlling the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?
The deaths of over 50,000 children in the residential schools perhaps?
Tell Harper: Canada must fund its own 'secretariat' to provide information to the TRC. The allocation of the $60m budget for the court-ordered TRC cannot be controlled or spent by Canada!
Email:
cc: Your MP
Ottawa Watch
August 24, 2008 — By Simon Doyle
TRC tells government: hands off budget
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission says the federal government is trying to unnecessarily control the flow of money in its $60-million budget, Justice Harry LaForme, a Mississauga Indian and chair of the TRC, told Ottawa Watch in an interview.
"We've been struggling mightily to get people to try to appreciate how we want to do this," LaForme said. "I think it's a question of how the government perceives these funds."
Although the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement says that Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl must approve the commission's budget, LaForme said the government has asked the commission to make a formal Treasury Board submission, which is taken to Cabinet for approval. That would remove some budget-making powers from the hands of the commission, he said.
"Once you start Treasury Board submissions, then the control of that budget and how it gets spent, and the authority to spend it, all come from Treasury Board, and that's not what's contemplated by this agreement," LaForme said.
The Treasury Board is a government body that approves government spending and Treasury Board submissions. It is headed by a committee of Cabinet ministers.
LaForme said the commission should have the power to alter its allocation of funds from one year to the next, and that there is some concern the government could allocate more money than is necessary to the commission's secretariat, a government-run supporting office.
LaForme wouldn't say how much money has been allocated to the secretariat, but he said it appears to be "a very expensive one," and that he wants to be sure too much money does not get spent on administration.
"We can't predict what one year to the next is going to look like. These things take on a life of their own, and they change," LaForme said. "This one has to be fluid."
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established on June 1 as a result of the negotiated Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement that was reached in September 2007. The commission has a five-year mandate to hear and publicize the experiences of residential school survivors who wish to come forward and share their stories. It has a five-year budget of $60 million, $2 million of which has already been allocated for startup costs.
The residential schools agreement does not explicitly say that the commission must file a Treasury Board submission, but it does say that it must submit a budget for the minister's approval within the first three months of its mandate. Subsequently, the agreement says, the commission will have full authority to make decisions on spending within the limits of its mandate and Treasury Board policies.
LaForme said the government essentially owes the money to the commission under a court judgement, and that the money could be released into a special purpose account to be accessed by the commission.
He added that he is confident this "point of friction" can be resolved. He recently met with Strahl to discuss the issue, he said, and the minister left the meeting with an understanding of the problem and a desire to resolve it.
LaForme said the commission is "a new creature" and a new type of authority for government bureaucrats who "insist on dealing with it in the old-fashioned way, which is: 'Submit Treasury Board submissions, and we'll give you authorities and control.'" He added, "We beg to differ."
Patricia Valladao, a spokeswoman for the Indian Affairs Department, said the government is now trying to work out "administrative agreements" with the TRC. She added that the government respects the independence of the TRC and "will not interfere in its mandate."
Valladao pointed to provisions in the agreement, however, that bind the TRC to Treasury Board policies, and said the government trying to ensure that that the $60-million in spending is reported to Parliament. "These are public funds," she said.
LaForme said he has no problem with being held accountable for the commission's spending. But in the meantime, he said, there are a lot of people waiting for the commission to get up and running.
"I have spent almost my entire time dealing with administrative issues," he said. "I find it very, very frustrating, because that's not what I took this on for. It's grueling stuff."
