3 major indigenous groups to skip meeting with premiers in Edmonton next week: Métis National Council

When most of Canada’s premiers meet with indigenous groups in Edmonton on Monday, three high-profile aboriginal organizations won’t be in attendance, according to Dale LeClair, chief of staff for the Métis National Council.

Premiers are gathering in Alberta’s capital next week for Council of the Federation (COF), a conference which aims to promote interprovincial cooperation and to strengthen Canada.

READ MORE: Ottawa’s relationship with indigenous must be ‘renewed and rebuilt’: Trudeau

Watch below: In 2016, an emotional Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he feels ‘guilty’ as he reviewed Truth and Reconciliation report.

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) issued a news release Friday to say AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed and Métis Nation President Clément Chartier will hold a press conference in Toronto on Monday about “Indigenous Peoples’ participation in federal-provincial-territorial intergovernmental tables and the 2017 Council of the Federation meeting scheduled for Edmonton July 18-19.”

LeClair confirmed the three groups would not be attending. Although they consider their relationships with Canada’s premiers to be important, he said they had a “number of concerns about the structuring” of the meeting.

Regional Chief Isadore Day of the Ontario Assembly of First Nations said the meeting doesn’t meet what he referred to as the test of reconciliation.

READ MORE: Reconciliation efforts in Edmonton schools recognized by city

Day said meetings with political leaders have to be meaningful and that separate talks the day before the premiers meet aren’t sufficient.

Five national indigenous groups were originally scheduled to attend the summit.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s spokesperson Cheryl Oates said officials are still speaking with the indigenous groups about their attendance.

B.C. NDP leader John Horgan is also not expected to attend the COF meetings as he will be sworn in as premier of that province next week. It is not clear if B.C. will send someone else.

READ MORE: Notley to keep talking pipelines with BC despite Horgan’s potential absence at premiers meeting

Notley said earlier this week that while a number of issues will be discussed by the country’s premiers at the conference, trade with the U.S. will be an especially prominent subject.

The Council of the Federation was established in 2003.

-with files from The Canadian Press