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Ottawa promises schedule for Inuit needs

Agreement begins action plan on housing, health, education

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

The federal government is promising to develop a schedule to improve housing, health and education for Inuit, after a cabinet meeting with the country's aboriginal leaders this week.

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced separate agreements with Inuit, First Nations and Métis groups on May 31 that are expected to bolster their influence over federal policies.

Jose Kusugak, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, attended the meeting in Ottawa with elder Mariano Aupilardjuk, who gave an opening prayer before the signing ceremonies.

Officials said Aupilardjuk told the prime minister and cabinet ministers about his poor housing conditions in Rankin Inlet. He described how he has to build a wall of snowblocks outside his porch every winter to insulate his home.

Stephen Hendrie, communications director for ITK, said the event marked a turning point for Inuit relations with the federal government.

Hendrie said creating individual agreements will ensure that Ottawa tailors its policies to each aboriginal group's specific needs.

Plus, the accord sets deadlines for the Inuit Relations Secretariat, a bureaucracy inside the federal department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

"We're talking about a department with a $7 billion annual budget," Hendrie said. "The largest portion of that would always go to First Nations. A paltry amount of that was for Inuit affairs. That's changed."

The newly signed agreements did not commit to new funding, or specific program initiatives.

However, the contract states the government will negotiate an "action plan" with ITK by March 31, 2006. The two sides must come up with an agreed "work plan" for the secretariat by August.

The meeting was a follow-up to the Canada-Aboriginal Peoples Roundtable discussions last year between Ottawa and the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council, the Native Women's Association, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and ITK.

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