CORNER BROOK, N.L. - Ottawa and the provinces need to stop their jurisdictional bickering and take a more proactive stance on resolving the litany of social and economic problems facing native women, aboriginal leaders said as the first national aboriginal women's summit concluded Friday.
But that plea didn't immediately dismantle any barriers between premiers and federal officials over native affairs.
"At all costs, at every turn, stop the game of jurisdictional hot potato with the federal government,'' said Lillian George of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
"Walk the walk. Invest in us and in our families. Say what you mean and mean what you say.''
About 300 delegates who attended the conference issued dozens of recommendations that called for an increase in funding for a wide range of initiatives aimed at preventing physical, sexual and drug abuse on and off reserves.
"Please do not let us down,'' George said.
Moments later, Bev Oda, federal minister for the status of women, announced that Ottawa would invest $56 million over five years for family violence prevention programs. The funding will go to 35 existing shelters and to the construction of up to five new ones, Oda said.
The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national Inuit organization, criticized the $56-million program, saying it excludes Inuit.
Mary Simon, president of the group, said it is inconceivable that equivalent funding on the issue of violence against Inuit woman wasn't provided.
"Inuit women suffer comparable incidences of violence and require the same support services, such as safe women's shelters,'' Simon said in a release.
Simon, who attended the Corner Brook summit, said the remote location of Inuit communities, with no road links to most of them, means there's arguably a greater need for women's shelters in those communities.
"Inuit require equitable and fair treatment in this regard,'' she said. "I intend to pursue the matter with federal ministers when I return to Ottawa.''
Federal programs aimed at natives on reserves were widely criticised throughout the two-day conference. Premiers from northern Canada complained that they felt left out of federal funding announcements because there are so few reserves in their regions.
"We're all aboriginal people,'' said Joe Handley, premier of the Northwest Territories. "We all have the same problems. We all have the same challenges.
"We need to have a lot of those programs that are available to everybody. We can't segregate people that way.''
And while Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams took Ottawa to task for not supporting the Kelowna Accord, federal officials at the summit defended the government's record on native affairs.
"I think for starters, it's a little disingenuous to suggest that there was an accord signed at Kelowna,'' said Rod Bruinooge, parliamentary secretary to the federal Indian affairs minister.
"To insinuate that there was a signed accord, that's not true. ... Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be what's reported too often.''
The agreement was reached in November 2005 under the previous federal Liberal government and sought to improve education, employment and living conditions of aboriginals over a 10-year period on First Nation reserves.
The Conservative government has said it is committed to meeting the accord's targets. But in March it voted against a private member's bill backed by the three other federal parties that urged the government to follow through, and therefore it isn't obliged to support it financially.
Handley said while he was disappointed the accord wasn't implemented, discussions at the summit could serve as a springboard for a renewed commitment to improve the health and education of all natives.
"I think we should take a lot of the recommendations that we heard here and work them out into our own 10-year plan with some very specific markers,'' he said to roars of applause.
Bruinooge said his department would examine those recommendations over the next several months.
