Aboriginal leaders get seat "near the table"

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Three national Aboriginal leaders were invited to the provincial premiers' preparatory session on health issues on July 28. Two others were not.

Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) President Jose Kusugak and the Metis National Council (MNC) President Clement Chartier were invited. Native Women's Association of Canada President Terry Brown and Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) national chief Dwight Dorey were not. Dorey attended anyway.

Each of the Aboriginal leaders in attendance was asked for input and then briefed by the premiers on what they plan to propose to Prime Minister Paul Martin when the first ministers meet in Ottawa from Sept. 13 to 15. The hope is that the leaders will be able to bash out a new federal/provincial arrangement for health funding.

Dorey was asked if he got an answer about why he was not invited.

"It's the same old games. AFN stuff," he said, adding that he was told that the chiefs' organization is telling the premiers that it represents the people CAP purports to represent-off reserve and non-status Indians.

"I got wind that [the other Aboriginal organizations] were at the premiers' meeting so I informed them I was coming and expected to get equal treatment," he said.

"I was taken aback when I learned through the media that AFN, ITK and MNC had gone on their own, excluding myself and NWAC," he said. "Now I'm hearing that, in relation to the upcoming meeting of the first ministers on health, that AFN in particular is trying to scuttle the participation of CAP again."

As of Windspeaker's publication deadline on Sept. 1, AFN officials had not received a formal invitation to participate in the first ministers' health meeting, despite a promise from the prime minister that first peoples would have a full seat at the table on issues of concern to them.

If the Aboriginal organizations are not invited to the meeting, Martin will have some explaining to do.

"From our vantage point, we will ensure a full seat at the table-as we have ensured today-to all Aboriginal communities and leaders," Martin said in his opening speech at the Aboriginal roundtable on April 19. "No longer will we in Ottawa develop policies first and discuss them with you later. This principle of collaboration will be the cornerstone of our new partnership."

In Niagara-on-the-Lake, it was the first time the leaders of the three constitutionally recognized Aboriginal groups were included in formal talks with the premiers.

In the past, Aboriginal leaders-most notably former national chief Ovide Mercredi in the early 1990s-have protested their exclusion from such meetings outside the doors that were closed to them. AFN political staffers are claiming that Phil Fontaine has broken new ground in convincing the premiers that he and the other Aboriginal leaders should be at the table. Fontaine and his executive members have met with and lobbied just about every provincial premier over the last several months. Two premiers, P.E.I.'s Pat Binns and N.W.T.'s Joe Handley,attended the AFN's annual general meeting in Charlottetown in mid-July.

"This is a major, major victory for Phil Fontaine," said one AFN official. But Dwight Dorey said the plan is to have Aboriginal leaders meet with first ministers the day before the health meeting, thereby excluding them again from the main stage.

"It can only be seen as "a seat near the table," one technician admitted.

Still, there may be political announcements coming in a month or two about major changes to Canada's health system. A meeting at the official level has been scheduled for January 2005 in Yellowknife that could lead to changes for First Nation and Inuit health care provision. Northwest Territories Vice-chief Bill Erasmus reported to the chiefs in Charlottetown on July 20 that he and other AFN officials will sit down with representatives of Health Canada's First Nation and Inuit Health Brnch to, essentially, take a look at reconstructing the entire process from scratch.

"The federal government has agreed to sit down and do a financial analysis of the First Nation and Inuit Health Branch. I'm convinced the money can be spent in a better way. The system is flawed but we're not the ones who designed it," he told the chiefs.

Erasmus said the AFN sits on 38 health-related committees.

"It's not the most productive way to deal with the funding," he added. "And there's huge money involved in pharmaceuticals and transportation and other areas, but I'm not convinced that money is spent in the best way."

It may well be that an increase in spending is not required if the system is made more efficient, he said.

"I'm not convinced we need more money," he said. "I think we have to analyze how services are being provided, then we can identify any possible shortfalls."

He said the envelope system used by Health Canada-where each region gets a set amount of money each year to provide health care-is not working.

"It's not based on need. It doesn't work. It just doesn't make sense. It's almost like it was designed to fail," he said.

Saying health care is the AFN executive's first priority, Erasmus added that he sees it as very important that the extent of treaty and Aboriginal rights as they pertain to health care be defined in detail.

First Nations and the federal government disagree on the government's obligation to provide health care to First Nation people. Erasmus said coming to a final agreement on that item would allow progress in other areas.