The new minister for Indigenous Services Canada laid out the priorities for her department during a media briefing in Ottawa today.
She says the end goal is to eliminate her department and turn the services over to First Nations and Metis communities. Jane Philpott says there will always be a fiscal relationship, but she wants to move away from managing, dictating and administering programs that can, and should be run by First Nations people. She says it is already happening in healthcare in B.C. and in education in Manitoba.
Her priorities include health, education, child and family services, infrastructure and ending all drinking water advisories by the year 2020. It is estimated that promise alone will cost about $3.2 billion, but Philpott says money will not be an issue.
“We will make sure the resources are there, that funding will not be an issue to achieve that target,” she said.
The Indigenous Services minister says First Nations should be treated like other jurisdictions, like the provinces, when it comes to federal involvement and federal money. Philpott says that means turning over control, but maintaining financial accountability.
“A new fiscal relationship is absolutely essential if self-determination is going to be a reality. So I want be very clear on this though, we are not talking about no reporting, we are talking about better reporting, it’s a matter of what is reported and to whom it is reported,” she stated.
The Department of Indigenous Affairs was split into two departments last fall. Indigenous Services, which includes things like healthcare, education and child welfare. Philpott, who was health minister, was transferred to that role.
The other department is Indigenous Crown Relations, dealing with things like treaty rights, and the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. That department is headed by Carolyn Bennett, the former Indigenous Affairs minister.
She was at the Whitecap Dakota First Nation yesterday to sign a framework agreement to establish a treaty arrangement with the First Nation.
(PHOTO: Minister of Indigenous Services, Jane Philpott. Photo courtesy of CPAC stream.)