MMIW

The Liberal government faced criticism last month when a draft version of the terms of reference did not explicitly state the need to examine the role of police or their conduct.

Wednesday announcement will mark the end of the government’s role in shaping the design of the inquiry and the beginning of work for the commissioners.

A leading advocate for the welfare of First Nations children and families says she’ll have little faith in the upcoming inquiry on murdered and missing indigenous women unless a funding gap is closed.

"You guys didn’t do an adequate job," said Bellegarde on Wednesday in a speech to police chiefs from across the country.

"It is bigger than 1,200," she said. "Way bigger than 1,200," warns minister.

Here are five questions the government needs to address.

The next step, said the former prime minister, is "real change day in and day out coming from this.”

When her siste Claudette Osborne disappeared in 2008, Bernadette Smith held vigils with a handful of people who knew her pain, put up "missing" posters with family members

A few of Canada's almost 1,200 missing and murdered indigenous women

Former Vancouver Police Department detective Lori Shenher says already, the new national MMIW plan looks better than British Columbia's old one.

It's about time, says Lori Shehner, a former detective for the Vancouver Police Department.

Missing Indigenous women is "a national tragedy that requires an urgent national response," Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said.

Liberal government will begin the process within the next "couple of weeks" of consulting Canadians on how best to proceed with an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Canada's new government must tread carefully and lay proper groundwork for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, says a coalition of First Nations and advocacy groups.

Wally Oppal conducted hearings and published a 2012 report on how authorities handled cases involving missing and murdered women in the wake of the Robert Pickton case.