McKnight no Crombie

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Indian people don't know very much about the new Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, at least not yet, but there's one thing you can say about him - he's no David Crombie. The best example of that is the first encounter Bill McKnight had with reporters minutes after being sworn in as minister.

Reporter #1: Mr. McKnight can you tell us if you've ever been north or what you know about Indian and northern affairs?

McKnight: We'll find out as we go along.

Report #1: There are an awful lot of decisions pending, Mr. Crombie's been putting things on hold for a while, what are you going to do with those now?

McKnight: You must know more about the decisions than I do.

Reporter #2: Have you ever been to the North, Mr. McKnight?

McKnight: Yes, I have.

Reporter #2: How often, where?

McKnight: (no response)

Reporter #2: Do you intend to travel as much as Mr. Crombie?

McKnight: That'll just depend on how I see the department.

Reporter #2: How long do you think it'll take to study and know the ministry?

McKnight: You would know that more than I, wouldn't you?

So maybe he didn't go out of his way to charm the media and maybe he won't be a cheerful glad-handing minister. It also may be unfair to describe him as having a prickly personality. After all, when you ask people who know the new minister to describe him, the one word that keeps coming up is "hard-headed."

If his first meeting with the media was less than a roaring success, then his second wasn't much better. He was quoted as saying that his first priority as minister is to unite the Assembly of First Nations.

That's left a lot of people at the assembly shaking their heads. They're wondering if Bill McKnight thinks he's been appointed national chief instead of minister of Indian Affairs.

But Mr. McKnight does have at lease one minor claim to fame when it comes

to his new portfolio. In the past 113 years there have been 36 ministers responsible

for Indian Affairs and Bill McKnight is the first one to be born in and come from Saskatchewan.

(The revolving door in the minister's office has been spinning even faster in recent years - there have been six ministers in the last seven years.)

The one positive sign in his background is that he does have a reputation as a good constituency man for the Indians in his riding. He apparently responded quickly when Indians wanted him to help solve some problems they were having with the federal government.

But all that's going to change now because Bill McKnight is the one who has to make the tough decisions and David Crombie sure has left a lot of them for him to make.

The examples include a new land claims policy, block financing for Indian bands, treaty renovation, self-government, the constitution, division of the Northwest Territories - not to mention dozens of local issues like the Manitoba funding dispute and the controversy over fishing by-laws in British Columbia.

But the question remains, just what kind of job is he going to do? Well, the answer seems to be that the new man in charge is going to be anything but.

As the minister for housing and labour, he was popular but three opposition MPs say that he tended to let the bureaucracy run the show. Civil servants would make the recommendations and set the policy and he'd go along.

That would be a recipe for disaster if he does the same thing at Indian and Northern Affairs. Especially since it's no secret that the real enemy of Indian progress is the department itself. Letting the bureaucracy run the minister would be like letting a child molester run a day care centre.

And then there's Bill McKnight's work plan. The last three ministers - David Crombie, Doug Frith and John Munro - were eager to learn about the Indian situation first-hand. They were anxious to project an image that they were concerned and active. So anxious, in fact, that they were on the way to the airport to begin meeting Indians before the echoes of the swearing-in ceremony had fadd way.

Mr. McKnight apparently intends to do things differently. Except for a tour of some of the reserves in is home province, he plans to spend the summer months on his farm, reading briefing books.

Former minister John Munro said recently that it takes about a year to learn

who's who and what's what in the portfolio. So for the sake of the thousands of Indian people who have been waiting for almost two years for the Conservatives to actually do something, let's just hope Bill McKnight is a fast learner.