Poilievre promises less interference, more economic control in speech to Assembly of First Nations
Conservative leader made remarks during first in-person speech to AFN since becoming leader
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made his first in-person speech to the Assembly of First Nations Thursday, promising the chiefs gathered in Montreal to reduce the federal government's role in their lives and give them more say over their economic future.
"I'm not here to run your life. I don't want to run anybody's life," Poilievre said. "I want to run a small government with big citizens free to make their own decisions and live their own lives."
Poilievre said every delegate in the room is a leader that knows their communities better than Ottawa does, and better than he does, promising to get rid of the "Ottawa knows best" approach that he says has only led to destructive policies that harm First Nations.
"For too long, you have been held back by a broken system that takes power away from you and places it in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats in Ottawa," he said.
The Conservative leader went on to pledge that he will cut bureaucracy at the federal level so that the proceeds from resource extraction on Indigenous lands is used more directly to improve lives in First Nations communities.
Those promises earned applause from those in attendance, rather than the boos he garnered in his December 2022 video message to the AFN. But not all delegates were pleased with what they heard Thursday.
Several delegates turned their backs to Poilievre while he was speaking from the podium, while others criticized him for the actions of past Conservative governments, as well as for not addressing some important issues.
"In your speech, you did not acknowledge missing, murdered women, you did not acknowledge the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, you did not acknowledge the inherent title rights where my people come from," Chief Judy Wilson of Neskonlith Indian Band in B.C. said to loud applause in the room.
"You also failed to recognize our residential school survivors [that] is a real, live issue," she said. "If you are working to be the next prime minister of Canada, it tells me you have a lot of education to do on those fronts."
Poilievre did reference in his speech the residential schools apology that former prime minister Stephen Harper made 16 years ago but did not make mention of the remarks he made to an Ottawa radio station on the same day suggesting former residential school students need a stronger work ethic, not more compensation dollars.
"My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self-reliance. That's the solution in the long run. More money will not solve it," Poilievre said at the time.
He later apologized for his comments in the House of Commons.
Mary Teegee, chief proxy from the Takla Lake First Nation, challenged Poilievre over the residential schools apology by the former Conservative government.
"An apology without actions, an apology without money to back it and to make fundamental change are just hollow words in the wind," Teegee said.
Chief Wilson also called out Poilievre for not telling the AFN how he is going to tackle climate change.
"How can we dismiss the climate crisis? It's real, it's happening," Chief Wilson said. "We have heat domes people are dying from. We have wildfires. That has to be one of your top agendas — not just the economy and business to Canada. You have to address the climate crisis."
In response, Poilievre said that a future government would tackle the issue of climate change through the promotion of new technologies rather than through a carbon tax.
"We need to unleash the production of clean, emissions-free energy that included nuclear, hydroelectric and other forms. But to do that, we need to speed up the approval process to get these things built," he said.
A strained relationship
The Conservative Party has struggled to make inroads with Indigenous communities. Some delegates to the AFN meeting cited the legacy of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who led the Conservative Party for 11 years.
In a recent interview with The Canadian Press, Woodhouse Nepinak discussed Idle No More, a widespread Indigenous-led protest movement that was triggered in part by the Jobs and Growth Act, a sweeping and controversial omnibus bill introduced in 2012 by Harper's government.
Indigenous communities feared the bill would diminish their rights while making it easier for governments and industry to develop resources without strict environmental assessments.
In advance of the speech Tsartlip First Nation Chief Don Tom said that "our experience in the past hasn't been great working with a Conservative government, so we're a little bit worried."
Tom said he wants Poilievre to go "beyond fiscal help" in the federal government's relationship with First Nations. He added he's not sure how the Conservative leader will be received by the chiefs when he makes his speech.
"But I think if it's leaning toward a Conservative government, we want to hear what their intentions are. We want to hear what their priorities are," Tom added.
Jennifer Laewetz, a policy analyst from George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, said "there's a lot of history with the Conservative Party of Canada and there's a lot of things that need to be mended and need to be fixed."
Laewetz said she met Poilievre at an AFN meeting last December. She said she was "shocked that he had given me the time of day, especially as a young Indigenous person that's not really in any position to be talking to these politicians."
On Wednesday she told CBC News she'll be listening closely to what Poilievre tells the chiefs adding she's "really hoping" Poilievre doesn't rely on his signature taglines, like "axe the tax" and "stop the crime."
"We're going to need real action and we're going to need to know how [a Poilievre] government is going to work," Laewetz said.
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With files from The Canadian Press