Health care an issue with AFN chiefs

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More than 175 Assembly of First Nations chiefs who met near Calgary Sept. 21 and 22 voted to administer a dose of political pressure to ailing relations between the assembly and Health and Welfare Canada.

"We know that the government has not been listening to Native leaders for a long time," Said National Chief Ovide Mercredi at the national emergency chiefs' meeting on First Nations' health. "(The government) has clearly demonstrated a lack of respect."

Four resolutions passed by delegates at the two-day conference, hosted by the Tsuu T'ina First Nation, focused on assembly-federal government relations. The first resolution the chiefs passed called for the resignation of Canada's Minister of Health, Diane Marleau.

"She has not posed the issue of health based on needs," one chief told delegates. "Instead, the Finance Ministry of Canada has overridden her. (Native health care) is budget-driven to deal with the deficit of Canada."

"We gave them a couple of years to produce and they have not produced," added Chief Jim Bear of Manitoba. The chiefs are frustrated with the Health minister for planning to limit the 1995 Native health-care budget of $520 million to six per cent growth in 1996 and three per cent increases for each of the following two years. The proposed increases will not ensure the existing level of health care, given a First Nations birthrate is double the general Canadian rate.

According to the assembly, the capped budgets also violate the commitment the federal Liberal government made in its pre-election "Red Book" to secure a standard of living and quality of life for Native people which is equal to other Canadians.

Chief Roy Whitney of the host Tsuu T'ina Nation urged delegates to base their health-care case primarily on treaty rights.

"We have to keep the treaty in mind," he said. "The Red Book is not going to save us." Later on, delegates passed a resolution authorizing Mercredi to demand an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

The chiefs also passed a resolution calling for greater Aboriginal involvement in determining Native health-care policy and practices. In this resolution, which called for the establishment of a First Nations-federal government bilateral process on health, the chiefs-in-assembly would recognize health as a treaty and Aboriginal right, and as a basic human right. Existing First Nations health policy or legislation would also remain unchanged for three years.

"This resolution talks about the need to develop a position or strategy," said Mercredi. "There is nothing here that will override what a community is (already) involved in." His comments followed a concern expressed by Chief Ronald Morin of the Enoch Cree First Nation about how the proposed bilateral process would affect existing negotiations between Treaty 6 Nations and the federal government.

The chiefs passed another resolution rejecting any attempt by the federal government to shift or off-load health-care costs onto First Nations. The resolution stated that any such off-loading would violate the federal government's trustee of "fiduciary" duty to the First Nations.

Resolutions passed at the Calgary conference will form part of the assembly strategy to be presented at the National First Nations Health Forum in North Vancouver, B.C., on Nov. 1 through 3.

Registrations at the Calgary conference, jointly sponsored by the assembly and the Alberta Indian Health Care Commission, totaled 575, including 179 chiefs or their proxies. Conference special guest speakers included Mercredi, Manitoba Member of Parliament Elijah Harper and renowned architect Harold Cardinal.