Alberta UCP unveils their election platform

(April 2019) – The Alberta United Conservative Party announced their 2019 election platform yesterday. Although the entire platform is relevant to Indigenous Albertans they did announce some specific information for Indigenous voters. It is excerpted here: 

 A United Conservative government will:

• Support legal action for pro-resource groups in Indigenous communities with a $10 million fund.

• Include Alberta’s Indigenous communities in our “Stand Up for Alberta” strategy to help energy projects and Indigenous communities both succeed and prosper.

• Advocate for a federal Aboriginal consultation process that provides clear timelines and legal certainty for project proponents, consistent with the federal government’s constitutional obligations.

• Add economic development rights to the preamble of the Alberta Aboriginal Consultation policy to explicitly consider support from Indigenous communities for projects that affect them.

• Work with the federal government to streamline how Indigenous people access key services such as education and healthcare, including ensuring Indigenous students have access to a provincial education system (paid for with federal dollars) that enables students to succeed.

• A United Conservative government will replicate the successful education partnership in the agreement between Whitecap Dakota First Nation and Saskatoon Public Schools signed in 2014. There, within one year of the agreement being in place, the percentage of Whitecap students in grades 1-4 reading at or above grade level rose to 76 per cent from 40 percent.

• Facilitate First Nations financial participation in major resource projects.

A United Conservative government will partner with Alberta’s Indigenous peoples in pursuit of reconciliation, inclusion, and opportunity.