Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel briefly to his hometown of Fort Smith next week before meeting with Indigenous leaders in Inuvik on July 24.
Carney’s office said he will spend that day co-hosting the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee, which meets three times a year and is usually attended once a year by the sitting prime minister.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed will be the committee’s other host next Thursday.
So far, little information is available about the prime minister’s visit to Fort Smith.
Carney was born in Fort Smith in 1965 and lived there until he was six years old, at which time his family moved south to Edmonton.
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His father, Robert, was the principal of a school in Fort Smith. That school’s status as a federal Indian day school, and some of the views Robert Carney held, became issues in the national media during April’s federal election.
Details of Carney’s NWT visit next week were first reported by The Canadian Press, which said the Building Canada Act will be among topics discussed in Inuvik.
Carney addressed Indigenous leaders at a Gatineau conference earlier this week to try to tackle concerns about how Indigenous governments will be involved in the nation-building projects envisaged in recently passed Bill C-5.
Some leaders have said they were persuaded by elements of the argument Carney made that Indigenous nations will prosper from such projects. Others said their concerns were only heightened about legislation they say allows Ottawa to override Indigenous interests on their own land.
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Carney says Indigenous economic wellbeing is at the “core” of the legislation. Dene National Chief George Mackenzie said Carney had promised to respect treaty rights and the need for consultation.
Mackenzie, who was at the Gatineau meeting, could not be reached by Cabin Radio on Thursday but told CBC Northbeat: “We are not against development. That is very clear at the summit. The question is what the words ‘national interest’ mean.
“That word makes us nervous but the prime minister has assured us not to worry about the national interest because any major projects, infrastructure, are going to be discussed – the Indigenous people, the treaty rights holders, will be respected. They will be at the table.
“That’s all good words that we heard today.”
Carney will now meet with premiers in Ontario early next week, a meeting at which NWT leader RJ Simpson is expected to be present.
