Federal-Provincial Meeting of Officials on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters, Statement for the Press (14 October 1982)
Document Information
Date: 1982-10-14
By: Secretariat of the Conference
Citation: Federal-Provincial Meeting of Officials on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters, Statement for the Press, Doc 840-242/005 (Winnipeg: 14 October 1982).
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CE DOCUMENT EST EGALEMENT DISPONIBLE EN FRANCAIS
DOCUMENT: 840-242/005
FEDERAL-PROVINCIAL MEETING OF OFFICIALS ON ABORIGINAL CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS
Statement for the Press
October 14, 1982
[Page 1]
The meeting being held in the Birchwood Inn, Winnipeg, today brings together representation of the federal government, of the provincial and territorial governments and of the Assembly of First Nations (attending as observers only), the Native Council of Canada and the Inuit Committee on National Issues.
The meeting consists of officials. There is no ministerial representation from the federal, provincial and territorial governments.
The purpose of the meeting is to put in place a preparatory process that will lead to the development of an agenda for the First Ministers’ Conference on the Constitution to be held in the earlier part of March 1983.
This First Ministers’ Conference is required to be held by Section 37 of the Constitution Act of 1982. The Section reads as follows:
37 — (1) “A constitutional conference composed of the Prime Minister of Canada and the first ministers of the province shall be convened by the Prime Minister of Canada within one year after this Part comes into force.
(2) The conference convened under subsection (1) shall have included in its agenda an item respecting constitutional
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matters that directly affect the aboriginal peoples of Canada, including the identification and definition of the rights of those peoples to be included in the Constitution of Canada, and the Prime Minister of Canada shall invite representatives of those peoples to participate in the discussions on that item.
(3) The Prime Minister of Canada shall invite elected representatives of the governments of the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories to participate in the discussions on any item on the agenda of the conference convened under subsection (1) that, in the opinion of the Prime Minister, directly affects the Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories.”
Today’s meeting cannot, in the absence of First Ministers, make any final determination of any question.
The meeting is closed to the press and the public.