Ontario NDP leader wary of new approach

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Howard Hampton, leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party since 1996, represents the northern riding of Rainy River, a riding that includes more than 50 First Nations.

Hampton is raising serious concerns about the new tri-lateral approach trotted out by federal Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Andy Scott on June 1, the day after the federal cabinet's policy retreat with Aboriginal leaders.

Hampton pointed out that all the federal announcements following the policy retreat contained no budgets and no concrete action plan.

"The concern I would raise is that I see the framework for a lot of media spin and for a lot of meetings and a lot of discussion," he told Windspeaker. "I do not see an action plan and I do not see a budget to implement any kind of action plan. It seems to me, after all the discussion we've had, that's what we need to see now."

He said the Ontario government has recently cut the operating budget of the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat (ONAS) by 23 per cent. That cut means the end for a number of programs that have been useful for First Nation communities in the province. At the same time, the Liberal government led by Premier Dalton McGuinty has recently launched "Ontario's New Approach to Aboriginal Affairs." Hampton said the approaches by the provincial Liberals and the federal Liberals are similar in many respects.

"The new approach [in Ontario] is mostly all about discussion. It's not about action," he said. "I think what you see at the federal level with the Martin government, and now what you see at the provincial level with the McGuinty government, it's all about media spin, a public relations exercise. There is not an agenda for action. There is no timetable. There are no specific goals or objectives that have been set out with a timetable to accompany them, with a budget to go along with them. So I don't think much is going to change for Aboriginal people other than more endless dialogue and more repetitive press releases."

The federal trilateral approach is, as the traditional leaders warn, all about the federal government getting out from under its obligations, the NDP leader said.

"It is more downloading, but now it is clear and it's blatant. All you have to do is go to any First Nation in Ontario and look at the health services and look at the educational program. You can see that the federal government is under-funding things like health care on reserve and education for Aboriginal communities and Aboriginal students, notwithstanding that these are treaty rights," he said. "The under-funding is very serious. So the federal government, having done a bad job, is looking for ways and means to download its treaty responsibilities onto the provinces. I think that's what the trilateral exercise is all about."

And, as the traditional leaders have warned, once the province gets control of a program there's no guarantee that it won't be cut, he added. The Rainy River First Nation, located within Hampton's riding, signed a land claim agreement with the province earlier this year. But when the ONAS budget was cut, many of the gains made through that agreement evaporated.

"That's exactly how the chief of that First Nation sees it," Hampton said. "A land claim that's been there for 95 years is finally settled and in the next breath the minister responsible for Native Affairs says, 'That's it. Now we'll cut the Aboriginal economic partnership strategy and make a major cutback to the Aboriginal economic development strategy.' Almost in the same breath."