Quebec must address Native issues now - minister

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Quebec must address Native issues now before tensions between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals escalate, provincial Native Affairs Minister Christos Sirros told the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

"Relations between Natives and non-Natives are worrisome, both for the Quebec government and for the population as a whole.

"There is an urgent need to act because the residents of a number of Native communities are being held hostage and the social climate has become intolerable.

Moreover, Quebecers are being bombarded increasingly with information and are becoming more and more mistrustful of the Native people."

In his presentation to the commission Dec. 2, Sirros said Natives and Quebecoise are inevitably bound to each other and that the province must recognize the conflicts, such as the 1990 Oka crisis, as they arise.

He also stressed the need to act urgently on pin-pointing realistic solutions.

"We must remain clear-headed and avoid unilateral short-term actions," he said.

The minister also proposed the province develop a series of practical measures aimed at improving living conditions in Native communities, especially in the areas of health, justice and economic development.

A political forum could establish the scope of Native self-government, with emphasis on developing a workable relationship between nations, he said. The custodianship that currently exists under the federal Indian act should be abolished once Natives and the Quebec government come to an agreement.

But there will be limits to any First Nations government, just as there are limits to provincial and municipal powers, Sirros said.