Meeting of Provincial-Territorial Ministers responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and Leaders of the National Aboriginal Organizations

   
1. That Provincial Territorial Ministers responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and the five National Aboriginal Organizations¹ Leaders commit to ongoing dialogue by participating on the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group with a view to identifying and implementing concrete and tangible actions to improve outcomes for First Nation, Inuit and Métis peoples in the priority areas discussed at the October 29, 2009 meeting.
      
   
2. That education and economic development be tabled as topics for further exploration at the meeting of Ministers and National Aboriginal Organization Leaders on October 29, 2009 with the aim of jointly selecting specific areas for further exploration and initial work. 
      
   
3. That Provincial, Territorial and Aboriginal officials be directed to begin immediate work, with their federal counterparts, within the selected topics and return to the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group with recommendations for concrete and tangible activities that could be taken by governments and National Aboriginal Organizations.  This work would take the form of one or more discussion documents or action plans with recommended areas for actions to be tabled at the next Working Group meeting proposed for April 2010. 
      
   
4. That Provincial Territorial Ministers and National Aboriginal Organization Leaders connect the work of the Working Group to other forums and processes as appropriate (e.g., Provincial Territorial Ministers and Aboriginal Leaders’ connection back to the Council of the Federation; linkages between the Working Group and Council of the Ministers of Education Canada on education matters; for the federal government and provinces from Ontario west, the Ministerial roundtable session on Métis economic development); and work toward a First Ministers’ Meeting on Aboriginal Issues in 2010.  The First Ministers’ Meeting would serve as the key vehicle to launch a plan to achieve concrete and tangible outcomes for First Nation, Inuit and Métis peoples consistent with the objectives of each of the parties.
      
   
5. That special attention is paid to the need for a distinctions-based approach for First Nations, Inuit and Métis where appropriate, and that this approach should fully integrate the needs and perspectives of women, urban populations, youth and other issues. 

¹Assembly of First Nations, Metis National Council, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and Native Women’s Association of Canada