To understand the current state of the economy, one should take into account the capitalist effect on the world. Globalization has made trade easy, and changes in technology have eliminated many jobs that once supported a family. In Winnipeg, downtown is empty after six pm. Selkirk Avenue used to be a nice area in the 1960’s, today First Nations have a culture of dependency that everyone can see, which is why non-profit organizations, pharmacies, and money marts now occupy the north end. First Nations people need develop the skills and capacity to pull themselves out of the many social ills plaguing them. Downtown is slowly revitalizing with the University of Winnipeg, MTS Center, and new developments leading the way.
Today, “most of the world’s economic activity is organized in a capitalist fashion: based on the profit motive.” Some impoverished neighbourhoods or communities with many social ills such as a high unemployment rate, could benefit from becoming a manufacturing outlet to something like the federal army, making clothes or shoes. However, everything seems to be made in Mexico and China. This is known as, “globalization, the drive to expand that is intrinsic to capitalism. Trade between nations, and investment and flows of money across national borders, have increased dramatically. Companies are choosing to locate wherever they are most likely to be able to maximize profits, usually where government regulations are weakest and wages are lowest. This trend has been accelerated by an international trade agreement by the Nort American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), reduces the capacity of elected governments to regulate the profit seeking activities"
“By the mid 1970s, the impact of computers, in both factories and offices- has often resulted in massive job losses. These jobs have relocated elsewhere or have been eliminated by technology, only to be replaced by low-wage and often part time work in the service sector”. “Some have argued that development has become the new colonialism. Disadvantaged groups, in northern countries have been the target of development strategies.” Enter alternative development frameworks, adult education has had a lot of success for First Nations where other institutions have failed. Community Economic development focuses on, “capacity building, building upon existing local resources, including people, to generate broadly based economic and social well-being.Without government support, the capacity of CED to effect significant change is limited: in an economy that is capitalist-dominated, the result is that poverty inevitable grows".
“In Winnipeg, a rush to the suburbs in the 1970s gutted the inner city and crippled downtown retail. Heritage buildings that would be hot commodities elsewhere have sat unoccupied for years. Mr. Katz hopes to bring about at least 3,000 people into the downtown core over the next few years. It may not sound like a lot, but it requires a change of mindset as well as changing laws. According to Mr. Katz, this bylaw prevented the building of mixed-use developments, like the condos that have become ubiquitous in other city centres.“You go to any other major downtown, Chicago, Boston, you will see retail on the main floors and then mixed-use residential above.” We want to have a situation where you don’t have a massive population downtown between nine and five and then all of a sudden it’s six o’clock and it’s empty,” says Mayor Sam Katz. “But what people don’t realize is that you can’t correct the mistakes of the past in just a year or two.” Lloyd axeworthy, president of the University of Winnipeg, has been tapping into the city’s business community as part of his development of the school’s downtown real estate holdings.
“Before the arrival of Europeans to North America, First Nations people were able to survive and sustain their livelihood. This livelihood is equivalent of economic development. To sustain this livelihood, First Nations people worked as a team, they had their own leaders for different aspects of their tribes. There was one leader for war and defence, one for spirituality, one for medicine, one for law and order, all people had a role to maintain life and sustain livelihood. This was necessary for their well being and survival as people.
Traditionally First Nations did not establish permanent communities like there is today, mobility was one of the requirements to sustain livelihood. This meant following game like buffalo. They also had summer and winter temporary communities, in the winters there were closer to the forest and waters like lakes and rivers for fishing.
In Winnipeg forty years ago, Selkirk Avenue was a lively part of the city, because the people there were all working people. The message is simply if people earn for themselves they can make a good community, but if people are given handouts like welfare, they don’t have a sense of ownership and therefore the community suffers. The first thing you have to do is develop the people first. Restore their sense of pride and history. On the reserve, they believe they are not good enough, they been poisoned with handouts. If someone has a broken window or door knob, they blame the band office. You have to kill the culture of dependency. Before treaties, people worked together.
In this period of traditional community development, it is the people that will make it happen. First Nations believe for any community development, and any community economic development, it is the spirit of the people and the capacity of their skills to achieve their way of life. It is this vision of people development to be the base for community development, leading to any community economic development. If the people are neither are willing nor have the capacity skills, community development or economic development is not possible. One can have all the structures, policies, laws, organizations, money, technology, and still it is not possible if people are not able to implement these visions.
In urban Winnipeg, First Nations must be able and willing to participate and feel a sense of purpose and ownership that community development will be possible. It doesn’t matter how many good consultants, and how much money is put into the community, if people are not part of the process this is not possible. Community development is fundamentally to help people to help themselves”.
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