Sacred obligation’: Trudeau, Liberals launch new era with aboriginal communities – The Chronicle Herald
December 8, 2015
OTTAWA — The leaders of Canada’s First Nations swaddled Justin Trudeau in a ceremonial blanket Tuesday as they embraced the newly elected prime minister’s commitment to what he called a “sacred obligation” to the country’s Aboriginal Peoples.
Trudeau didn’t show up empty-handed, either.
The Liberal government will lift a long-standing two per cent cap on federal funding for First Nations communities, he told the Assembly of First Nations gathering — that, despite mounting economic and political pressure on the federal pocketbook.
He said the Liberals would also provide additional money for long-awaited education reforms to be led by First Nations communities themselves, another long-standing sticking point with the previous Conservative government.
