Hopes high Liberals do what Conservatives wouldn’t

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This article was published 21/10/2015 (3635 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FROM affordable housing to health transfers to a road for Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, issues that were “no-go zones” for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government are on the table.

Provincial officials, First Nations advocates and poverty activists say the Liberal sweep could spark progress on long-stalled problems.

“I’m very optimistic we can make good strides,” said Kevin Hart, regional vice chief for the Assembly of First Nations.

In addition to a national inquiry for missing and murdered indigenous women, First Nations leaders want to talk about the land claim for the former Kapyong Barracks, safe drinking water, education funding, settlement of treaty land entitlements, resource sharing and rolling back contentious sections of a federal bill that dismantled environmental laws. They want the implementation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs grand chief Derek Nepinak said the Liberals will need to address long-standing issues of concern to aboriginals.

Josh Brandon of the Make Poverty History coalition said he expects affordable housing, long a chronic problem in Winnipeg, to have new traction with Ottawa.

For decades, both Liberal and Conservative governments have shunned federal help for housing, but Trudeau pledged $20 billion over the next decade for social infrastructure.

“Generally, there’s an attention on the part of the Liberals on issues around poverty and inequality, so there’s a lot more room for those issues to be discussed,” Brandon said.

It’s unclear how and when federal housing money might flow, whether it will require matching funds from provinces and cities and how much will flow to targeted groups such as indigenous people and seniors.

For years, the Manitoba government has complained the federal government was been an unwilling partner on many files, including the construction of a road network to native communities on the east side of lake Winnipeg, on-reserve social services and other areas that were “no-go zones,” said one senior provincial staffer.

Requests to help with certain problems were either ignored or moved at a slower pace than the province wanted.

That includes federal health transfers, which the provinces argue haven’t kept pace with inflation. The Harper government would never budge on health transfers.

“The federal contribution to health care in this country now is around 20 per cent,” said Premier Greg Selinger. “The original bargain was a 50-50 bargain. We need the federal government to be a long-term stable partner in health care funding.”

In the Kenora riding, home to Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, Liberal Bob Nault defeated Conservative cabinet minister Greg Rickford, which bolstered hopes the Liberals will make good on a pledge to help fund the construction of Shoal Lake’s all-weather road, dubbed Freedom Road.

On Tuesday, musician Steve Bell, part of a local lobbying effort for Freedom Road, dropped by the Main Street office of newly elected Kildonan-St. Paul Liberal MP MaryAnn Mihychuk.

“He was looking for some sort of document or guarantee,” said Mihychuk.

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“We’re not even in government yet, but I still made a few calls.”

Mihychuk said she will follow that issue through to its conclusion.

— with files from Alexandra Paul, Mia Rabson and Larry Kusch

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca