By way of the Shmohawk comes yet another example of the Conservative Aboriginal “strategy” we forecast immediately following the last election: stall.

Aboriginal women’s shelters serve clients who are three times more likely to experience violence than their non-native counterparts but receive only one-third the funding of other shelters, Quebec women’s groups said Monday.
…
Aboriginal shelters in Quebec are funded by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. They receive an average $150,000 each per year vs. $487,000 for those funded by the provincial government, even though they offer comparable services and roughly the same number of beds, the groups said.

That level of funding has not increased since 1990, said France Robertson, shelter co-ordinator for Quebec Native Women.
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Deirdra McCracken, a press aide to Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, said the federal government is consulting with aboriginal groups and shelter directors to develop a fair funding formula that is expected to be in place “soon.”

“Soon”. That’s good. Is that…

- “soon” as in the timeframe the Conservatives promised for introduction of an Aboriginal strategy to replace the Kelowna Accord they strangled?
- “soon” as in their long-anticipated response to the Auditor General’s blistering review of Canada’s failure to implement Land Claims?
- “soon” as in their promised follow-up to the recommendations of Justice Thomas Berger on their non-implementation of Article 23 of the NUnavut Claim? Or their failure to negotiate implementation funding, for which the Crown is now being sued?
- “soon” as in the action they promised to take on Kashechewan?
- “soon” as in the meeting they’ve been delaying for more than a year with the Aboriginal Land Claims Coalition?
- “soon” as in the policy on Claims Implementation INAC was “working on”?

Glad they’re gonna get around to it “soon”. Cynics might suggest they are simply stalling until they get either turfed out (in which case the Conservative game of “stall” will be replaced by the Liberal game of “promise, THEN stall), or they get their majority, in which case…brrr. I don’t wanna think about it.

There’s a great Caribbean expression intended to soothe anxious tourists waiting for their bus, their meal, their whatever…”soon come”. It actually means…”Ain’t gonna happen.” May the Conservative majority come…soon.