Ex-PM’s tour focuses on aboriginal issues

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This article was published 18/08/2015 (3712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In Manitoba’s wealthiest riding, and in its most remote, First Nations issues dominated a campaign-style tour by former prime minister Paul Martin Monday.

In Winnipeg South Centre, where the Kapyong Barracks have stood vacant for more than a decade, Martin said a First Nations claim to Kapyong Barracks should have been settled through consultations, not court hearings. Later, during a tour of Cross Lake First Nation, Martin and Churchill-Keewatinook Aski candidate Rebecca Chartrand toured the reserve and heard about housing and poverty issues and overcrowding in its school. Back in Winnipeg for a fundraising dinner, chiefs from Interlake First Nations talked about the plight of long-term flood evacuees.

The Liberals hope to pick up at least three seats in Manitoba, though Chartrand’s is not, so far, among them. She’s running against popular NDP MP Niki Ashton, who easily won her last two elections.

But Chartrand, who has visited a dozen of the 40-odd First Nations in the riding, said there’s frustration at the lack of improvement in services up north.

“The Ashtons have had an monopoly in the north,” said Chartrand, referring to Ashton’s father, Steve, the MLA for Thompson and a longtime provincial cabinet minister. “These are issues that could be solved by having Sunday dinner together.”

Earlier Monday, at an appearance at Winnipeg South Centre Liberal candidate Jim Carr’s campaign office, Martin was asked about Friday’s court ruling that found Canada failed to consult with four First Nations when it tried to sell the surplus barracks land on Kenaston Boulevard.

“What (First Nations leaders) really want is the ability to have a sit-down, across the table, and discuss these issues. And the fact is when we pass them by, as Jim said, we’re going to end up in court,” said Martin. “And the fact is the court should not be the last resort.”

Friday’s ruling by Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal sided with the four Treaty 1 bands — Peguis, Swan River, Long Plain and Roseau River — in their battle to take over some or all of the barracks land. The decision included a brief history of attempts by several First Nations to kick-start consultations over a six-year period of bureaucratic wrangling that began under Liberal governments. Canada was slow to respond and often failed to provide First Nations with relevant information about Kapyong, such as photos, appraisals and environmental assessments.

It was a Liberal government that first declared the property “strategic,” which made it less likely First Nations could claim it. Treasury Board first approved the sale of Kapyong to the Canada Lands Company in 2005, when Martin was prime minister.

Friday’s ruling was praised by most candidates in the riding, except Tory MP Joyce Bateman, whose staff said she wasn’t available for comment.

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NDP candidate Matt Henderson and Green party candidate Andrew Park offered the strongest statements in favour of selling Kapyong to the First Nations to develop. Carr was more careful, saying consultation is what’s required first. He would not offer an opinion on whether a First Nations economic development area makes the most sense for the 160-acre parcel of land.

“We know that there are constitutional and legal reasons that we have an obligation to have a meaningful consultation with native bands,” said Carr. “We should have done it years ago; we haven’t done it yet. The court has said yet again we have an obligation to do it, so let’s do it, and let’s do it soon.”

Martin also offered support for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s on-reserve education pledge, made last week. Trudeau promised $2.6 billion in federal funding over four years, an announcement Martin called “dead-on.”

Trudeau is in Winnipeg Wednesday morning, and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair will host a short rally Thursday evening.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca aidan.geary@freepress.mb.ca