Silver says Premiers Want More Meetings with National Indigenous Groups, not Less

Wednesday, 19 July 2017 15:55

Premiers like having separate meetings with Indigenous leaders, but may include other organizations in the future.

EDMONTON- Out-going Chair of the Council of the Federation, Yukon Premier Sandy Silver says he was surprised by the reaction from some National Indigenous Organizations about a letter he wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau April 5^th, outlining future meetings with Ottawa and Indigenous Groups.

Three of the five Indigenous groups, that being the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Metis National Council skipped the meeting, apparently upset by the letter. Silver says they got the wrong end of the stick as the Premiers want more meetings with Indigenous leaders, but possibly with different groups.

“We look at as, we need to have our opportunities to meet. And we are asking for more meetings, not less meetings, with more organizations, not less organizations.” “We are moving forward on reconciliation, and we just don’t want to meet with two, but five National Indigenous Organisations. We have almost half of the Self-Governing First Nations in Canada, and we want to see representation of the Self Governing First Nation at these National Indigenous Organization levels.”

But Natan Obed, head of Canada’s Inuit sees it differently. “We won’t accept to be add-ons to the process,” “We feel we were participating at the discretion and under the rules of the public government leaders.” “Making decisions together is not something that some premiers are willing to do.”

Obed feels he may not participate in future meetings under these conditions. He claims the Premiers want to control the agenda, decide on attendance and not to share documents.

Silver sees the situation as more of a stalemate, which needs to get ironed out. “There’s an impasse here. We need to figure it out. More dialogue not less.”

Silver alludes to the fall meetings with First Nations groups as another opportunity to meet and discuss important topics. Silver says the current structure of meeting the Indigenous leaders the day before is working well, shooting down AFN’s request to have a seat at the table. He says the Premiers need to meet by themselves, but that these meetings are ultimately about reconciliation. “This is about reconciliation. Is it perfect? No! Is it moving forward every time? Absolutely!”

Silver says he has not reached out to the affect organizations, but pledges to do so in the future.

(Dan Jones July 19, 2017)

(With files from the Canadian Press)