The new Minister of Crown Indigenous Relations is vowing to get to work quickly on issues that shouldn’t have happened it the first place to repair the trust between the Federal government and First Nations.
Marc Miller was the Minister of Indigenous Services, a portfolio now held by Thunder Bay area MP Patty Hajdu.
Miller says he doesn’t have the luxury of focusing on one priority but stresses he has to start at the beginning.
“This relationship started with land. The relationship has been broken because of land, land theft, and it’s time to give land back. And that’s just the reality of it. It’s easily said. It’s more difficultly done.”
He notes the relationship has been broken since before Canada existed.
Miller says during his time in the previous Indigenous portfolio, his primary focus was keeping people healthy and alive.
“The number one impediment to that wasn’t resources it was trust. I hope, and I think I am being probably mildly optimistic, but I think we’ve built a measure of trust that I think I can take into this department.”
