Aboriginal department created

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On Oct. 1 the provincial government changed the way it deals with Aboriginal issues with the creation of a stand-alone department of First Nations and Metis Relations.

Prior to Oct.1 Aboriginal issues came under the purview of the department of Government Relations and Aboriginal Affairs. The minister responsible for that department's Aboriginal Affairs division, Maynard Sonntag, will continue on with those responsibilities, but now within a new structure and with a new mandate. Nora Sanders, whose past experience includes six years serving as deputy minister of Justice in the Nunavut territorial government, will be the new department's deputy minister.

Sonntag, who first took over the old Aboriginal Affairs portfolio in November 2003, said he believes the new First Nations and Metis Relations department was created to recognize the important role First Nations and Metis people play in Saskatchewan and, with the Aboriginal population of the province on the rise, the increasing role they will play into the future.

"I think if we're going to be proactive and seek out all the opportunities that this province has we need to do that in every department. And what department should play a bigger role in that area than Aboriginal Affairs," Sonntag said.

"Historically ... it was just a division of Government Relations with a deputy minister that was responsible for sort of our divisions, if you will, within that department. Now we have a stand-alone department with a separate deputy minister, hopefully more resources once the budget's been developed for '05/'06, and a new mandate that we're working on yet. And also a change in name that I think better reflects the department itself."

What Sonntag hopes the new department will be able to do is make all provincial departments aware of the need to consider how different decisions and initiatives will impact on First Nation and Metis people in the province.

"So every time there's an issue related to First Nations or Metis people it will have to be, I won't say vetted through our new department, but it will certainly have to have the question asked, first of all, have First Nations and Metis people been consulted on this issue? How will it impact on their community?"

Two areas the new department will be focusing on will be education and economic development, Sonntag said, although the extent to which these areas can be explored will depend on what kind of money will be allocated to First Nations and Metis Relations come provincial budget time.

The department is taking the lead from Aboriginal leaders and communities in setting these two areas as high priorities, Sonntag explained.

"It will come up in the vast majority of meetings that I am involved with with First Nations or Metis people, the need for the opportunity to educate and train people within the communities that they represent," he said. "So we'll be involved in, I don't know if the right words are brokering deals, but we will certainly be involved in assisting any First Nation or any Metis community that wants to try to put together training programs and so forth."

On the economic development side, Sonntag said the new department will be working closely with First Nation and Metis communities and organizations and a number of other government departments to help develop plans and programs to help create employment opportunities.

"So hopefully we'd become sort of that single window for them where they can access information and access resources fairly quickly."

Sonntag said that ongoing consultations with the province's Aboriginal community will play an important role in the operations of the new department.

"It's about building bridges of respect ... about respect and relationships and I think that's what consultation is. So it's one of our priorities within the new department."

"I hope that this department is flexible enough and responsive enough that if we're not meeting the eeds of First Nations and Metis people that the mandates and some of the programs that we might offer might change fairly quickly to better reflect the needs that there really are in those different communities," Sonntag said. "I hope it's flexible, that it can continue to evolve and grow with the growing population of First Nation and Metis people in our province."