Premier wants action from Ottawa on throne speech

IQALUIT — Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik wants some answers from Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to questions about when and how Ottawa will carry out its lofty throne speech promise to spend more money on aboriginal programs.

To that end, he was to have sent a letter to Chrétien this week complaining that Ottawa has yet to reveal how it plans to meet that commitment.

“We’re trying to impress on the federal government that there are aboriginal people here. They happen to be Inuit, not Indians, but they are in the same state as Indians in southern Canada,” Okalik said.

Help for basic needs

In Governor General Adrienne Clarkson’s speech from the throne, delivered Jan. 30, the Liberal government promised that it will ensure that the basic needs of aboriginal people for jobs, health care, education, housing and infrastructure are met.

“This commitment will be reflected in all the government’s priorities,” Clarkson said.

The federal government promised more support for aboriginal head start programs for aboriginal pre-schoolers and for strategies to combat fetal alcohol syndrome. The Liberals also promised more money for health care and prevention, including health concerns such as diabetes and tuberculosis.

The Liberal government bragged that it would bring the “benefits of our prosperity to all communities, whether urban, rural, Northern or remote.”

“Too many continue to live in poverty without the tools they need to build a better future for themselves or their communities. As a country, we must be direct about the magnitude of the challenge and ambition in our commitment to tackle the most pressing problems facing aboriginal people.”
No answers from Bob Nault

But Okalik said he’s disappointed that Indian Affairs Minister Bob Nault has said nothing so far about those ambitious promises.

“Unfortunately, I did not get any indication of when it will happen or how it will happen,” Okalik said. “The minister seemed to have no real plan in place. I’ll be writing the prime minister and asking how they intend to implement the throne speech promises that they made.”

Okalik made these comments after returning from a national conference on aboriginal economic development held May 11 in Winnipeg.

Nault co-chaired the conference, which was attended by Canada’s five national aboriginal organizations, and all federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for aboriginal affairs.

“During this meeting, the minister [Bob Nault] indicated he could not deal with housing, he could not deal with health, he could not deal with matters other than economic development because there were no ministers responsible that were there,” Okalik said.

“I was a bit dismayed. But as I said, I will right to the prime minister and see what is happening. There needs to be no health minister or housing minister when you talk to the prime minister, so there will be no such excuse.”

At the Winnipeg conference, participants endorsed a lengthy report on aboriginal economic development called Strengthening Aboriginal Participation in the Economy.

“Anything that’s positive towards aboriginal people, we’ll support , because it supports the majority of our residents and will trickle down to the rest of the territory,” Okalik said.

Nunavut can’t meet basic needs

Okalik said, however, that the report doesn’t place enough emphasis on Nunavut’s need for basic infrastructure.

“On the economic development side, we can’t even talk about basic things, because we don’t even have the infrastructure, we don’t have the roads that are taken for granted down south that support the economies of southern Canada.”

He also said that economic development in Nunavut can’t happen without more federal spending on housing and health care in the territory.

“The majority of our residents happen to be aboriginal and they need help. We’ve been providing it but we can’t meet the basic needs that are the norm for the rest of Canada,” Okalik said.

“We’re trying to do a number of things, such as building housing for aboriginal people, when the federal government should be doing that.”

Okalik said he didn’t get a chance to hold a one-on-one meeting with Nault at the Winnipeg meeting.