Alessia Passafiume, The Canadian Press

The president of the Manitoba Métis Federation is blasting the Métis Nation of Ontario at a summit on how leaders are reacting to — and can come together to fix — what they call Indigenous identity fraud.

Co-hosted by the Manitoba Métis Federation and the Chiefs of Ontario, the summit in Winnipeg also includes Inuit and Innu leaders who have raised concerns about the topic in their respective jurisdictions.

Canada and Manitoba are partnering to launch an alert system that would inform the public when an Indigenous woman or girl goes missing, they announced Friday in Winnipeg, ahead of a national day to mark the crisis.

The long-awaited Red Dress Alert system is a bid to prevent deaths and increase safe reunions with loved ones. 

Statistics Canada concluded in a report last year that the homicide rate for Indigenous women and girls was six times higher than the rate for their non-Indigenous counterparts. 

The federal government is planning to create a new agent of Parliament to oversee modern treaty implementation, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says will ensure Ottawa is held to account no matter who is in power.

He announced the plan to appoint a commissioner for modern treaty implementation Tuesday in Gatineau, Que., at a second annual meeting of self-governing Indigenous governments.

"This is a lasting commitment to be a better treaty partner," he said. 

A Manitoba MP is trying to create an alert system to notify the public when Indigenous women go missing — an endeavour she hopes will lead to fewer deaths and more safe reunions with loved ones.

"This is a critical initiative," New Democrat MP Leah Gazan, who represents the riding of Winnipeg Centre, said last month as a House of Commons committee began studying her "Red Dress Alert" proposal.

"This is an initiative that will save lives."

The committee process for a testy piece of legislation that would recognize Métis governments in three provinces has been extended until at least February.

House of Commons committee hearings about Bill C−53 have seen 65 witnesses testify and 274 briefs submitted that argue vigorously either for or against the legislation, which Métis leaders say would set the stage for treaties on internal matters such as child welfare.

Canada has been so slow to carry out recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that an Indigenous-led think tank says it has decided to stop publishing an annual report tracking its progress.

"At first, the project invoked hope and determination. If only the Canadian public knew about their government's lack of action, we believed, perhaps things would change," said the annual report from the Yellowhead Institute, a research and education centre based at Toronto Metropolitan University.

The Conservative party is maintaining a steady lead over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals, a new poll suggests, at a time when Canadians are reporting limited trust in their institutions. 

Pierre Poilievre's Tories are 14 percentage points ahead of the governing party, with 40 per cent of respondents in the survey saying they would vote Conservative, 26 per cent Liberal and 17 per cent NDP if an election were held that day.

The first mandate letters Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave his cabinet ministers in 2015 said no relationship was more important to him, and to the country, than the one with Indigenous Peoples. 

He called for a new nation-to-nation relationship — one based on the recognition of rights, respect, co-operation and partnership.

He promised to end boil-water advisories in First Nations communities within five years. 

He said constitutionally guaranteed rights of First Nations are a sacred obligation.