Then-prime minister Paul Martin speaks at the end of a meeting of first ministers and national aboriginal leaders in Kelowna, B.C., in 2005. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology to aboriginal Canadians for the damage caused by residential schools needs to be followed up with a commitment to equal access to services for native communities across the country, former prime minister Paul Martin said Thursday.

Martin was in the House of Commons Wednesday for his successor's apology, a moment he described as "a long time coming but a great day."

Speaking to CBC News, Martin said the whole country had come together in a moment of "enormous emotion."

"We all felt it," Martin said, "This is a terrible tragedy, and we [all] want to make it right."

But the apology should be just part of a healing process, the former Liberal prime minister said. The accord reached by first ministers meeting in Kelowna, B.C., in 2005, and later spurned by the Harper government, laid down the principles for addressing challenges facing aboriginal communities, Martin said.

"There are real priorities: education certainly — this the youngest, fastest growing segment of the population; health care — they've got the highest infant mortality rate, lowest life expectancy; things like housing and clean water," Martin said.

"Fundamentally, it means giving them the same opportunities other Canadians have,"

Imbalance between schools 'wrong'

Federal funding for education on reserves in Ontario is substantially less per capita than what is spent on provincially run schools, Martin said.

"That's wrong, and that has to be dealt with," he said, "If the Kelowna principles were applied, equal funding for education and health care, then yesterday's apology will mean even more."

In November 2005, a meeting between Martin and the provincial and territorial premiers in Kelowna ended with a pledge of $10 billion in new spending to improve education, employment and living conditions for aboriginal Canadians.

In its first budget in May 2006, the newly elected Harper government said it would meet the funding targets agreed in Kelowna but disagreed with other aspects of the deal.

Aboriginal leaders have also called on the Conservatives to implement the accord, but the government has signaled that it will follow its own playbook on aboriginal issues.

In his apology in the House of Commons Wednesday, Harper called for "a new relationship between aboriginal peoples and other Canadians, a relationship based on the knowledge of our shared history, a respect for each other and a desire to move forward together with a renewed understanding that strong families, strong communities and vibrant cultures and traditions will contribute to a stronger Canada for all of us."

Some of the measures Martin and other Kelowna supporters have been calling for on health and education in native communities could be part of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to deal with the fallout from the residential school system, observers say.