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The federal government has committed to pursuing a Nation-to-Nation relationship based on recognition, rights, respect, co-operation and partnership with Indigenous people in Canada, acknowledging this as both the right thing to do and a path to economic growth. Over the past year, the Institute on Governance and Canadians for a New Partnership convened a series of dialogues across Canada to provide an open and respectful forum to articulate the characteristics of the “Nation-to-Nation relationship”, as defined and perceived by Indigenous leaders and government departments. The series culminated in a two-day National Summit on November 27-28, 2017, wherein national Indigenous leadership, Federal and Provincial Ministers, Canadian Senators, former Prime Ministers, Indigenous youth leadership and many other leaders with a vested interest, spoke to the findings of the discussions to date, as well as their visions and expectations for the future of the Crown’s relationship with the First Peoples of Canada.
Emerging from these conversations is a framework for establishing new relationships between Indigenous Peoples and the Crown that consists of significant historic underpinnings, acts of reconciliation to repair the relationship, and undertakings for nation(s) building and resurgence.