Income Security for Cree Hunters: Ecological, Social and Economic Effects.

• Main Authors: Scott, Colin H., Feit, Harvey A.
• Other Authors: Anthropology
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: McGill University, Programme in the Anthropology of Development (PAD) 1992
• Subjects: Income Security; Cultural Continuity; Community Cohesion; Economic Livelihood; Environmental Conservation; Hunters; James Bay Cree; Self-governance; Baie James; Canada; Wemindji; Cris; James Bay
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23918

The research was greatly facilitated by the support and generous assistance of the members and staff of the Cree Regional Authority, the Grand Council of the Crees (of Quebec) and of the Cree Hunters and Trappers Income Security Board. In addition, the Councils and many people in each of the Cree communities assisted us, especially those at Wemindji and Waswanipi where our intensive research was conducted. The Income Security Program for Cree Hunters and Trappers (ISP) established following the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) in September 1976, is the first permanently established guaranteed income program in North America, and it has become the starting point for discussions and consideration of other specialized income support programs for Indigenous peoples throughout Canada, and in other countries. The present research examines the impacts of the program during its first two years of operation, it sets these effects within the context of the first dozen years of program operations, and it relates these findings to recent changes and future operation of the program, while keeping in mind the planning for the possible establishment of income support programs elsewhere. The effects of the program are also assessed in the light of the broad issues facing the future of James Bay Cree society, including the: continuity of Cree culture and related economic practices; social integration or fragmentation of communities; individual initiative and the need for expanded opportunities in subsistence production and wage labor; adequacy of levels of transfer payments; local economic and social development; conservation and management of wildlife resource populations; and expansion of Cree self-governance. - - Le Programme de sécurité du revenu des chasseurs et piégeurs cris (PSR) instauré suivant la Convention de la Baie-James et du Nord québécois en septembre 1976 est le premier programme de revenu garanti créé de façon permanente en Amérique du Nord et il est devenu un point de référence pour l'analyse ...