Fontaine wants straight answer

Will they or won't they? That's the question the Assembly of First Nations' national chief has posed to Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper.

Phil Fontaine was responding to reports from two senior members of the Conservative Party that had them giving conflicting statements about the agreement reached in Kelowna at the First Ministers Meeting with Aboriginal leadership in November of last year.

Fontaine has asked Harper to weigh in on the debate within his own party and set the record straight as to whether the Conservatives will support the Kelowna agreement or not.

In a radio interview on Jan. 9, Conservative MP Monte Solberg rejected supporting the agreement.
"[The] Kelowna agreement is something that they crafted at the last moment on the back of a napkin on the eve of an election," he said. "We're not going to honor that. We will have our own plan that will help Natives a lot more than the Liberals," he said.

The next day on Aboriginal television, Conservative MP Jim Prentice, the Indian Affairs critic in the last government, contradicted Solberg saying "I am the party spokesman on the Kelowna accord and let's be perfectly clear for the viewers of your network. We are supportive of Kelowna. We are supportive of the targets and objectives that were set at Kelowna."

Fontaine said the contradictions presented a serious concern to First Nations people.

"It appears that the Conservative Party cannot agree on who is calling the shots... There is no indication of a strategic approach to the First Nations agenda. First Nations put forward a comprehensive plan at the First Ministers Meeting, which is now in place."

The national chief was particularly incensed that the agreement should be described as something crafted on the back of a napkin.

"That statement is an insult to all First Nations who worked diligently for more than a year-and-a-half to craft a comprehensive plan for a new agenda and a new approach," he said.
Fontaine said the First Ministers Meeting comprised of leaders from all political stripes that agreed that the multi-billion investment promised by the Liberal government in the areas of Aboriginal education, housing, health care and economic development was a plan that would close the "quality of life gap" between First Nations and Canadians in a 10-year period.

"We must begin now and we must not renege on this historic agreement. If the Conservative Party has a plan of their own, then clearly it was not developed with any input from First Nations and we are concerned that there will be yet another attempt to impose solutions on us. This colonial approach has failed repeatedly with disastrous impacts on our communities."

Fontaine said he viewed the agreement from Kelowna as one made with the government of Canada and not any one party. He said he would be prepared to work with the next federal government to review the plan and develop commitments that met or exceed the $5.1 billion the Liberal government set out for the next five years.

In election news, the AFN released responses to seven questions posed to the federal parties on subjects of interested to First Nations people. (See page 2 for a brief overview. Full text responses can be found on the AFN Web site at www.afn.ca.)

In a question about whether the parties would honor the residential school compensation package announced before the election call, the AFN asked if the parties would make a full apology to survivors. The Liberal and Conservative parties skirted the question and remained silent on the subject, as was the First Peoples National Party of Canada.

The NDP was forthright in its response saying, "The NDP is committed to recognize Canada's responsibilities for residential schools abuse by quickly implementing lump-sum compensation, a truth and reconciliation process and an apology by the prime minister in the House of Commons."
The Green Party was less direct, saying only "We believe that only by acknowledging our past injustices will we be able to move forward."