Akwesasne Grand Chief Mike Mitchell is hopeful that the arrival of a new public safety minister could lead to a new approach by Ottawa to the local border dispute.
As part of the cabinet shuffle announced Tuesday, former Treasury Board President Vic Toews will be replacing Peter Van Loan as minister of public safety, the cabinet posting which has responsibility for the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
The appointment of the new minister comes just as Akwesasne and CBSA officials have agreed to resume talks over the ongoing impasse regarding the arming of border guards. Mitchell said he met with CBSA vice-president Luc Portelance in Ottawa last week, and they'll be meeting again shortly to come up with the parameters that will guide the upcoming discussions.
"A new minister (of public safety) is going to add some optimism," said Mitchell upon learning of the cabinet change.
Throughout the dispute, Van Loan maintained the border guard arming initiative was an operational issue, and as such, he refused to get personally involved despite repeated calls from Mitchell and others to do just that.
Mitchell still believes the public safety minister needs to get involved in the matter, but it remains to be seen whether Toews will do that.
"It requires political involvement. It's a political issue," he said.
Local MP Guy Lauzon said Toews is a "pragmatic, straightforward" guy, and his background in law and previous experience as justice minister should come in handy when dealing with border issues.
As for the local dispute, Lauzon said he expects Toews will be encouraging a quick solution to the matter, but he doesn't anticipate the minister will take a different approach from his predecessor.
"It's an operational issue," Lauzon said, adding that if changes were made at one border crossing, they would have to be made across the country.
That position doesn't sit well with Mitchell, who suggested the issue could have been resolved "a long time ago if the right parties with the right attitude had been at the table."
Meanwhile, Mayor Bob Kilger said he hopes to meet with Toews -- whom he knows personally -- in the near future to express the city's concerns over the border dispute.
"We're not at the negotiating table, but we do have a huge stake in this thing," Kilger said.
The cabinet shuffle did not affect Lauzon's position as Conservative caucus chair, and the caucus will be meeting on Friday in Ottawa. Lauzon said he plans to discuss the border issue with the new minister at that time.
"It's obviously a priority for me," the MP added.