Joint ministerial committee given March 8 deadline

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Sources are saying the Indian Affairs minister has given the Joint Ministerial Advisory Committee (JMAC) an "absolute deadline" of March 8 to finalize its recommendations on what should be in the First Nations governance act.

After that the JMAC report will go to the Justice department for drafting and probably be introduced for first reading in the House of Commons in June.

But at least one Aboriginal member of the committee believes there's something else going on. First Nation political advisor Russ Diabo told Windspeaker he has been in contact with a JMAC member who now believes the whole process is a ruse. He said the ministerial reference committee, a collection of 15 federal ministers who have been asked by the prime minister to examine their departments and how they provide services to Aboriginal people, will provide the real guidelines for the drafters of the governance legislation.

"There's two scenarios. One is June. The other is that this reference group's going to come up with something that's going to come through [the Privy Council Office or PCO] not Indian Affairs," Diabo said. "Privy Council Office, they're the secretariat to cabinet. So all the line ministries like Indian Affairs and all that other machinery of government, it all has to be filtered through them. They're kind of the umbrella group that monitors government-wide policy."

Diabo said the PCO has great power.

"They can just come in and tell the minister, 'This is the package we're going to go with,'" he said. "That's a scenario that Chretien would know because Trudeau did it to him."

Much has been written about the tactics that Diabo's referring to. In 1968 and 1969, when the White Paper on Indian Affairs was the plan and assimilation was the goal, the Native leadership united to stop the process by forcing a meeting with the Prime Minister. Despite then Indian Affairs minister Jean Chretien's enthusiasm for the White Paper plan, Pierre Trudeau called a halt and told the Native leadership he would not force anything on them.

This time around, Prime Minister Chretien is said to be 100 per cent behind his Indian Affairs minister's governance initiative. Indian Affairs staffers are now admitting the prime minister sees the initiative as his legacy issue.

As political observers in Ottawa have watched the various would-be successors to Chretien jockeying for position in recent weeks, they have come to believe the prime minister is running out of time now that Finance Minister Paul Martin has succeeded in placing himself on the inside track. That may mean the pressure to get the First Nations governance package into law has or soon will intensify.

Diabo was one of three Aboriginal people who left the Liberal Party's Aboriginal People's Commission in protest of its Aboriginal policy in the mid-1990s. Lawyer David Nahwegabo and former Native Women's Association of Canada president Marilyn Buffalo were the others. Diabo still follows Liberal Party politics and he believes the prime minister will turn up the heat to get the governance package through.

Nahwegabo has written a legal opinion advising caution, saying any participation in governance consultations could allow a court to conclude that First Nations were consulted.

The other school of thought is that advice provided by members of JMAC endangers nothing and allows First Nations people to claim that advice was offered to the government in good faith. That way, if the government chooses to ignore that advice, First Nations are in a strong legal position to say they weren't consulted.

Both positions have their adherents.

The details of the debate within JMAC were widely distributed late last month. The 115-page document showed that the government was clearly in charge and the Aboriginal members were able to participate in what was clearly a government process.

"Several committee members felt that the subject matters (mandate) document was too prescriptive and represented fedral interest only," one part of the report reads.

Roy Bird, Saskatchewan regional director general and Jim Aldridge, legal counsel for the Nisga'a Nation are the JMAC co-chairs.

Former Assembly of First Nations chief of staff Roger Jones attended meetings as AFN representative until Dec. 6 when the Confederacy passed a resolution to end the AFN's participation.

Bernd Christmas, director of operations of the Membertou First Nation is also a member, representing his Atlantic community.

Pam Paul and Carolann Brewer represent the National Aboriginal Women's Association (NAWA). Wendy Cornet attends on behalf of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.

Indian Affairs (INAC) is represented by assistant deputy minister Gordon Shanks. Justice lawyers Genevieve Theriault and Andrew Beynon are also on board. A number of INAC support staff also attend the meetings.

At the group's first meeting Nov. 20, the minutes suggest that changes in legal status and authority will be coming for First Nations. The three main areas for discussion are leadership selection and voting rights, bylaw making power and accountability.