Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the federal Conservative Party is in Vancouver Tuesday to announce his approach to First Nations and their control over revenue streams.
He held a news conference to kick off initiatives his party wants to enact heading into the next election, such as consultations with First Nations and industry across the country.
Specifically, he wants to see First Nations tap into more fiscal revenues when it comes to resource projects.
“I’m running for Prime Minister to put people back in charge of their lives,” Poilievre said. “That includes First Nations. Conservatives believe in less power for the federal government and more power for First Nations. First Nations have a right to bring home more of their benefits of their resources to their people.”
A few weeks ago, Poilievre said his government would “fully fund all the inquiries” into graves at former residential school sites, shortly after speaking to a Winnipeg-based group that has come under fire for comments on residential schools and discrimination.
Poilievre spoke at a luncheon in Winnipeg for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (FCPP), which ran radio ads in 2018 that said it was a myth that residential schools robbed Indigenous children of their childhood.
When asked about his thoughts on reconciliation in an interview with Global News, Poilievre said he would take “a different approach” to the efforts if elected, and vowed his government “would fully fund all the inquiries into human remains at the, or near the sites of residential schools.”