City of Montreal announces new commissioner for relations with Indigenous peoples

Montreal has a new commissioner for relations with Indigenous peoples to work on the city's five-year reconciliation strategy.

Lauréanne Fontaine is currently on maternity leave and will start in June. She will take over from Marie-Eve Bordeleau, who assumed the role in 2019.

Prior to Bordeleau, Marie-Josee Parent was appointed as an advisor associated with culture and reconciliation with Indigenous people, but stepped down from her post in 2019 due to questions surrounding her Mi'kmaq identity.

Fontaine is from the Innu community of Mak Mani-Utenam and has worked for the Quebec Native Women's Association and recently for Quebec Minister Responsible for Relations with the First Nations and the Inuit Ian Lafreniere.

"I am determined to continue implementing this important strategy by working closely with the various levels of government, communities and Indigenous partners to understand and respond to their needs and priorities and to strengthen relationships of trust," Fontaine said in a news release.

Une des excellentes nouvelles d’aujourd’hui! En plus d’avoir reconduit @IanLafreniere comme ministre, le secrétariat change de nom pour relations avec les PNI! Après 3 ans au sein de ce cabinet, c’est toujours un plaisir de travailler au quotidien avec le ministre Lafrenière! https://t.co/Q545WY2e59

— Laureanne Fontaine (@LaureanneF_) October 21, 2022

Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve city councillor Alia Hassan-Cournol holds the Indigenous relations file for the City of Montreal and said implementing the city's reconciliation strategy, which includes training city personnel on Indigenous issues and promoting the presence and contribution of Indigenous people on the island.

"The creation of the position of commissioner for relations with Aboriginal peoples has enabled the City of Montreal to make significant progress in recognizing the island's thousand-year-old Aboriginal history and the place that Aboriginal communities still occupy in the cultural fabric of the city," said Hassan-Cournol.

"I am convinced that her (Fontaine) expertise and in-depth knowledge of the realities experienced by Aboriginal peoples will enable her to continue the path towards reconciliation that we have embarked on in recent years," said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.