Conference of firsts

Posted by admin on Dec 9, 2005 in Volume 14 Issue 1 | 0 comments

First Ministers’ Conferences are a tradition in Canadian politics, one that has been around since Confederation. The Canadian Prime Minister and all the provincial and territorial Premiers get together and discuss the issues facing the Canadian federation. This year’s conference took place in Kelowna, B.C. from November 24-25, 2005. Normally, these meetings talk about the issue of health care since it is increasingly too expensive for the provinces to continue to provide solely on their own.

However, this year’s conference was almost completely centred around Aboriginal issues. Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine was there, along with five other prominent Aboriginal chieftains. It is no secret that the quality of life on First Nations’ reserves is significantly poorer than the rest of Canada. Furthermore, the high school dropout rate for Natives is higher than the rest of country. Consequently, the Martin government decided to pledge $5.1 billion dollars over ten years to combat poverty on reserves, build up the education system, and generally improve the quality of First Nations people’s lives.

There is also funding in this agreement to improve housing and water quality, combat teen suicide, and increase the number of health professionals on the reserves. One major goal is to close the gap in education, so that by 2016 the high school graduation rate of First Nations equals that of the rest of the country. The plan is very ambitious and it remains to be seen whether the deal will come through since Parliament has just recently dissolved for a new election in early 2006. Either way, this attention to First Nations is long overdue.