Courtesy of Manning Centre
It’s not quite a new First Nations policy but Premier Jim Prentice is making it clear he wants to change the way the Alberta government confronts issues in its aboriginal communities. On November 10 Prentice was in the northeastern Alberta communities of Ft. Chipewyan and Ft. McKay to visit the chiefs of the Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations as well as the area’s Métis leader.
On October 30 Prentice became the first Alberta premier on record to have personally visited the Lubicon Lake Nation. The Lubicon Cree have been embroiled in a land-claim dispute with the Alberta government for 100 years as the nation never signed a land treaty with Canada and continues to claim sovereign rights on their traditional territory.
Emily Woods the premier’s press secretary explains Prentice is seeking to hit “the restart button” on provincial relations with indigenous Albertans.
“The premier is obviously very passionate about aboriginal issues having been federal minister of aboriginal affairs” says Woods.
“There have been concerns about a lot of issues in those areas in terms of health and the oilsands and quality of life and so that’s something that the premier wants to address head-on making quick action with these trips to talk to people immediately” she says.
Woods says Prentice intends on beginning roundtable discussions with these aboriginal communities before the end of 2014.
