Sheilla Jones is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, leading the Treaty Annuity/Individual Empowerment Initiative. She is an award-winning Canadian journalist, former CBC news editor, and author of several books on cosmology and quantum...
Aboriginal Futures
Re-direct money from Indigenous affairs departments and into the pockets of status Indians: researcher
An average family of five people who have status cards could be more than $25,000 richer each year if treaty annuity payments were based on today’s land values. Currently, treaty people with status cards get $5 a year based on land values from the 1800s – that’s $25...
Senator’s Thought Crime
Senator Lynn Beyak is back in the news - the Senate ethics committee is recommending the Senator be suspended without pay for the duration of the current Parliament. Why? A few letters she posted to her website. The senator has become a symbol of intolerance and...
British Columbia First Nation Chiefs’ Wage Disparity
In the age of transparency, fairness, and equity this infographic demonstrates how spectacularly different the British Columbia Chiefs’ total compensation per registered member across 74 reserves in British Columbia. The highest paid per capita Chief of Kwikwetlem...
Featured News
Alberta Government Ignores, Expensively, the Axiom That Government Should Stay Out of Business
The conservative or free market foundational principle that government should stay out of business was ignored by the United Conservative Party of Alberta and the premier of the provincial government. Their regime ‘invested’ what has come to be revealed as $1.3...
What Is A University Student?
As a result of government and university policies in both the U.S. and Canada, university students are not seen as individuals with records of educational achievement and the potential for both success in higher education and for contributions beyond in the wider...
First Nations Need Independent NGOs: Voices must be separate from Indian Act system
For democracy and good governance to develop on many First Nations, independent NGOs must be nurtured and encouraged.
Chief’s ouster raises questions about Native legal processes
Joseph Quesnel argues that a petition to remove a regional First Nation leader ought to be free of personal politics.
Chiefs Aren’t Needed On This CFS Board: Child welfare agency cannot become politicized
To prevent political meddling in the area off Aboriginal child and family service, First Nation politicians should not sit on the board of the organization that oversees Aboriginal agencies in southern Manitoba.
Illegal Tobacco and The Indian Act (Joseph Quesnel)
PowerPoint slides which accompanied Frontier’s Policy Analyst Joseph Quesnel speech for Tobacco Education Day in Richmond Hill, Ontario on November 30, 2010.
Effectiveness of Aboriginal financial institutions questioned
Joseph Quesnel argues that Aboriginal financial institutions need to be thoroughly examined in terms of effectiveness and value for money.
Native health tied to economic development
A great and sobering piece in the Star Phoenix today about First Nation health and its connection to socioeconomic status. Statistics Canada has crunched the numbers and there is definite evidence that low socioeconomic indicators is leading to poor health incomes for...
Egyptian protests and the rise of First Nation democracy
While many have conflicting interpretations of what exactly is going on in Egypt right now (or Tunisia as well), it is clear satisfaction or tolerance with the status quo has been depleted. What is not clear is the future. Whether this will mean a new...
Governance Requires Creative Indigenous Thinking: Conflicts require independent resolution
Governance problems on First Nations, such as the ongoing standoff in Quebec’s Barriere Lake community, demonstrate the need for independent dispute resolution mechanisms for Native communities.
The Rights Thing
Frontier Centre in the media from the Winnipeg Free Press.