National Indigenous leaders to meet premiers amid deteriorating relationship

Indigenous leaders will attend a meeting with Canada’s premiers on Monday, with health care on the agenda — but also a deteriorating relationship.

This is the first time Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed will meet provincial and territorial premiers since the June 2016 Council of the Federation meeting in the Yukon. This summer’s meeting is being held in Halifax.

Since then, all of the provinces and territories have elected new leadership, and Obed said he’s returning to deliver a message.

“I would like to put out an offer, and I’ll be explicit in that we just respect each other and our jurisdictions,” he said.

National Indigenous leaders have been at odds with the premiers over implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and a federal law affirming Indigenous jurisdiction over child and family services.

“I would say in the last year the relationship with provinces and territories has regressed,” Obed said.

The other challenge, he said, is that the council doesn’t seem to respect the national institutions that represent the interests of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities: the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis National Council.

The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and the Native Women’s Association of Canada have been invited to Monday’s meeting. Obed said these organizations should not be at the table discussing jurisdictional and governance issues that impact Inuit.

“We don’t want to be at a table where there’s a purposeful ignorance of the respectful relationship between premiers and leaders of Indigenous Peoples,” he said.

The council’s chair, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, selected health care as the topic of discussion for the two-and-a-half-hour luncheon meeting.

But Obed and other national Indigenous leaders told CBC News they also plan to raise issues around growing tensions in the relationship with premiers and press for full inclusion.

Indigenous leaders ask to be treated as equals

Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron attended the previous two federation meetings. Last year, she called for a reset.

“The ultimate outcome that we would hope for would be to adopt this forum so that in the future, the Métis National Council, AFN and ITK are sitting at the table for the entirety of the meeting,” Caron said.

“We need to be having these conversations as partners on a nation-to-nation, government-to-government basis.”

Caron said she sent followup letters to all 13 premiers but received responses from only British Columbia Premier David Eby, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.

This year, she said she plans to reiterate her message and urge the premiers to include the leaders who represent the three main national Indigenous organizations at their meetings.

The conversations the premiers have are important to Métis communities, Caron said, especially when it comes to health care. Unlike Inuit and First Nations individuals, Métis citizens don’t receive federal health coverage.

Caron said many Métis governments often have to fill the gap and pay for services, such as medical travel for Métis citizens who live in remote communities, but their funding is unstable.

The Supreme Court of Canada’s 2016 ruling in Daniels v. Canada said Ottawa has jurisdiction over all Indigenous people.

But complications between the federal and provincial governments over Métis health care remain despite three memorandums of understanding that her organization signed with Ottawa —  and have since expired — to advance discussions on the issue.

Manitoba’s premier seen as possible ally

Caron said she hopes to get a consensus from the premiers to push for Métis-specific health benefits at the federal level and change the way the premiers work with national Indigenous leaders.

“The ultimate outcome that we would hope for would be to adopt this forum,” she said. “Representing institutions is critical in moving this country forward.”

On health care, Obed said he plans to speak to the premiers about jurisdiction, since more Inuit live in urban centres than ever before, particularly in Ontario and Alberta.

Both Obed and Caron said they also hope to find an ally in Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, the first provincial First Nations premier in Canada.

“I’m hoping that he, along with other Indigenous premiers, will be able to champion our cause,” Obed said.

He acknowledged that the Council of the Federation meetings are primarily for the premiers but said national Indigenous leaders need to work with provincial and territorial leaders.

“I want to make this country a more respectful place,” Obed said.

“I know that the premiers are smart enough to understand this. It’s whether or not they’re willing to accept and to be true partners with leaders of Indigenous Peoples rather than play us off one another, invite whoever they feel like.”

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