Canada’s Premiers and National Aboriginal Organization Leaders Meet

HAPPY VALLEY-GOOSE BAY, N.L. (July 16, 2015) – Northwest  Territories Premier Bob McLeod participated in the annual meeting of Premiers and leaders of the five National Aboriginal Organizations (NAOs) yesterday.

As the Chair of the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group (AAWG), Premier McLeod led discussions on the progress made by the AAWG in a number of areas, including ways to increase graduation rates for Aboriginal students, supporting economic development in Aboriginal communities, and ending violence against Aboriginal women and girls. Premier McLeod also presented the Report on Aboriginal Children in Care for discussion at the meeting.

“The NWT is a leader in Canada in working in partnership with Aboriginal governments and has adopted innovative ways of working together to advance shared priorities and interests on a government-to-government basis,” said Premier McLeod. “I welcomed the opportunity to share how our collaborative approach has enabled us to move forward with reconciliation with Aboriginal people. This includes ensuring that Aboriginal languages are recognized as official languages, that the Residential School experience is an integral part of our education of all NWT youth, our unprecedented sharing of resource revenues from public lands and our commitment to engaging Aboriginal governments in the spirit of respect, recognition and responsibility.”

During yesterday’s meetings, Premier McLeod supported discussions on advancing the work begun at the historic National Roundtable on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Held in Ottawa in February 2015 and chaired by Premier McLeod, the National Roundtable brought together leaders from the federal, provincial and territorial governments with leaders of the five NAOs for the first time ever to discuss collective approaches to this issue.

The AAWG is composed of provincial and territorial Ministers of Aboriginal Affairs and leaders from five National Aboriginal Organizations: the Assembly of First Nations, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Métis National Council and the Native Women’s Association of Canada.

The NWT is beginning its second year as Chair of the AAWG and in May 2015 welcomed Aboriginal, Provincial and Territorial leaders to Yellowknife for the first AAWG meetings to be held in the NWT.

Media inquiries:

Roya Grinsted
Cabinet Communications
Government of the Northwest Territories
Tel: 867-669-2308
Email: roya_grinsted@gov.nt.ca