Harper should revisit 2006 Kelowna Accord, says ex- PM Martin

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper, at a meeting here Tuesday with aboriginal leaders, should emerge from the talks admitting the Conservatives were wrong to cancel the $ 5.1- billion Kelowna Accord in 2006, says former prime minister Paul Martin.

“I don’t think Harper has to stand up and say, ‘ I endorse Paul Martin’s agenda’,” the former Liberal leader said when asked about the likelihood of Harper offering a meaculpa after his meeting with Chief Shawn Atleo and other first nations leaders.

“But I expect him to stand up and say, ‘ I endorse an agenda that was essentially conceived and built by the provinces, the territories and the aboriginal leadership’,” he told Postmedia News.

Since his 2006 election loss, Martin, often ridiculed when he was prime minister for having too many priorities, has clung to the one issue he often said was his top concern — the plight of Canada’s first nations communities and especially, aboriginal youth.

Martin speaks regularly across Canada on the issue and has launched a corporate- sponsored $ 50- million fund for aboriginal entrepreneurs.

The Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative, meanwhile, includes a high school program to teach aboriginal youth business skills. It is being emulated in the U. S. and in New Zealand.

But those steps, he argued, can’t fix deeper problems, such as aboriginal illiteracy, unemployment or high dropout rates, unless there’s assertive federal leadership taking the kind of steps envisioned when he convened provincial and territorial premiers and aboriginal leaders in 2005 in Kelowna, B. C.

Those talks resulted in a federal commitment of $ 5.1 billion over five years for education, housing, health, economic measures and governance/ accountability programs in first nations communities.

After Harper won a minority government in the 2006 election, he refused to endorse the package, despite a strong appeal from then- B. C. premier Gordon Campbell.

Monte Solberg, a Tory cabinet minister at the time, referred to Kelowna as something hastily scribbled pre- election on “the back of an envelope.”

“It was 15 to 18 months of negotiations. The Conservatives are going around saying this was a last- minute negotiation. It was the first thing we did when we took office,” Martin says.

This week’s Harper- Atleo meeting takes place after reports about an ongoing housing crisis at the Attawapiskat reserve in northern Ontario.

Atleo has said he wants the government to make aboriginal education a national priority.

But he added it will be too late to help children that would have benefited from the Kelowna Accord.

A spokeswoman for Duncan, responded to Martin’s criticism by pointing to Tory legislation aimed at improving on- reserve accountability.