Liberal Party of Canada leader announces two election campaign promises for Indigenous People

Liberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau announced two election campaign promises for Indigenous People during a Team Trudeau 2019 Campaign Rally on Sept. 25 at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY— Liberal Party of Canada leader Justin Trudeau announced two election campaign promises for Indigenous People, one on health care and one on infrastructure, during a Sept. 25 campaign rally in Thunder Bay.

“Tonight we are announcing two important steps a re-elected Liberal government will take to close the gaps between the living conditions of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people,” Trudeau says. “First, we will make high-quality healthcare a reality for all Indigenous people by co-developing distinctions-based health legislation. And second, we will co-develop and invest in distinctions-based community infrastructure plans. Together we will address critical infrastructure needs in First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities over the next 10 years. This will mean more housing, better roads, high-speed internet and new treatment centres and schools because that’s what it means to choose forward for everyone.”

Trudeau made the announcements during the evening campaign rally at Lakehead University for local Liberal candidates Patty Hajdu, Thunder Bay-Superior North, and Marcus Powlowski, Thunder Bay-Rainy River.

“I was excited to hear a lot of promises towards the Indigenous peoples and our First Nations communities and a promise to bring different things that we’ve been advocating for like high-speed internet, safe water for our First Nations, of course — he had a lot of good things to say tonight,” says Shuniah Mayor Wendy Landry, who is a Red Rock Indian Band citizen. “[The crowd’s reaction] was pretty good, it was pretty positive. Everybody is pretty excited — how often does the Prime Minister come to your community? It’s a big deal. I think it was a good night. We have a good representative in Patty Hajdu.”

Hajdu, who most recently served as minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour and is currently running for her second term as MP, says she could only speak about the broad strokes of Trudeau’s announcement because she had not seen the policy behind the two campaign promises.

“As you know, there are huge healthcare gaps on First Nations, meaning people can’t get access to culturally-appropriate medical care, they can’t get access to treatment at home, they can’t get access to diagnostics at home,” Hajdu says. “Even some of the most basic services are not available at home, so this would be legislation that would make the government responsible for providing that equity and those culturally-appropriate services in First Nations. That is exciting news, and the best part, not developed by the government for Indigenous people but with Indigenous people.”

Hajdu says the second campaign promise was about “coming up with community infrastructure plans so that in 10 years we can close the gap on infrastructure in First Nations.”

“We’ve tried really hard in the last four years to build more housing, to address the water [issues] and the challenge is there is such disparity,” Hajdu says. “We also know that communities often have the best solutions, so having a 10-year infrastructure plan that is co-developed with communities gives a better roadmap about what needs to be done in each community and how communities are going to get there with the support of the federal government and appropriate investments.”

Trudeau was the first federal party leader to visit the region during the 2019 election campaign.