CAPS president John Hanikenne (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

New legal frontiers

Urban Aboriginal governance focus of community consultation

Nov 27, 2019 | 2:04 PM

Indigenous people living in Prince Albert will have the chance to add their voice to a national conversation about urban Aboriginal governance at a meeting on Saturday.

The session is one of several held across Canada by the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) and its affiliates. In Prince Albert, the meeting will kick off a series of consultations run by the Coalition of Aboriginal Peoples Saskatchewan (CAPS), a group that advocates for the interests of status and non-status people living off-reserve and Métis.

“We need to find ways to govern ourselves so we can best get our needs met,” CAPS president John Hanikenne told paNOW.

The discussion will build on existing urban Aboriginal systems.

“There’s a lot of models of urban governance that are out there, it’s not a matter of reinventing the wheel in a lot of cases,” he said.

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Hanikenne takes issue with the fact that many people living off-reserve don’t have access to the same supports, including housing or post-secondary education, as those living on-reserve.

“They’re people who fall through the cracks when they’re not funded by the First Nations because they’re not involved in their bands anymore,” he explained.

He added 80 per cent of Indigenous people in Canada live off-reserve.

“If we want to healthy communities, we have to look at ourselves and act on our own. Nobody’s going to make changes for us here in the urban centres unless we create that change ourselves,” he said.

Responding to the Daniels case

CAP’s goal is to compile the findings of the consultation sessions into a report to submit to the federal government in March.

The research will play a role as the federal government navigates what to do in the wake of a landmark court decision.

In 2016, the Daniels case ruled non-status Indigneous peoples and Métis could negotiate with the federal government over land claims and access to education, health programs and other government services.

“It is my intention that at least we’ll have a voice in some of the changes that will be brought forward,” Hanikenne said.

Saturday’s meeting will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 66 11th Street West.

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Alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom