It’s worrying to see an old watchdog blindly wander away from its post especially when a keen-eyed replacement is kept from standing guard.
The federal government is moving to provide 10-year grants to some First Nations with little bureaucratic oversight. Essentially, Ottawa would add up the amounts due to individual First Nations for education, housing, etc., and transfer the total for the chief and council to spend as they wish. It’s an unprecedented proposal (the feds routinely pull strings on transfers to provinces), but it got little attention.