`Process Matters' Say MCC Workers About Federal First Nations Governance Initiative

Aboriginal Neighbours

WINNIPEG, Man. - Fears of further eroding the relationship between First Nations and Canada have given rise to concerns over recently-proposed changes to the Indian Act, say MCC spokespeople.

"Process matters," said Rick Zerbe Cornelsen, MCC Canada's Aboriginal Neighbours Program Coordinator. "The fact that government is driving this agenda " means First Nations will resent the heavy burden this legislation would place on them for the next two years."

The First Nations Governance Act (Bill C-61) was introduced in the House of Commons on July 14, 2002 by Minister of Indian Affairs Robert Nault. It proposes legislation dealing with issues of leadership selection, law-making and enforcement, financial accountability, and legal status. According to Nault, the Act is intended "to provide First Nations communities with tools that would allow them to build self-sustaining communities."

MCC's concerns over the proposed legislation stem from questions about the nature of its development and proposed implementation. With the Assembly of First Nations refusing to participate and under 10,000 individual responses, Cornelsen said the consultation process appears "quite weak."

"This is highly prescriptive legislation on a subject that Aboriginal peoples have the constitutional right to determine for themselves," he said.

Darryl Klassen, who works with MCC's Aboriginal Neighbours Program in B.C., added concerns about the process towards self-government. "Delegated authority is fundamentally different than inherent authority," he said. "If First Nations accept in principle delegated governance then they have conceded their unique right to be self-governing."

The initiative undermines progress towards a respectful nation-to-nation relationship between First Nations and government, suggested Marly Penner, Aboriginal Neighbours Program coordinator for MCC Ontario. "We need to challenge and encourage our government to hold itself to the highest form of consultation and fairness in its relationship with First Nations," she said. "How are we to resolve differences in the global community if we can't do so in our own?"

Of great importance to Cornelsen is the need to recognize that many First Nations have been promoting good governance internally without the need for such legislation. "First Nations have not been standing still on issues of governance and accountability," he noted. "We would like to use whatever means we can to have those stories told so that the public (and government) understands that there are alternatives to what is being proposed."

-MCC Canada Release