Romeo Saganash

[Indigenous Affairs, May 11th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals say that reconciliation with the indigenous peoples is one of their top priorities.

However, today, the Department of Justice is in court to fight against a survivor of the St. Anne's Indian Residential School, whose history is nothing short of revolting. Allegedly, the federal government deliberately hid documents proving the abuse that the victim suffered. The victim was denied compensation for lack of evidence.

How does the minister justify opposing this survivor's right to a new hearing?

[Indigenous Affairs, May 10th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday and today the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs reiterated her government's intention to endorse the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, the government is rather short on details as to what that will look like.

I am pleased to inform you, Mr. Speaker, that the work has already been done. My bill seeks to adopt and implement the declaration. The question therefore is very simple.

Will the government support Bill C-262? A yes or no will suffice, by the way.

[Indigenous Affairs, April 22nd, 2016]

Madam Speaker, six years ago, Canada endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Since then, little has been done to implement it.

The bill I introduced yesterday for the second time would ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the declaration. The Prime Minister gave his ministers a mandate to establish a new nation-to-nation relationship starting with the implementation of the declaration.

My question is a simple one. Will the Liberals support my bill as they did when they were in opposition, or not?

[Earth Day, April 22nd, 2016]

Madam Speaker, as we celebrate the earth today, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and state my respect and solidarity with all indigenous people around the globe who stand to defend their traditional territories.

I would like to repeat the words of Solange Bordones, who has successfully led her council, pushing for collaboration with Barrick Gold over developing in their territory in southern Chile. She said, “We are not fighting for money, because with money I cannot water my garden. We have a cosmo vision, a particular view of the world, which few people understand: We do not think of the water as separated from the earth, the air, or the sun. Love for Mother Earth is something that is sacred to us. We are not descendants of original people; we are that people. Our ancestral power is rooted in our identity. That is, we identify ourselves by the land and our relationship with that land.”

On Earth Day and every day, I stand by that philosophy.

[United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, April 21st, 2016]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-262, an act to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Mr. Speaker, I am greatly honoured to rise in this House to introduce this bill to harmonize the laws of Canada with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

As members know, a central component of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action is to use the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the framework for reconciliation. Therefore, if this bill is adopted, that would provide the legislative framework for a national reconciliation that is long overdue in this country. This would entail a collaborative process to ensure that federal laws are consistent with the declaration, and a national plan of action.

I am deeply honoured to introduce this bill.

In the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations and calls to action, call to action 43 states that governments should adopt and fully implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and that is what this bill sets out to do.

I remember the first question I asked in the House of Commons. It was addressed to the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs. She thanked me for the work I have done on this bill over the past four years.

She also asked all members of the House to help with the work of reconciliation. Today, I am showing how I can help.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Indigenous Affairs, April 20th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we hope that the people of Attawapiskat can start to look to the future after some very difficult years.

We commend the minister's commitment to build a youth centre and allocate resources for cultural programs. However, the budget does not contain any new investments for mental health services for indigenous young people. Furthermore, Health Canada does not have enough staff to meet the needs.

My question is simple. Will the minister commit to immediately increase funding for mental health services?

[Indigenous Affairs, April 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, for the victims, the obligations imposed on the Catholic Church were part of the justice and healing process.

Because of a government error, the church can now shirk its obligations. We simply cannot abandon the survivors and their families yet again, for they are still living with the painful legacy of residential schools.

Will the government make a firm commitment today that the victims will receive the compensation they were promised?

[The Budget, April 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we have been talking about these issues over the last couple of days, and they are important issues.

If there is one important issue in the country, it is the condition in which the first peoples of our country live. It is a shame for a country as rich as Canada, one of the richest in the world.

There is no lack of examples that we can use to tackle these issues. One of them is in my riding. We signed the first modern treaty in the country in 1975. It is a global approach to housing, education, police services, justice, economic development, health and social services, even maintaining the Cree way of life if a Cree chooses that way of life. Therefore, it is a global approach, and it seems to be working.

Granted, it is not the perfect solution, but at least that global approach is working in northern Quebec. I would suggest that we take inspiration from that example for the future of first nations in our country.

[The Budget, April 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to be across the aisle after October 19, but here we are.

The Liberals have a responsibility. They made promises and they need to keep those promises. That is not what is happening. For example, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission made 94 calls to action, but there is no money in the budget to address that. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommends, for example, that the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples serve as a framework for reconciliation.

How are we going to achieve this reconciliation with the very little money announced for first nations in this budget? The Canadian Human Rights Commission tribunal ordered them to resolve the problem at the first reasonable opportunity. The first reasonable opportunity the CHRC is talking about was on March 22.

What did the Liberals do? They chose to ignore the CHRC order. They chose to defy that order. There is a word for that in our legal jargon. I think I am making myself clear. That is what is missing.

The Liberals know it. They are the ones who set the 2% cap in 1996. That 2% cap for first nations programs and services lasted 20 years. Imagine how far behind we fell in 20 years because of the cap they themselves imposed.

[The Budget, April 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour and a privilege for me to rise in the House, particularly to speak to the budget.

As everyone knows, the government's budget reflects its choices. Like all of my colleagues on this side of the House, I had a lot of hope for the first Liberal budget. We are quite disappointed because, this time, we were expecting real change. The members opposite are always saying that Canadians voted for real change on October 19, but we have yet to see any. The choices and priorities set out in the budget are rather disappointing.

I have a large riding with huge needs. My riding has always been neglected, forgotten, and underfunded by the federal government. Once again, I have no choice but to express my great disappointment with this budget.

During the election campaign, I spoke about my riding's priorities. For example, there are many seniors in my riding and they have always been one of my biggest priorities. However, the budget does very little for them.

The youth unemployment rate is about two times higher than the national unemployment rate. For many years, we have been proposing measures to help young people find jobs, including a $4,000 tax credit for small businesses that hire young people. This is a reasonable measure that would help young people. These are the kinds of things that concerned me during the election campaign and that still concern me today.

Furthermore, home mail delivery is another important issue in my riding. A northern, rural riding like mine needs this service. The government promised to restore this service, but as members on this side have pointed out many times, this budget does not even contain the words “Canada Post”.

Nonetheless, I think there are many measures in the budget that should be highlighted. For example, the budget talks about shelters for indigenous women. There are about 14 shelters for some 630 communities in Canada. We are all aware of the problems facing indigenous communities, and there are huge needs. However, the budget allocates about $500,000 per community for shelters, which is nowhere near enough.

As I mentioned, in the north, in a riding like mine, construction costs are very high. I do not think $500,000 will be enough. In addition, as the representative for the riding of Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, I must mention that the section in the budget on shelters does not apply to Nunavik or the James Bay area, which are also part of my riding. This is a concrete example of why I am so disappointed.

Forestry is one of the major industries in my riding. I have been bringing up this issue since I became a member of Parliament, nearly five years ago.

Forestry is a major industry in Quebec and in my riding. Tens of thousands of my constituents work in this industry.

Each year, every time I rise to talk about the government's budget, be it the former or the current government, I am disappointed by the lack of measures to provide direct assistance to this industry in my riding. For example, there is nothing here about the forest communities program or the investments in forest industry transformation program. One thing we know for sure is that it is important to invest in innovation and research and development in this industry. That is critical for the jobs in my riding that are tied to forestry.

I also want to raise the subject of employment insurance. This is a particularly tricky issue for my riding. Employment insurance figures and statistics for a riding like mine are pretty complicated and hard to understand. There is no logic to how this works in my riding. The statistics are compiled for three different regions: Nunavik, James Bay, and Abitibi-Témiscamingue. It is crazy because the situation is so different in each of these three regions of northern Quebec, which are part of my riding, that there is no logical way to approach employment insurance there. We should also condemn the government's ongoing tendency to dip into the employment insurance fund. We have condemned that repeatedly, actually.

We need to talk about the parts of this budget that affect indigenous peoples. Once again, disappointment. We have talked about issues facing indigenous peoples a lot in the past few days, but people seem to forget that the needs in this country are so great. It is disappointing to see that the government did not bother to come up with a comprehensive approach to the needs of Canada's first nations. For example, as I pointed out earlier, the budget for housing breaks down to about $300,000 per community per year for the next two years.

Building a house in Nunavik or James Bay costs about $200,000. How can we continue to mitigate the effects of the housing crisis on communities when this budget provides enough funding for just one and half houses per community for the next two years? The fact that the government is not taking a holistic approach to indigenous issues is troubling.

There are many points I wanted to raise. Indigenous languages are once again being ignored. Out of the 52 indigenous languages that are still spoken today, only three will survive and flourish, and mine is one of them. I am privileged that I can say that. Again, we all know the importance of language in indigenous communities and the importance of cultural continuity among aboriginal youth. That is one reason why the suicide rate is so high in those communities. Our indigenous youth have become lost between two worlds, between the indigenous world on the one hand, and the western world on the other hand. One way to help them would be to address the language issues that are so important to our communities.

I wish I could go on, for I am just getting started, but I will take any question members may have.