In Attawapiskat last December, Carolyn Bennett presents Chief Theresa Spence with donated winter clothing items collected at her St. Paul's constituency office in Toronto.

As I listened to the opening speeches at yesterday’s Crown-First Nations Gathering, it was clear that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo had a radically different view about the way forward. On how to move beyond the colonial and paternalistic Indian Act – the key barrier to the economic, human and social development of First Nations for the past 136 years – the imagery was evocative.

Prime Minister Harper called the Indian Act a tree with deep roots, and that “blowing up the stump would leave a big hole.” For Atleo, the Indian Act was like a boulder: “Like a rock that sits in the middle of the road, a boulder that locks the path of collaboration, remains the Indian Act – along with the age-old structures and policies that administer it and steadfastly resist change.”

The Prime Minister has never shared the sense of urgency of First Nations leaders who looked to the meeting for transformative change. With too many First Nations languishing under paternalistic legislation and policies that perpetuate poverty, illiteracy, sickness and lack of economic opportunities, the Prime Minister’s “incremental” approach simply isn’t appropriate. As Shawn Atleo has made his mantra, it’s time to smash the status quo.

The outcomes of yesterday’s meeting speak not only to a lack of urgency, but also a refusal on the part of the Prime Minister to tackle the interrelated problems confronting First Nations in a comprehensive way. The decision to establish working groups on issues that have already been studied to exhaustion by Parliamentary committees, independent panels and First Nations themselves, falls short of the mark.

What was missing from yesterday’s agenda spoke loudly too.  Chiefs from all regions asked for resource revenue sharing to become an important component of a new relationship; the government refused. Many female chiefs told me that violence against Aboriginal women and girls – which has been marginalized in Parliament by Conservative MPs – needed far more attention. And from others, there were calls for sweeping reform of the government’s housing policy.

The government’s insistence on unilateral action over meaningful consultation and cooperation, the failure to discuss issues like resource sharing, violence against Aboriginal women and housing, and the refusal to put forward a meaningful process to replace the Indian Act, have dampened the hopes for a reset in the relationship between the Crown and First Nations.

I will be looking to the upcoming budget to see whether even the status quo is maintained. The government’s refusal to commit to protecting essential social transfers to First Nations is a worrying sign. With discriminatory underfunding in education, child welfare, healthcare and housing, now is the time for more investment in the potential of First Nations youth, not less.

Expectations for the Crown-First Nations Gathering were exceedingly low. After the Gathering, it is hard to see how much has changed.

- Carolyn Bennett

Aboriginal Affairs Critic