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How the government took over First Nations' finances. And made things worse.
Episode 620

How the government took over First Nations' finances. And made things worse.

It's called the Default Prevention and Management Policy. And for decades it was used to take control of budgets and finances away from First Nations leaders, and put them in the hands of "default managers" appointed by the government to supposedly better manage a community’s finances. Now an expansive investigation has examined just what happened in those communities that had financial control taken away. And in the vast majority of them...things got worse. In some cases, much worse. The government promised in 2017 to replace this policy — so far, without much action. Why? GUEST: Patti Sonntag, investigative and data journalist, working with a large team for Canada's National Observer

The Big Story

August 31, 202223m 2s

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Show Notes

It's called the Default Prevention and Management Policy. And for decades it was used to take control of budgets and finances away from First Nations leaders, and put them in the hands of "default managers" appointed by the government to supposedly better manage a community’s finances.

Now an expansive investigation has examined just what happened in those communities that had financial control taken away. And in the vast majority of them...things got worse. In some cases, much worse. The government promised in 2017 to replace this policy — so far, without much action. Why?

GUEST: Patti Sonntag, investigative and data journalist, working with a large team for Canada's National Observer

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