A recent Sigma-Analytics poll, commissioned by the Leader-Post, shows most people in Regina know little about urban reserves. It also showed our citizens want far more consultation before such projects go ahead. Were citizens better informed and consulted, it's likely that Regina's only urban reserve would not exist.

Urban reserves give unfair tax advantages to the bands who run them, a fact only somewhat mitigated by municipal service agreements. Though such agreements recoup any lost tax revenue for municipalities, education and policing are outside of their jurisdiction and require separate agreements.

This is especially important regarding the 11 lots at 1101 Angus, which became an urban reserve under Piapot First Nation on March 14. Because this was Specific Claims Land, and not a Treaty Land Entitlement, Piapot was not required to reach a separate agreement with school boards. All school property taxes on the land are forfeited.

What this means in dollar terms is not yet known. The vacant space is currently valued at $119,000 and levied $3,048 in school taxes each year.

However, office space across the street at 1102 Angus pays $4,010 each year in education taxes, despite being on just a 6,000-square-foot lot. Should Piapot fully develop its 62,219 square foot reserve for a gas bar, grocery store, pharmacy, and grocery store as planned, school boards could forfeit $41,500 in education taxes each year.

The differences don't stop there.

Status Indians earning income on reserves don't have to pay income tax or Canada Pension Plan deductions. A full-time wage earner working all year for $9.25 an hour would pay $2,576 less income tax and $952 less in CPP. After EI deductions, the Status Indian would have $18,907 in his pocket, whereas someone working for the same wage across the street would take home just $15,379. With less pressure to increase wages, and no employer contributions for CPP, Piapot is a happy employer indeed.

Moreover, any Indian-owned business does not have to pay taxes for goods and supplies delivered to their shop on reserve land. This means products can be resold at a cheaper price, especially since Piapot businesses won't be charged GST on their utilities. It also facilitates the bizarre loophole that allows any Status Indian who buys a car on reserve to be exempt from taxes. Car dealers, who once had to drive out of Regina to exchange keys with a buyer, can now do so at 1101 Angus Street. No GST or PST means 10-per- cent off -- and an opportunity to flip a car for profit.

Should the gas bar go ahead, every other business in Regina has effectively lost the aboriginal market. Tobacco and gasoline are heavily taxed products, but again, not for Status Indians who buy their products on reserve. It's not hard to see where Regina's 17,000 aboriginals -- nine per cent of the population -- will be lining up.

In January, Piapot's chief, John Rockthunder, complained his band had to postpone business opportunities until the federal government granted reserve status. That commercial developments could not proceed without this designation is proof enough of how lucrative reserve status can be. Though Rockthunder claims urban reserves provide a step towards self-sustainability, federal funding does not change simply

because an urban reserve is established. There is every reason to believe that Piapot, a band of 2,027 members, will receive another $5.6 million in tax dollars this year, as in those past.

The proposed developments are welcome and indeed encouraged. Less welcome are uneven playing fields on opposite sides of the same street. Those sympathetic to urban reserves because of historic wrongs to aboriginals would do well to remember that two wrongs don't make a right.

As both parties move forward together in the 21st Century, it's in our mutual interest to conduct our affairs under the same rules instead of the sad legacy of the Indian Act.