“The Chiefs have clearly indicated that they do not support the Minister’s initiative. They have also stated, and the department’s statistics support this, that there is virtually no support for the process within the communities as the participation rates are hovering at 3% and some communities have had as little as 1 person attend the consultations. The Minister has a chance to make this process a meaningful one that will lead to change that could be supported by First Nations. He is offered an opportunity by the Chiefs and I would sincerely hope that he would seize that opportunity”, stated National Chief Coon Come.

The proposed changes to the Indian Act are so narrow in scope that they will do nothing to improve the lives of First Nations citizens. The issues that need to be addressed are health, housing, economic development, safe drinking water and the like. The Minister is only concerned about issues dealing with accountability and while this is an area that we support, there are more important priorities for First Nations citizens. The process put forward by the Chiefs-in-Assembly is a broad-based approach that will start a comprehensive review of all issues affecting First Nations and lead to a renewed Nation-to-Nation relationship with Canada .

“We are sending a clear proposal to the Minister for review. I hope he will see that we are serious when we say we want to find a process that will address our concerns and that can be managed jointly with the Minister. We are not opposing his efforts for the sake of opposing him. The government must work with us to resolve the very critical issues facing our citizens such as health, housing, economic development and the like. If the Minister is willing to work with us, we will work with him. The ball is in his court,” added National Chief Coon Come.