Comment: Making Policy
- Paul Chartrand | May 01, 2014
A 'policy' as everyone knows is a guide for action. Governments use policies to guide officials in their actions. It can be said that legislation contains policy but a policy may be applied without any legislation to support it. Policies usually have some broad assumptions, ideas or values behind them. They will also have a purpose or objective in mind. It is interesting to look at what approaches lie behind current and past policies, and to think about what better ways might be adopted to make better policy today.
Let us look at some examples of policy approaches. Then you can make up your mind which one you think might be good to adopt today in Saskatchewan and in Canada, by the federal government that is, because Canada is much more than the federal government in Ottawa.
British philosophers tried to identify goals to reach by policy and championed 'utilitarianism' which says you should make policies that brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people.
John Rawls, the American moral philosopher, developed the concept of the 'person in the original position' (POP) to argue for his complex policy approach.
Turning to policy that aims at Indigenous people, we start with the memorable phrase I picked up in New Zealand to explain the policy in the British colonies at the height of the British empire in the 19th century: we make good policy because what we do is "to smooth the pillow of a dying race." That idea guided what went into the Indian Act in 1876: 'Indians' were expected to disappear before 'a superior race.'
The mandate of Canada's federal Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples 1991-1996 (RCAP) was to recommend policies. The approach of the RCAP to policy-making was based upon four principles: mutual recognition, mutual respect, mutual responsibility and sharing.
On the Indigenous side itself, the concept of the 'Seven Generations' has been much-discussed. The RCAP acknowledged it and named some of its work for the approach. The late renowned Anishinabe philosopher and teacher Tobasonakwut Kinew explained that the concept is to be applied by each generation as a true guide to policy. It seeks the best result for the Seven Generations, which go three back and three forward. Looking back; Nindaanikoobitaaganag, the great grandparents; Nimishomis or Nokomis, the grandparents; Niniigiigoog, the parents. Niin, the present generation inquirer; Looking ahead, Niniichaanisag, the children; Noozhisag, the grandchildren, and Nindaanikoobitaaganag, the great grandchildren.
The usual approach in Canada has been to use economic performance as a measure of good policy. But is it the health of the economy or the health of the people that matters most? There is a wide movement that is starting to catch on in Canada that measures policy by asking if it is good for the health of the people. A local physician, Dr Ryan Meili has published a book entitled A Healthy Society: How A Focus on Health Can Revive Canadian Democracy in which he points out that economic measures of productivity include things that are bad for health as well as things that are good for health. He has launched an online movement for what is called 'upstream' thinking.
At first glance it seems that an alternative approach might be to ask what policy is required for the health of the population, rather than asking if policies that have other objectives are good or bad for health. I think there might be a difference. Or is there? Why dont we give ourselves some time to think about it and return to this important topic next time? John the editor says I am out of space.
NRTA Summit 2014
The third conference on this topic will be held at Tsuu Tina near Calgary on 7-9 May inclusive this year. The first two were held in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The Natural Resources Transfer Agreement Acts transferred the administration of lands and natural resources from the federal to the provincial governments of the three prairie provinces. The Acts containing the agreements became part of the constitution as the Constitution Act 1930. The agenda is to design a strategy to pursue First Nation goals on topics that involve the NRTA. Information may be obtained by contacting Patty Beebe.