'Interim' overhaul of Indian Act planned

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Robert Nault, the minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, let it be known in mid-January that an idea he has been pondering since his appointment 18 months ago has now been moved onto the front burner.

"This last week I announced that we are now, as a department, in full blown review of the Indian Act with the intention of bringing in a First Nations governance act as quickly as we can and hopefully we would have a working document by as early as this summer with the intention of seeing something formally put in place or put into the House or, at least, a draft put out to communities by this fall," Nault said during a phone interview on Jan. 19. "That will allow us, in the interim to have a piece of legislation, a working relationship, that meets our modern needs as we work our way towards self government."

He said the new act will be an interim piece of legislation that will eliminate some of the most harmful legal problems posed by the Indian Act. His vision is that the First Nations governance act will allow First Nations to function more effectively until self government agreements are reached with all First Nations.

"Self government, of course, is a policy we've had as the government of Canada working with First Nations for a number of years. It's not moving very quickly and because of that we can't wait for self government agreements across the country to replace the Indian Act, which is what self government agreements do. That, in fact, we need to put in place an interim process of a modernized Indian Act as we work our way towards self government so we can have those stable governments seized with the abilities to deliver services but at the same time spend more of their energies on building their economies and less of their energies on internal issues because of the weaknesses or the lack of the abilities of the Indian Act to give them the tools they need."

Nault emphasized that his department has a unique challenge: the department must function as part of the federal government and at the same time show respect for First Nations' right to self government.

"I'm sure that all of you understand that the department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development has a very unique role to play in the relationship with First Nations people as the lead on our fiduciary obligation. These things don't move as quickly as they might in other departments," he said.

Because any heavy handed decrees from Ottawa would be seen as disrespectful and would provoke opposition and political stalemate, Nault will lead a consultation process designed to get input from all First Nations people in the coming months.

"If I was in charge of planes, trains and trucks I could probably move agendas relatively fast. But in order to be respectful of our relationship and the treaties that exist today and the ones that we're trying to arrive at in places like British Columbia, a consultation is extremely important with the leadership and the communities at large," he said. "One of the things I have asked the leadership over and over in the last year-and-a-half is, we are now in the information age. The way we consult with First Nations is probably the same way we did it 50 years ago and it's high time we come up with some solutions using the internet, using telecommunications, using video conferencing, using TV itself and the printed media to elaborate, to work with each other, to come up with our understanding of what a First Nations governance act and a modernization of the Indian Act would look like."

But the minister has clearly not forgotten that he and his Cabinet colleagues have the ultimate power in any legislative process.

"I can be very blunt about this. It's not my intention to have a three-, four-year consultation process costing tens of millions of dollars," he said. "I know, in the world we live in today, we can get right into every First Nation household relatively quickly if we put the right communcations scture in place. It's no doubt on your minds and mine that every attempt we have had to make change to the Indian Act or any other policy perspective to improve people's lives and improve our relationship has not gone very well because of the consultation process that we've undertaken. So I'm very eager to see that improve in order that individual First Nation people in their homes will know as much about this process as the leadership themselves."

He said he has already spent a lot of time conducting an informal consultation process.

"In order for you to get a sense that this doesn't come out of the blue somewhere, I wanted to take you back to practically the first day that I was appointed the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Last year, I spent a large part of my time visiting communities. We visited over 100 First Nations last year. In those visits, one of the main reasons why I spent so much time visiting communities was I wanted to get a first hand view from the leadership and the community members as to whether they thought, as I did, that we needed to change our relationship by, first of all, starting off with certain understandings that what we had in place today, as much as it has defined us and our relationship, won't get us to where we want to go in the future," he said. "Over that time I continually talked about modernizing the Indian Act and building a First Nation economy. Over the last year-and-a-half I've spend quite a bit of time internally with the officials looking at different parts and areas of the department of Indian Affairs, our relationship with the communities, our contribution agreements, our financial accountability structure, where we are today versus where we think we need to go. So obviously you've now been made aware that I'm starting to move with what I have coined, on a number of occasions, a two-track approach."

The first track of Nault's plan is economy building.

"This department started to r-strucueitself to be extremely involved in First Nations economy building. We are now fleshing out and have moved with a regional partnership strategy, working closely with First Nations, First Nations business, the private sector in general and, of course, the provincial governments, to talk less about jurisdiction and more about practical ways of building a First Nation economy," he explained. "Which includes, of course, our need to recognize that you can't build an economy if you just focus strictly on reserve. You have to think a lot broader. And that is why this department and this minister has started to fund projects off reserve in partnership with the provincial governments and the First Nations because that economic infrastructure is so important to put people on an equal footing in order for them to compete."

The second track involves adding legislative supports that will create more stable governments on First Nations.

"In order to be successful you need a stable government. Stable governments, in a modern context, obviously have accountability structures, have abilities to raise revenue through taxing of their constituents, have abilities to put businesses in the communities that are agreeable to Native and non-Native business people," he said. "Those structures have to be in place in order for us to build a legitimate relationship with not only the private sector and province but obviously the Crown, the federal government."