Moving tenuously toward lasting self-government for First Nations: Understanding differences with respect to implementing accountability

Since the late 1960s, the Government of Canada has made various attempts at repairing its historically strained relationship with First Nations. In one of the federal government's most recent initiatives, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) recommended a formal approach to recognizing Aboriginal self-government including the construction of a First Nations parliament that would be responsible for setting Aboriginal policy. The idea was not fully accepted, and only limited progress has been made toward this end. In practice, major improvement in First Nation-government relations continues to be stalled in large part by the persistent dominance of the federal government's administrative regime as established by the Indian Act and central agency policies related to funding and governance. Few detailed examinations of federal public administrative arrangements have been undertaken to gauge their impact on First Nations governance. One major obstacle that is standing in the way of building acceptable and tenable self-government arrangements for First Nations is the construction of effective policy and program accountability relationships and processes. The new public management (NPM), which is now the dominant administrative philosophy of the federal government, interprets accountability as focussing on results according to federal government performance indicators. It assumes that the focus on results and the shifting of government program management to First Nations will improve the relationship thereby making the transition to self-government easier. However, First Nations program management regimes must still abide by federal and provincial program standards and priorities which may differ from those that would be preferred locally. The thesis concludes that the NPM has done little to improve overall First Nation-government relations and in fact may be setting back relations in ways not found under previous traditional public administrative arrangements. It tests these conclusions by examining the experiences of three First Nation communities under different federally-imposed or negotiated funding arrangements: the Enoch Cree First Nation (Alberta), Whitecap Dakota-Sioux First Nation (Saskatchewan) and the Nisga'a Lisims Government (British Columbia). The thesis finds that even under conditions of negotiated self-government, accountability for program management rests resolutely with the federal government thereby placing into question the willingness of the federal government to embrace its 1995 commitment for respecting the inherent right of self-government.

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