First Nations leaders are meeting in Ottawa with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canada’s premiers ahead of a closed-door gathering on Monday.
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First Nations leaders are gathering in Ottawa today with Prime Minister Mark Carney and the country’s premiers for a ceremony held ahead of a closed-door meeting on Monday.
Monday’s meeting will be the first such gathering since the Kelowna Accord talks of 2005, which brought premiers and then-prime minister Paul Martin together with Indigenous leaders to discuss ways to close socioeconomic gaps in their communities.
First Nations will be represented in the Monday closed-door meeting largely by regional chiefs from the Assembly of First Nations.
The Privy Council Office has not said which premiers will be attending, though Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said they would be absent.
The ceremonies in Ottawa will include knowledge keepers, elders, First Nations leaders and community members.
National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said the meeting should begin with ceremony to ensure participants enter with the right mindset, grounded in First Nations spirituality.
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