Quebec premier to meet AFNQL Wednesday after skipping Ottawa first ministers summit
The premier cites a tight timeline and vague federal framework for skipping the Ottawa summit, and meets AFNQL leaders directly two days later.
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Update — October 27, 2026: The new material adds that the premier skipped Monday's First Nations-First Ministers' Meeting in Ottawa, citing a tight schedule, and that the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador's chief, Francis Verreault-Paul, said he expects to raise languages, culture and lands at the Wednesday meeting. A Quebec minister said the absence was deliberate and intended to hold a direct nation-to-nation meeting within Quebec, and the outcome of the Wednesday meeting has not yet been reported.
Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon will meet representatives of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador on Wednesday, after skipping a first ministers summit with Indigenous leaders in Ottawa on Monday.
His team had said he would not attend the federally organized meeting, citing a timeline that was too tight. The transition to a new government in Quebec City has been underway since the Oct. 5 election.
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, the new minister of Relations with First Nations and Inuit, defended the decision in a social media post, saying the Quebec government meets Indigenous nations directly, nation-to-nation, on its own territory. He said the federal table's framework, schedule and parameters "remain very vague."
No agenda, location or list of attendees has been given for Wednesday's meeting, and the AFNQL has not yet said how it views the Ottawa summit.
