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INAC is, by all accounts, a vast bureaucratic blackhole where hope disappears into a bottomless pit of inertia

Justin Trudeau has been slow to grasp the realities of the place. After campaigning on a pledge to revolutionize relations with Indigenous communities — committing to hundreds of promises, many of them impossible — he’s been forced to confront the usual crushing of dreams. The inquiry into missing and murdered women is a mess. The conversion of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights into law has been declared “unworkable.” The boil water advisories continue. Indigenous leaders remain disgruntled. The only thing making progress is the cost of settling claims for the horrific residential schools program, which has more than tripled to $3.1 billion. No one seems to know who made the original estimate or how it was calculated, which is pretty much standard for INAC. Nothing useful ever happens and the costs keep rising, but no one can figure out why and no one is ever responsible.

Trudeau’s remedy is to make the ministry even bigger. Last Monday he announced it will be divided in two, with two ministers where there used to be one. Jane Philpott, one of the few cabinet members with accomplishments to her name, will join Bennett, who clearly needs the help. Philpott’s title will be Minister of Indigenous Services, while Bennett will be Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs. Ballooning government always demands bigger and more grandiose titles.

Trudeau has been slow to grasp the realities of the place

Philpott’s job will be to ensure those services available to Indigenous people will actually get delivered in a reasonably timely and effective manner. Bennett, for her sins, has been sentenced to constructing a replacement for the old “colonial” approach to relations in favour of a new, more workable and respectful approach. Bennett is being asked to “accelerate self-government and self-determination agreements” for First Nations and to “develop a framework to advance a recognition of rights approach that will last well beyond this government.”