There are signs in this morning's news of a shift in thinking regarding Canada's native reserves.
As we reported, a new report by seven academics breaks down the statistics and finds positive trends among natives both on and off-reserve in areas like employment and income.
The academics cover fields of economics, native studies, law and social work and prepared the report for the Assembly of First Nations.
But the researchers are planning a follow-up report that could prove far more interesting. Building on their finding that reserves near urban centers are more successful than isolated reserves, the researchers will wade into one of the most controversial unanswered questions in aboriginal policy: What should Ottawa do to help natives living in remote communities where there are few economic prospects?
The researchers, who are experts in aboriginal policy, are embarking on the project without pre-conceived answers.
"I honestly don't know how you deal with some of those questions," said Prof. David Roy Newhouse, of Trent University's business administration program, who worked on the report and also chairs Trent's Indigenous Studies program.
"Do you support them to stay where they are or do you help them to move to a new geographic location where they can in fact may a decent living? That's a very difficult issue."
Meanwhile a fascinating and related discussion is taking place in British Columbia. The notion of working with the province to amalgamate more than 200 reserves down to as few as 25 is being openly discussed by B.C.'s native leaders. Such a proposal has been floating for years, including a recommendation along these lines in the 1996 Royal Commission Report on Aboriginal Peoples. The thinking has been that small reserves simply do not have the population numbers to support a permanent public service capable of delivering services like school boards. By working with neighbouring communities, advocates of this approach see greater chances of success for native communities.