New minister is committed to Kelowna

As the new Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) government stumbled out of the starting blocks with a couple of controversial cabinet appointments, lifting the mood of Liberals everywhere, new Prime Minister Stephen Harper went about the task of putting his people into the nicer offices on and around Parliament Hill.

The new cabinet was sworn in on Feb. 6 at Rideau Hall, the governor general's residence. This time, there was no Aboriginal Elder present to smudge the new prime minister as there was when former prime minister Paul Martin was sworn. Around town, that point was not missed.

Calgary lawyer Jim Prentice was named the new Indian Affairs minister and Métis Interlocutor. Rod Bruinooge (Winnipeg South) was named Prentice's parliamentary secretary.

Prentice's appointment is one that probably will not cause too many headaches for Harper, unlike many of the others he's made in his first month in office. The Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre-North has plenty of experience in Aboriginal matters.

In fact, he has an advantage no other Indian Affairs minister has ever had. He was the Opposition critic for the department during the last days of the Martin government. He was asked if that would shorten the time it normally takes for a new minister to get up to speed.

"I think so," he said. "I was the critic for 18 months and I was pretty diligent about those responsibilities at the time. I was a new Parliamentarian and especially diligent about getting on top of things," he told Windspeaker on Feb. 20. "Much of what the department does, I'm not completely new to. I spent a significant part of my life, firstly, around [land] claims and, secondly, around the Indian Specific Claims Commission where I was a commissioner for pretty close to 10 years. And while I was a lawyer in Alberta I was the counsel to the Métis Settlement Appeal Tribunal. It's pretty specialized self-government legislation. A lot of the issues there went to the court of appeal. I was the lawyer there who would argue the cases. So I've been around a fair bit and, I'm estimating, but I'd say I've probably been to a third of the reserves across Canada."

The prime minister appointed 26 cabinet ministers in total and just six cabinet committees. Prentice is a member of four of those committees. He is a member of the most influential planning and priorities committee (PPC) and chairs another very important one. Parliament watchers say that it's unusual for a 26-member cabinet to even need a PPC and it may be a sign that Harper's most trusted ministers form an inner circle. Prentice was cagey when asked if this was the case, but he didn't say "no."

"Well, it sounds like you've been around a bit," he said with lawyerly caution. "I'm on the priorities committee, which obviously is a fairly important committee of cabinet. I also chair the operations committee and that's a very important committee in terms of the day-to-day operations of the government, of cabinet. I'm also on Treasury Board and the social affairs committee. I don't know what previous ministers of Indians Affairs did in terms of cabinet committees, but I know I'm going to be very busy."

It's rare for an Indian Affairs minister, traditionally considered a fairly junior level cabinet position, to be on so many influential committees. The new minister believes it will be helpful to be in the middle of things.

"I think it's a good thing to have a minister of Indian and Northern Affairs who's quite plugged in to what's going on," he said.

The most pressing issues that the new minister will have to face will be leftovers from the Liberal era. Two huge initiatives have been left in limbo since the Martin government fell.

The new minister said he plans on following through on both of them.

"I am not responsible for the residential school settlement. It is not part of my mandate letter as the minister. That's [Minister] Bev Oda at Heritage," Prentice said. "I can tell you in a general way that we were clear in the context of the election that we're supportive of the residential school settlement agreement. I'm positive about that. I will be involved, even if it's in a consultative way, because I was involved all along and I want to make sure that my colleagues have the benefit of my thinking on it."

As for the first ministers meeting in Kelowna in November last year, despite comments by his cabinet colleague Monte Solberg during the election campaign, Jim Prentice said the process will continue.

"I've been very clear about Kelowna. We support the targets and objectives. I think Kelowna was very important. The more I learn about some of the things behind the scenes the more I think it was an important meeting. It wasn't, though, just a single meeting following which the government was to write a cheque," he said. "It was the beginning of a new way of doing business in a number of areas of social policy. It was the beginning of a new future in terms of First Nations working together with the provinces and the federal government to deliver programs, to measure success and to be accountable. I'm committed to that. I support those objectives. The challenge now is to build a financial plan around it and we're working on that. The other challenge is to build the capacity that's needed before we spend the money. If you take education as an illustration, Kelowna meant that we were going to do some things differently in collaboration with the provinces and First Nations. We've got to make sure that the institutional arrangements are in place before we start spending the money. That's kind of the next priority, if you will."

While Harper did not go out of his way to make a gesture of inclusion to Aboriginal people at Rideau Hall, Prentice said he will continue to work at a high level with the leaders of all five national Aboriginal organizations.

"I have spoken with the Aboriginal leaders. Certainly I've spoken with Phil Fontaine. I've had telephone discussions with Jose [Kusugak, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.] I've spoken with [Congress of Aboriginal Peoples], with Beverley Jacobs from the Native Women's Association," he said. "What I asked them to do was to get their officials organized and we have major meetings scheduled with those groups and they are set to start this week. The first meeting is set for [Feb. 22]. We'll have an initial meeting of the five organizations and we'll go from there."
The Conservatives were criticized during the campaign for not having a Metis policy. That was especially worrying since long-time Harper advisor Tom Flanagan has written a number of books, reports to courts and academic papers questioning whether Metis people should even have Aboriginal rights. Prentice made it clear he does not share that view.

"It's something that will get some attention. Our party's policy spoke in general terms about Aboriginal Canadians and as we all know in Canada that clearly refers to Metis people as well," he said. "Rod Bruinooge is the parliamentary secretary working with me. He's a Metis Canadian from Winnipeg, an extremely, extremely able young man. Very capable and very well respected in his community. I think he is an enormous asset in terms of dealing with some of the Metis issues."

With the change in government and the evidence of widespread Liberal corruption that emerged during the Gomery Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal, many people are wondering if the Conservatives plan to go looking for-and exposing-more Liberal skeletons in the closets around Ottawa. Asked that question directly, Prentice spoke about his respect for the civil servants now working under him.

"From time to time over the years, I think they've been criticized for the fact that there's been ambiguity at the political level. By that, I mean the government of Canada and previous ministers and cabinets. The people who work in the department are professional civil servants. They are very passionate about what they do. They're trying to do good work and I think they do good work," he said. "In some cases, I think they're trapped in a circumstance where there's a lot of confusion about what their roles and responsibilities are. I would like to be able to bring some clarity to that.

"For example on education the Auditor General has been critical of the department and said there's a lack of clarity about whether the department is a funding agent or acting as a school board, setting rules and regulations and so on. We have to clarify some of those issues when it comes to the provision of programs and services to Aboriginal Canadians so that First Nations have increased control of their own affairs and the department's roles and responsibilities, and frankly, those of the minister, are somewhat clearer. I think that will make the whole system work better for Aboriginal Canadians."

Eventually he got around to the question of transparency and accountability.

"Accountability and issues such as that, we'll continue to work together with all of the Aboriginal organizations to make sure that there is more accountability and that the department is a good role model. That is important," he said.