The package, which sources say may reach $5-billion by the time it is made final, will be unveiled Friday at the end of a two-day first ministers meeting devoted entirely to improving natives' living standards.

For the first time since the failed constitutional talks at Meech Lake and Charlottetown more than a decade ago, native leaders, the Prime Minister and the premiers will attempt to agree on new programs and services aimed at tackling native poverty, while trying not to get bogged down in the esoteric debate that doomed previous attempts at major government action on native issues.

A Nov. 14 draft obtained by The Globe and Mail states that the agreement will focus on five areas: housing, which will include commitments to improve water quality on reserves; education; health; economic development; and relationships between government and natives.

Some bands have already moved in this direction, allowing properties to be bought and sold on reserves, but only between band members.

Perhaps the most significant change for natives will be Ottawa's commitment to encourage private home ownership on reserves, which could dramatically improve their financial success. Such a policy has long been advocated by conservative groups, such as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, as a way of encouraging natives to build personal wealth and maintain their own homes, rather than expecting Ottawa or the band council to do it.

Some bands have already moved in this direction, allowing properties to be bought and sold on reserves, but only between band members.

Money for private housing and mortgage-lending bodies will be made available only for reserves wishing to go that route, and the deal will also include significant sums for social housing and subsidized rental housing. The Auditor-General has estimated that 80,000 new homes are needed on reserves.

The education policies to be announced will also mark a significant shift from the status quo.

Although the provinces are constitutionally responsible for education, Ottawa runs schools on reserves, and the Auditor-General has repeatedly slammed the federal government for doing a poor job.

The provinces are set to agree to allow native schools and school boards to link up with provincial systems, meaning reserve schools would have better access to expensive speech therapists and special-needs teachers.

The deal would also see the creation of new education bodies for Indians, Métis and Inuit, which would work with provinces and the newly created native school boards to develop curriculums that incorporate native traditions. In addition, there will be money to encourage natives to become teachers, and to provide training for non-native teachers to help them become more aware of native traditions.

A section on health was originally going to be a reannouncement of the $700-million fund for native health announced a year ago. However, last-minute negotiations are taking place that may lead to a new "health blueprint" for natives.

The section on economic development is only six paragraphs long and contains few specific pledges. There is also little mention of accountability in terms of how the new money will be spent.

The negotiations are an attempt to bring 19 organizations and governments into agreement on a course of action for the next 10 years in a policy area where there is little consensus on how best to solve the entrenched poverty of many natives, both on reserves and in cities.

Native leaders have argued that the meeting -- two years in the making -- is of such importance that the minority government should not fall before it takes place. So far, the opposition parties have agreed.

Yet with nearly a week to go before the conference opens in Kelowna, B.C., on Thursday, the lack of legal talk is upsetting some natives, who fear they will lose some traditional rights.

Arthur Manuel, a former chief from British Columbia, has organized a Grassroots Peoples' Coalition with hopes of bringing at least three busloads of natives to Kelowna to protest against the summit. Mr. Manuel said the deal currently makes no mention of treaty rights to natural resources, which he said would do far more to improve the lives of natives than announcements of new programs for housing and education.

"The minute you recognize our economic and treaty rights, our poverty would disappear immediately."

Representatives of the five main native organizations -- the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Native Women's Association of Canada and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples -- have spent the past week in a series of often tense negotiations with deputy ministers from Ottawa, the provinces and the territories.

Sources say most of the document has been agreed to and the only stumbling block remains the section on relationships. The issue is whether the provinces will recognize natives as a level of government that must be consulted in developing future polices. The AFN presented a host of new proposals yesterday that are meeting stiff resistance.

The relationships section is also facing problems tied to a feud between the AFN and the CAP over whether the document's language should be worded broadly to refer to all natives -- an approach that would include natives without formal status, who do not belong to a reserve, and is favoured by the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples -- or clearly divided between status natives, Inuit and Métis, as favoured by the AFN.

All five native groups agree, however, that the summit will trigger significant improvements.

CAP national Chief Dwight Dorey said that 80 per cent of natives do not live on reserves and that many of those are not members of a band. He said he will refuse to sign the deal if the language is written to exclude thousands of natives.

"A lot of these first nations have these horrible problems with clean water," he said. "Well, don't take from the homeless Métis or non-status first nation person laying out on the street in downtown Vancouver or Winnipeg. You can't argue we can only address the problems on reserve until that's resolved, and then we can deal with the other people. There has to be a sharing of the resources."

Similar concerns were expressed yesterday by the National Association of Friendship Centres, which said urban natives are being ignored.

"Crossing the city limits does not transform aboriginal people into non-aboriginal people," the organization's president, Vera Pawis Tabobondung, said at a news conference yesterday.

Who will be at the table?

The summit on aboriginal issues will be attended by Prime Minister Paul Martin, the 10 provincial leaders, three territorial leaders and the following aboriginal groups:

ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS

The most influential aboriginal organization, its policies are voted on by the chiefs of the 633 first nations reserves. It represents status Indians -- those recognized by the federal government based on genealogical rules outlined in the 1876 Indian Act -- on and off reserves. The rules for status were expanded in 1985, adding more than 100,000 people. Federal programs have primarily been directed to status Indians.

Numbers: 733,626 status Indians in Canada, of which 415,422 live on reserves.

MÉTIS NATIONAL COUNCIL

Formed in 1983 following the recognition in Canada's Constitution that Métis are one of three distinct aboriginal groups in Canada. The council is made up of five provincial Métis organizations in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

Numbers: at least 300,000 Métis in Canada.

INUIT TAPIRIIT KANATAMI

Represents Inuit living in four regions of Canada -- Labrador, the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, Nunavut and the Inuvialuit region of the Northwest Territories. It represents Inuit in dealings with the federal government and works to preserve Inuit culture and the Inuktitut language.

Numbers: 45,000 Inuit

NATIVE WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

An umbrella group of 13 native women's organizations that works to enhance, promote and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of First Nations and Métis women.

Numbers: 8,000-10,000 direct members, but speaks on behalf of more than 500,000 women who identify themselves as aboriginals.

CONGRESS OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLES

Represents Indians and Métis who do not live on reserves.

Numbers: CAP has no official membership system, but says it represents more than one million Canadians who identify themselves as aboriginal.