1^6 INDIANS IN mr fOMMl RCIAI I ISmRIIS 



l"hc incasiucs 1 pro|x>.sc iii Chapter IS. by clantying the 

 respective ro\cs ol the federal and provincial t;t>%ern- 

 ments, will help advance the program. 



Ohst-natMHis «)n K\pt*rieiKf 



Ihe hi.stoncal record lead.s to certain general conclu- 

 sions relevant to determining appropriate tutiire policies. 



First, apart from bnef intervals, and despite efforts to 

 prevent it, large numbers of" Indians have been displaced 

 from the commercial fishing industry in recent decades. 



Second, as numerous studies and submissions to this 

 Commission have confirmed, this displacement has gen- 

 erated .serious economic and social distress in Indian 

 communities, many of which offer no alternative employ- 

 ment. The relative immobility of Indian people has left 

 them heavily dependent on unemployment insurance and 

 welfare payments. This is costly to the laxpaying public 

 and, at the same time, inflicts high costs on the Indians 

 themselves in the form of idleness, dependency, demoral- 

 ization and social and personal breakdowns. 



Third, Indians can obviously adapt and perform well 

 in the commercial fisheries. Because of their greater 

 familiarity with fish and the activities associated with 

 fishing, coastal Indians have stronger motivation, greater 

 sidll and more experience to support their participation in 

 commercial fishing than they do in most other fields. In 

 contrast, development programs based on commerce, 

 tourism and related activities, which are largely alien to 

 Indian cultures and traditions, have usually been unsuc- 

 cessful. In short, the commercial fisheries afford a highly 

 promising means of involving coastal Indians in con- 

 structive economic activity. Moreover, it is an activity in 

 which many of them claim an historic right to participate. 

 The fisheries, then, must be regarded as an obvious base 

 for policies aimed at Indian social and economic devel- 

 opment. 



Past experience also shows that, in the rapidly chang- 

 ing environment of the commercial fishing industry, 

 expecting developmental programs to be entirely self- 

 suppx)rting is unrealistic. They will likely need external 

 support and subsidization for a considerable time. Dec- 

 ades of dependency and exclusion from economic oppor- 

 tunities have left widespread apathy, coupled with pas- 

 sive and sometimes active resistance to public authority. 

 Indian culture and traditional means of livelihood have 

 been overwhelmed by a complex "white" society with its 

 rapidly changing technology, and by the organizational 

 structures imposed upon them. Their self-development 

 has been retarded by a governmental approach to Indian 

 administration that, until recently, tended to be authori- 

 tarian and paternalistic. 



Indians have also experienced difficulty in obtaining 

 the same financial assistance available to their non- 

 Indian competitors: 



(Indians) do not have access to the capital 

 resources required for investment in large 

 new vessels or expensive equipment. Gener- 

 ally low incomes plus the fact that reserve 

 land cannot be secured as collateral has lim- 

 ited most Indians' ability to borrow money 

 from traditu)nal financial institutions.''' 



Policies for increasing Indian participation in the 

 fisheries must recognize these special problems. 



POLICY PROPOSALS 



For many coastal Indian communities, the basic policy 

 choice is now fairly clear. It is between increasing subsi- 

 dies to coastal Indian communities in the form of welfare 

 funds and personnel needed to cope with the growing 

 problems of unemployment, dependency and demoral- 

 ization, on the one hand, and subsidizing fisheries pro- 

 grams that will provide productive employment and con- 

 tribute to individual and community morale, on the 

 other. I have no doubt that the latter is the most con- 

 structive not only from the point of view of the Indians 

 themselves but from that of Canadians generally. The 

 position the Indians take concurs with this judgement: 



It makes more sense to enhance the ability of 

 Indian people to support themselves through 

 the fishing industry than it does to spend 

 increasing amounts of federal revenue sup- 

 porting them on social assistance.'* 



Sensitive and costly programs will be required to suc- 

 cessfully increase the involvement of Indians in the com- 

 mercial fisheries and thereby to increase their self-reli- 

 ance in the long term. Many of the benefits sought are 

 difficult to measure in economic terms because they 

 involve unquantifiable social, psychological and cultural 

 improvement. But this does not mean that they are less 

 important than more quantifiable economic benefits. 



In approaching recommendations for improving 

 Indian participation in the commercial fisheries, several 

 general problems brought to this Commission's attention 

 must be addressed. One is the role of the Department of 

 Fisheries and Oceans. As I suggested in Chapter 1, the 

 Department is obliged to modify and adapt its policies 

 and procedures to accommodate social policy objectives 

 relating to the fisheries, and to provide the technical 

 expertise to help ensure that the objectives will be met; 

 but it is not the appropriate agency to undertake either 

 the designing or the funding of needed social programs. 

 In the past the Department has, in the opinion of some, 

 become too deeply and directly involved in efforts to 



