From CTV News:

CTVNews.ca Staff

Date: Tue. Jan. 24 2012 11:19 AM ET

Addressing a gathering of First Nations leaders and government officials, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the time has come to "reset the relationship" as his government moves to overhaul the Indian Act.

"From the rules you set, come the results you get. And the incentives buried in the Indian Act self-evidently lead to outcomes that we all deplore," Harper told the audience gathered at an Ottawa conference centre Tuesday morning.

"To be sure, our government has no grand scheme to repeal or unilaterally rewrite the Indian Act. After 136 years that treaty has deep roots, blowing up the stump would just leave a big hole."

But there are ways, he continued, to achieve "practical, incremental and real change."

The government's approach, he said, would be "to replace elements of the Indian Act with more modern legislation and procedures in partnership with provinces and First Nations."

Harper's speech came as the Crown-First Nations conference -- with its ambitious agenda covering a range of long-simmering issues such as housing, education, and widespread poverty -- got underway.

In an apparent response to critics who have questioned the fact this is his first-such meeting since he was elected to the prime minister's office in 2006.

"The past six years have been a time, to put it mildly, of distractions, of elections of minority parliaments and of course, of world economic and financial crises," he said, before continuing in French.

"Despite this our government has worked hard to resolve issues that have concerned members of the First Nations of Canada for a long time."

Chief among his accomplishments, Harper pointed to his government's apology to those who had been forced into residential schools as children.

"One of my most rewarding days in office was when I rose in the House to deliver an apology to those students," he said.

"We acknowledged that chapter in our history, we repudiated the thinking that lay behind it and we went beyond symbolism -- we took concrete action to settle the claims."

Harper said his government remains committed to further "concrete action" with a particular aim.

"Our goal is much increased aboriginal participation in the economy and the country's prosperity. And we have no illusion about the enormous work that lies ahead of us," he said, adding that there's never been a better time to "reset the relationship."

Stepping up to the podium after the prime minister, First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo also called for concrete action.

"We must not fail," Atleo said.

"Today must mark the beginning of renewal. The beginning of realizing our shared potential foretold in the visions of our ancestors. But the proof of our commitment will begin tomorrow and in the weeks and months ahead -- demonstrating that this time, this generation of leaders will not fail to make the changes that we know are urgently needed."

The speeches came after the morning's proceedings were kicked off with drums, chants and a smudge ceremony also attended by Governor General David Johnston and an assortment of approximately 170 chiefs, cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats.

"We gather reflecting the spirit of our hearts and belief as a people," Assiniboine elder Dave Courchene said in a speech during the opening ceremony.

In his remarks a short while later, the Governor General echoing Courchene's welcoming message.

"I am inspired and I am hopeful seeing us here together," Johnston said.

Although many are going into the meetings with high hopes, expectations were also tempered by Harper's scheduled departure for the World Economic Forum meetings in Switzerland later Tuesday.

In a surprise move Monday, Harper met with the chiefs for a roundtable discussion that allowed the leaders to outline their concerns and their agenda.

He and Johnston held a brief closed-door session with Atleo and other elders as they arrived at the Ottawa conference centre Tuesday morning.

Ahead of the meetings, First Nations leaders have made it clear they would like to come away with a federal commitment to address both short-term crises in their communities, as well as their longstanding relationship with Ottawa.

But CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said sweeping reforms are unlikely to come out of the talks.

"You're not going to get that, that's not the way Stephen Harper operates. He's going to look for specific solutions to some of these agendas and then try to work through it over the next couple of months or year or so," Fife told CTV's Canada AM.

The meeting comes at a time of heightened tensions between the federal government and the Aboriginal community following the declaration of a state of emergency in Attawapiskat last fall.

The reserve near Timmins, Ont. drew attention for its poor living conditions, broadcast nationwide in images of dilapidated, uninsulated homes, many of them infested with mold.

That prompted the federal government to send in its own manager to take over the town, laying blame on the band and chief for mismanagement of funds.

The situation in Attawapiskat is not unique, with many other reserves complaining of similar issues. Fife said Tuesday's summit will attempt to address problems ranging from poor housing conditions, to high school graduation rates and employment and economic opportunities for young aboriginals -- both in rural and urban areas.

The chiefs have hopes for a two-track solution that would address both the critical short-term issues such as housing, child welfare, education and water, and the long-term issues such as funding and financial accountability, self-governance, economic development and recognition of treaty rights.

NDP Aboriginal Affairs Critic Linda Duncan said she was skeptical the meetings could achieve much. However, she said she was impressed by the chiefs.

"Five, six years since the Conservatives have been in power and finally they are getting together with them?" she said.

And these chiefs are still willing to, on their own money, come out here and sit down and still try to be nation to nation, that's pretty remarkable."

The chiefs will bring several historic wampum belts with them to the meetings to signify their belief that the relationship with the federal government is broken, and old promises must be renewed.

One of the belts is a replica of the 1764 Treaty of Niagara belt, which is sewn from 10,076 purple and silver shells, symbolizing the link established between First Nations and the Crown in the year following the 1763 Royal Proclamation.

However, when they display the belt at the summit they will hold it backwards.

"As we turn the belt we symbolically recognize that the issue of our relationship with the Crown is not correct," Chief Isadore Day Wiindawtegoweinini of the Serpent River First Nation told The Canadian Press.

"And we must turn that belt and provide recognition of the work that still needs to be done. This really is at the foundation of the messaging behind this meeting with the federal government."

Link:
Time to reset relations, revamp Indian Act: PM | CTV News