INDEPTH: ABORIGINAL CANADIANS
First ministers meeting on aboriginal issues
CBC News Online | November 25, 2005
A loose agenda released by the government in the days before the First Ministers Conference on Aboriginal Affairs suggested the Nov. 24-25 meeting between Canada’s first ministers and aboriginal leaders would focus on five critical areas: health, education, economic development, relationships between government and aboriginals, and housing, including incentives for private home ownership on reserves.
Ottawa said the initiatives would represent a 10-year commitment to raising the standard of living of aboriginal Canadians so that it would be equal to all other Canadians.
Native leaders across the country worried that the summit would focus on those five key areas at the expense of the implementation of treaty rights and self-government.
Bill Evans, who represents Manitoba's native leaders, said every chief is battling issues of water quality, poor housing and poverty. But those First Nations that have signed treaties must make sure the rights given by those treaties are not traded for money to solve social problems.
"We have a mandate ... to protect ... the treaties, to ensure that they're there and that we don't give up any of our rights from the treaties," Evans said.
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations - Phil Fontaine - said all First Nations have inherent rights and he vowed to make sure the government doesn't forget it.
"The challenge is not to debate whether the right exists or not but how to get full effect of the right," Fontaine said.
The next step, Fontaine said, is to show Ottawa and the provinces how to work with First Nations as equals, and not as dependents of the state.
But on the eve of the conference, the AFN, the most influential of the five aboriginal groups invited to the summit, faced opposition from its own membership and from other aboriginal groups.
Weeks before the summit, chiefs representing nearly half of Canada’s land mass said they would not allow the AFN to represent them at the meeting.
The chiefs represent Indians descended from those who signed the 11 numbered treaties between 1871 and 1921, covering Northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and portions of the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and British Columbia.
The chiefs argued the summit should have focused only on treaty rights. An official with the Tsuu T’ina First Nation, just outside Calgary, said the treaty chiefs argued that the government signed individual treaties with individual nations and that a "one size fits all approach" by the AFN could undermine those treaty rights.
In other words, rather than focus on the five areas outlined in the agenda, the chiefs wanted to see the AFN focus on implementing specific treaty rights.
The issue of treaty rights is not going away anytime soon. A week before the November first ministers meeting, Fontaine and Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Andy Scott announced a conference on historic treaties for the spring of 2006.
Meanwhile, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, which represents Indians and Métis who do not live on reserves, is also concerned about the AFN’s approach to talks.
“History has taught us that the AFN’s real agenda is to service status Indians on reserve. CAP wants to protect the rights of aboriginal Canadians in general, including off-reserve [Indians], Inuit and Métis,” says Patrick Brazeau, vice-chief of CAP.
Status Indians qualify for registration on an official list maintained by Ottawa, entitling them to rights and payments not available to other Canadians. Those rights are often linked to their individual treaties, and can include tax exemptions and health services. There are rules that determine who qualifies as a status Indian, usually based on evidence of descent from people Ottawa recognizes as members of an Indian band.
Treaty rights that cover status Indians do not apply to Inuit and Métis.
“We want recognition of all our people,” says Brazeau. "It shouldn’t matter whether they are status or non-status, or where they live. They should have access to programs,” says Brazeau. “The vast majority of aboriginals pay taxes. These taxes are being rerouted to people living on reserves and very little is coming back to us."
For their part, the Liberals have said they want to make aboriginal well-being a priority. Two months before the conference, Prime Minister Paul Martin pledged $700 million for aboriginal health.
A month later, the PM invited aboriginal leaders to meet federal and provincial heads at the first ministers meeting in Kelowna, B.C. The invite list included the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council, the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
As the conference opened, Martin laid out a number of goals to improve living conditions in native communities, including:
- Closing the high-school graduation gap completely within 10 years and closing the post-secondary gap by half, for both young men and women.
- Doubling the number of aboriginal health professionals in 10 years from 150 physicians and 1,200 nurses.
- Closing housing gaps on reserves by 40 per cent within five years and by 80 per cent in 10.
- Lowering infant mortality, youth suicide, childhood obesity and diabetes by 20 per cent in five years, and 50 per cent in 10.
"The gaps that persist between aboriginal health and the health of most Canadians are unconscionable," Martin said.
The gap is glaring. Among aboriginal Canadians aged 20 to 24, 43 per cent have less than a high school education. Among non-aboriginal Canadians, the figure is 16 per cent.
The unemployment rate for aboriginals is 19.1 per cent, compared to 7.4 per cent for non-aboriginals.
But there is at least some hope that this may change. November’s summit marks the first time aboriginal leaders have been invited to sit in on the top-level meeting.
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| QUICK FACTS: |
Total population of Canada: 31,414,000
Total people of aboriginal origin: 1,319,890
Origin
North American Indian:
957,650*
Métis:
266,020*
Inuit:
51,390*
More than one aboriginal origin:
44,835
Reserves
People of aboriginal origin living on reserve: 285,625
People of aboriginal origin living off reserve: 1,034,260
People of non-aboriginal origin living on reserve: 36,230
(Source: 2001 Census, Statistics Canada)
*includes people of a single aboriginal origin and those of a mix of one aboriginal origin with non-aboriginal origins
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