Stop off-loading

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Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart has agreed to convene a meeting which will see federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for Aboriginal affairs sit down with the leaders of the five national Aboriginal organizations. The meeting will deal with ways to rework how governments deal with First Nations.

That commitment came in response to a communiqué issued jointly by provincial premiers, territorial leaders and the leaders of the Assembly of First Nations, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Metis National Council, the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada. All of those parties participated in a closed door meeting in Winnipeg on Nov. 18.

The five Aboriginal organizations joined forces to develop a "framework for discussion on relationships" which was presented to the First Ministers in Winnipeg.

What resulted was a statement issued by the premiers and territorial leaders which called on the federal government to stop off-loading its expenses for Aboriginal programs to the provinces and territories.

The communiqué called on Prime Minister Jean Chretien to call a First Ministers Conference (to which the Aboriginal leaders would be invited) to discuss the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The parties also called on the federal government to recognize its "treaty, Constitutional and fiduciary obligations towards Aboriginal people, to acknowledge its responsibility to provide programs and services for all Aboriginal people and to end its policies of off-loading these responsibilities to other orders of government."

Indian Affairs staff in Vancouver said that Minister Stewart has asked two of her Cabinet colleagues to set up the meeting of the Aboriginal leaders and all the provincial and territorial ministers responsible for Aboriginal Affairs. Ralph Goodale, the Minister of Natural Resources who is also the Federal Interlocutor for Metis and Non-status Indians, and Human Resources Development Minister Pierre Pettigrew who is also responsible for social renewal, will attempt to set up the meeting for sometime early in the new year.