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CALGARY - The Native Economic Development Program (NEDP) has a "mental block" when it comes to Metis people, charged the president of the Metis Association of Alberta (MAA) during the final day of the Metis National Council (MNC) convention held in Calgary last week.

Several other delegates joined the discussions, adding their gripes about the federally funded program which was set up in 1983 to help fund economic ventures for all Native people.

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CALGARY - The Calgary Olympics Committee (OCO '88) has been dragged into center stage by Treaty 7 chiefs who this week demanded that OCO officials pressure Ottawa to reopen the Lubicon Lake band land claim.

In an interview after a day-long meeting in Calgary Monday, Indian Association of Alberta Treaty 7 Vice-President, Narcisse Blood, announced that the chief's want to see some positive steps taken on the Lubicon Lake land claim which has been in negotiation for 42 years.

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CALGARY - The Calgary Chamber of Commerce Native Awareness Days was one of the most successful, says George Calliou, a Cree member of the chamber and member of its Native Advisory Board.

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce holds the week-long event every year to promote and support Native people in the business world.

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Time is running out to hold the next First Ministers Conference on Aboriginal Rights - the deadline is now less than seven months away - but you wouldn't know it

from watching the federal government. Federal diddling is responsible for the latest snag in the preparations for what could be the last chance to enshrine the Native rights to self-government in the Constitution of Canada.

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LETHBRIDGE - Professor Phil Lane, co-ordinator of the Four World Development Project, at the University of Lethbridge has been invited as a special guest to Assissi, Italy by the World Wildlife Fund International to participate in a special conference to launch a world-wide conservation campaign.

For the first time, the global conservation network met with representatives from the world's major religions as well as representatives from other faith communities.

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The 1986-87 Priority Employment Program (PEP) will provide $12 million in job creation funds.

"During the winter months, the seasonal increase in unemployment requires priority considerations. Therefore, the Government of Alberta will again meet this demand through the operation of PEP. This year, I fully expect some 4,000 unemployed Albertans to find jobs," Alberta Manpower Minister Rick Orman said in announcing the program.

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CALGARY - Negotiations are underway between the federal government and the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA) to amend the Access to Information Act, thereby preventing any media probes into band financial records. In an interview after speaking to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce last week, IAA present Gregg Smith told reporters that the association is unhappy with the Access to Information Act and the way the media has been covering issues on the reserves.

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CALGARY - The Metis Association of Alberta (MAA) will be holding its annual general assembly in November, but President Sam Sinclair isn't saying if he'll call for a new mandate after recent financial difficulties.

The financial difficulties arose after the MAA spent an estimated $73,000 of its core funds on its MAA Housing Department which administers Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) repair, rural and Native housing programs.

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CALGARY - A review of the Metis National Council (MNC) structure and the five presidents is desperately overdue if Metis people aren't to stay in limbo for another hundred years, said a delegates at the annual MNC assembly held in Calgary last week.

Frank Tomkins, a delegate from Saskatchewan, blasted the unfair structure and

the five presidents saying the only president who is concerned over the welfare of the Metis people is Manitoba's Yvon Dumont.

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CALGARY - After more than four months with no one to steer the ship, the Calgary branch of the Department of Indian Affairs has at last announced a successor to Gordon Williams.

He is Ojibway Indian Bill Dixon who took up his new post as Calgary district manager September 2.

Dixon, from Ontario, has been with the department for four years and has worked with Alberta Regional Director General Dennis Wallace back east.