A spade is a spade!

Disparaging The Kelowna Deal Amounts To A Snub
From Ottawa, Leaders Say

By Oliver Moore (Halifax)
National Post
Friday, July 13, 2007
Page A4

Native leaders reacted with dismay and anger yesterday upon learning a representative of Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice had dismissed the Kelowna accord as "an expensive press release."

The comments added to a sour note caused by Mr. Prentice's absence from he 28th annual meeting of the Assembly of First Nations that wrapped up n Halifax yesterday. Rick Simon, a Mi'kmaq Chief from Indian Brook First ation, said it was a "snub" that showed how important the Minister considered native issues.

The government said that Mr. Prentice was in Belgium helping to honour Corporal Francis Pegahmagabow, Canada's most-decorated aboriginal soldier, at a ceremony marking the 90th anniversary of fighting at Passchendaele.

Appearing here in place of Mr. Prentice was his Parliamentary Secretary, Manitoba MP Rod Bruinooge.

Mr. Bruinooge was uncontroversial in in his prepared remarks but, while meeting with reporters, he was asked about the Kelowna accord. It was then he made the comment later called "irresponsible" by AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine.

In his remarks closing the meetings yesterday, Mr. Fontaine notd that it took 18 months of work before agreements aimed at improving the lives of natives were finalized in November 2005, only days before the Liberal government of Paul Martin fell.

"We deserve beter from the government," he said. "To suggest that this was just something that was crafted on the back of a napkin ... [I'm] really disappointed in Mr. Bruinooge."

Echoing a comment the day earlier by Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald, Mr. Fontaine likened native displeasure with the stillbirth of the Kelowna accord to anger on the East Coast over the Atlantic Accord.

"They've experienced the same disappointment that we've experienced," hs said. "A deal is a deal ... when someone makes a deal, the deal must b e honoured."

Saying that "we deserve better from government," Mr. Fontaine spent a good part of his wide-ranging closing remarks discussing the problems facing native communities. Touching on suicide, poverty, the lack of housing and the unreliability of drinking water, he argued that such conditions would never be tolerated in non-native communities.

Speaking later to reporters who asked him about Mr. Bruinooge's characterization of the Kelowna accord, Mr. Fontaine reiterated that it was "much more" that a press release. "It's unfortunate that it's taking this very political turn," he said.

Asked what such comments would do to the AFN's ability to work with the government, he acknowledged that the relationship has alreaday abeen strained.

But he also commended the Tories for advancing several files, singling out for praise the residential schools agreement and the prposal for a tribunal to assess so-called specific claims.

Mr. Bruinooge was unruffled by the response his comment had received.

"I did refer to it as an expensive press release by the Liberal Party in their dying days," he said by telephone from Toronto later in the day. "I'm the kind of guy who calls a spade a spade."

Mr. Bruinooge said he believes that the $5-billion plan has been afforded undue status for political reasons.

"It's begun [to be seen to have] qualities of an accord, a signed ageement," he added. "It was a goal-based document ... this Kelowna press release does not have an accord
behind it."












Rod Bruinooge
Member of Parliament
Winnipeg South, Manitoba

Parliamentary Address

House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 995-7517
Fax: (613) 943-1466
E-Mail: Bruinooge.R@parl.gc.ca

Constituency Address

2855 Pembina Highway, Unit 27
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2H6
Telephone: (204) 984-6787
Fax: (204) 984-6792