The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations said too much attention is being given to what recipients of residential school payments are spending their money on.
"There seems to have been a pre-occupation with that concern and I think that's not neccesarily the healthiest take on this matter," Phil Fontaine told CTV's Canada AM on Friday.
Fontaine was speaking after 62-year-old Mary Moonias, a teacher on the Louis Bull Reserve in Hobbema, Alta., became the first former student to receive money under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement Thursday.
"This is a big day for Mary and her family," Fontaine said. This is a big day for survivors. It's a good moment for the country."
The payment was made for the physical and sexual abuse First Nations people endured in residential schools from the 1870s to the 1970s.
About 80,000 former students can apply for common experience payments. They can receive $10,000 for the first year that they attended a residential school and $3,000 for each subsequent year. Cheques are expected to average around $28,000.
"This is not a government handout," Fontaine said. "This is not a government program or service. These are settlement monies and compensation for harms that were inflicted on our people."
But there has been scrutiny on how people who have received payments in previous arrangements have spent the money. A report by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation said that aboriginals who had already received money on other deals with the government showed they endured many problems as result.
"Some people who receive lump sum payments have experienced a great deal of pressure to spend it," Mike deGagne of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation said.
According to deGagne, aboriginal people who have received payments are susceptible to extortion artists, and the problem becomes exacerbated if they already have drug and alcohol problems.
"Increased drug and alcohol abuse was among the most commonly cited consequences of (payments) by recipients,'' said the report.
But deGagne did say that these problems were for the minority of people who received the payments and most people handled their lump sum payments well.
"These things may be more severe, but this (is) in a minority number of cases and we have to be vigilant to make sure that appropriate supports are in place," deGagne said.
Banks and RCMP, according to deGagne, have been enlisted to assist and brief people who have had problems with their payments. But deGagne said that the problems that could be attributed to receiving lump sum payments would not be restricted to aboriginal people.
"This is not an aboriginal issue or how aboriginal people spend money," deGagne said. "This is a poverty issue. This is often how poor people spend their money when they receive sudden wealth."
Fontaine had said earlier this week that he wondered why similar questions were not asked of people who had received compensation payments for hepatitis C and being interned during the Second World War.
But in the cases where there are problems Fontaine said he would continue to work with financial institutions and the RCMP on any issues.
"We want to be able to give the best possible advice to survivors because we're talking about in many, many cases, significant amounts of money," Fontaine said. "We want to make sure that our people are well looked after in terms of how these monies are safeguarded."
With files from The Canadian Press
