Evidence of meeting #2 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was nations.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
And in the case of there not even being a quorum to hold a band meeting, would your department not step in and manage that?
12:05 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
We make some arrangements on this. Sometimes a third party will do that, but we try to find a way to make sure that services.... I know a case where there is an issue with the election. That said, at the moment they continue to manage the reserve or the band or the community. But it is done with closer eyes, if I could put it that way.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
With the Kapawe'no First Nation, the letter is in the mail. I'm looking forward to communicating with you on that for sure.
The other issue around the rule of law is the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. I was just on your website and clicked on the link to see the financial statements releases, and it's not working right now. I don't know if that's on purpose or not. I'm just hoping it goes. This page is not available.
12:05 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
When did you go? Was it yesterday?
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
Okay. Because I asked them to remove it today. No, please, I'm joking!
12:05 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
Arnold Viersen Conservative Peace River—Westlock, AB
That, for me, is important. Band members reach out to me and often ask where the money is going, and I can say there's the link with the financial statements for their first nation. That usually allays their concerns. I want to make sure that's not a decision that's been made, but it's just because the Internet's not working for me today.
Finally, for Mr. Watson, the KTC, the Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council, in northern Alberta, has an arrangement for education—and the letter is also in the mail for you—and they're concerned about finalizing that agreement. Would you explain the process a little? This whole negotiation has happened without my involvement. Is there an opportunity or need for me to be involved in that? How does a member of Parliament help a first nation community, or a group of first nations in this case, get resolution on some of these arrangements that are being made?
12:05 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs
If I could turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Tremblay, it's not that I don't want to answer the question, but I want you to get the right information.
12:05 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
We do try to negotiate regional education agreements across the country. They take different forms. Sometimes they're at the provincial level, like FNESC, for example, which exists in B.C. Sometimes they're with tribal councils, and sometimes it's different. I think it's one that is on their minds. I don't have the specific information on KTC. We'll be happy to read and make sure that we respond to your letter.
I think that you're doing the right thing, which is to raise it. I think at the end of the negotiations, of course, it's between the Crown and the first nations on this. We try to eliminate the money variable by having a formula now. The question becomes more about what kind of services they want to deliver. Sometimes it also comes to issues around infrastructure that are not necessarily linked to the funding formula, but are also key in terms of if they—
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
The time is up.
Thank you very much.
Let's go for another five-minute session with Mr. van Koeverden.
February 25th, 2020 / 12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Adam van Koeverden Liberal Milton, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for joining us today.
My first question is for Mr. Watson.
It's about progress. You stated that five years ago there were only discussions going on in communities in three regions, and today there are active discussions. With respect to the boil water advisories, to take one example, if you use broad strokes we're about halfway there, as we know. Oftentimes, the first half an objective is the easier half of an objective—I'll use an analogy of a race—so perhaps the second half of the remaining objective will be more difficult.
My first question is—and I'll ask you both—what is your strategy for accomplishing the second, potentially more difficult, half of that very significant undertaking?
My second question is for Monsieur Tremblay. It is around power in indigenous communities. As we all know, many communities continue to rely on diesel-fuelled power as a primary energy source. We've heard from many communities that this is becoming increasingly challenging as the impacts of climate change affect their ability to access diesel, as well as the cost.
Can you update this committee on the work that your government is doing to support a transition to clean, renewable and reliable energy in the context of a climate change strategy and energy security in indigenous communities?
12:10 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs
On the agreements, first of all, we've been able to convince people that there's something worth talking about. This was one of the major steps in what we call the right to recognition table, or RIRSD.
For 30 years, we said to people that if they wanted to talk about anything related to rights, they had to talk about everything. That was a comprehensive claims process. If they only wanted to talk about child and family services, we said they had to talk about policing, administration of justice and everything else, or that would be the end.
We're able to say now that if they want to talk about just two or three of these things, we will do that. One of the other things that was a significant change is we had said that once you lock it down, you never get to open it up again, period. A lot of first nations, Métis people and Inuit people found that very difficult. They wondered how they would know what might make sense in 70 years from now or a hundred years from now. Those changes have led to many people, who sat on the sidelines before, saying that they'd now like to talk to us about the things that they want to talk to us about in the knowledge it's not locked down forever.
I think it will fall upon us in government, in particular, to demonstrate that we actually reach agreements. I think that the way we implement our existing agreements will cause people to watch and see if this makes sense and once the federal government signs, they'll actually deliver on these things.
I think that we need to make sure that we just continue to demonstrate our willingness to have these conversations and, most importantly, to demonstrate that they can be real in the lives of communities because they have many things going on. A theoretical conversation doesn't accomplish anything. It's not going to be something they will invest a lot in. They want to see practical results.
12:10 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
On the diesel, there are 56 diesel-dependent first nations communities across the country. Thirty-eight of them receive funding from us. The others actually receive services from provincial utilities.
We are working and investing in trying to find alternative solutions. One of the biggest projects we developed over the last few years is the Watay project in northern Ontario, which is a big electricity line project that will take more than 16 communities off diesel, and potentially more if others want to join at some point. It's a project that has treaties of partnership between private sectors and first nations private sectors.
The good news is also that the indigenous business community is very active in renewable energy. That's something that we're looking at: How do you actually link both? As you can imagine, a lot of those communities are small. Ending complete dependency on diesel could be difficult, but the issue is how you would use the percentage.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Adam van Koeverden Liberal Milton, ON
Permit me to interject, because we only have a moment.
You mentioned there are 56 or 57 first nation communities. They do not include Inuit communities, so that question, I believe, you have just answered.
Have small modular nuclear reactors been considered for very remote communities?
12:10 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
That would be a question to ask my friends at Natural Resources Canada. They would have more information on the timing for deploying such initiatives. I'm dreaming about it sometimes.
For the Inuit community, it's managed by northern services. It's not something I do, but it is the same thing.
What we're trying to do on diesel is to connect the few departments that have authorities over this, which include NRCan or Natural Resources, Environment and ourselves, and Infrastructure Canada. We are trying to have a map of the situation, thinking how to reduce it, and what is the cost and what is the most efficient way of doing it.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
12:15 p.m.
Bloc
Sylvie Bérubé Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Tremblay, you said earlier that, for first nations, access to drinking water was not so bad in Quebec. However, according to the latest news, nearly 300 Kitigan Zibi households have to settle for bottled water. Since the early 1990s, water has been contaminated occasionally.
What is the plan to resolve this situation?
12:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
As I said, those situations exist everywhere. In terms of performance in Quebec, we see that the situation is not really the most critical. It is worse in other places. As I mentioned, funding is intended for building water infrastructure and repairing existing infrastructure, but also for capacity and training. That comes both from us and from indigenous organizations that can do the work themselves.
There is no miracle solution. Situations will have to be managed like this over the long term. Major investments have been made in water infrastructure, but it was in 2015 that they really started to increase. Catching up in this area takes time. That is really one of the key priorities for the department. All of our regional directors are working with first nations to determine which communities have the most urgent needs and to ensure that the funding is provided to them.
There will always be boil water advisories. There are some in non-indigenous communities, as well. Of course, when advisories are extended, it becomes unacceptable. In spring and fall, situations of that sort can occur anywhere, including here, in the region. We want to make sure that those situations are very limited and that they are due to special circumstances.
12:15 p.m.
Bloc
Sylvie Bérubé Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Do you already know which cases are special?
12:15 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
We analyze drinking water systems. In all reserves and first nations communities, we are responsible for carrying out those analyses. We do them regularly, as the case should be across the country. You can see the results. That data is also communicated to community chiefs.
Before the advisory even changes, we have to know what condition the infrastructure is in. The advisory can be very good and suddenly become very bad. So it must be determined how the infrastructure in place can be replaced on time. Obviously, it is recommended that infrastructure be replaced before such a situation arises.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
That's our time in that round.
Ms. Qaqqaq, from the New Democratic Party, for two-and-a-half minutes.