Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today and speak to this legislation, Bill C-10, an act respecting the commissioner for modern treaty implementation.
This legislation is presented by the government as a path to improved indigenous relations and accountability, yet when I look closely at both the text of this legislation and the lived realities of the people I represent, I must say that sadly, the legislation will neither improve relations between the government and indigenous people nor increase accountability. I believe this bill is fundamentally misaligned with the priorities of urban indigenous communities like Saskatoon West.
Saskatoon West's population is approximately 18% indigenous, according to the 2021 census, which is a rate that is far higher than the national average. Saskatoon West is an urban riding and a community where indigenous people are teachers, business owners, nurses, parents, students, entrepreneurs, tradespeople and neighbours. They live in apartment buildings, single family homes, rental units and multi-generational households throughout our community. Indigenous people in Saskatoon need results, not more bureaucracy.
What is Bill C-10? In short, it is more bureaucracy. Bill C-10 proposes the creation of a new federal office of commissioner for modern treaty implementation. The commissioner is tasked with monitoring, reviewing and reporting on treaty implementation, but monitoring, reviewing and reporting are not solutions; they are processes and paperwork. It is another layer of bureaucracy that Ottawa can point to when asked why tangible progress has not been made.
We must ask simple questions: How will this new commissioner create jobs in Saskatoon West? How will they make housing more affordable? How will they lower the cost of food and energy for families struggling to make ends meet? The answer, quite simply, is that they will not. This legislation would do nothing to grapple with the real economic pressures facing urban indigenous residents. It would do nothing to create meaningful employment opportunities, make housing more accessible and affordable in our city or reduce the extraordinarily high cost of living that burdens all families every month.
When indigenous families in Saskatoon West tell me that they are struggling to keep up with the cost of groceries, they are not talking about treaty implementation reports; they are talking about real life and real household costs that are compounded by federal tax policies that raise the price of goods, fuel and transportation. An example is the industrial carbon tax, which has pushed up the cost of diesel, natural gas and transportation across the economy. This tax may be an abstract policy for some here in Ottawa, but for families in Saskatoon West, it translates directly into higher heating bills in the winter, higher gas prices at the pump and higher prices for everything that has to be delivered by a truck, including groceries, clothing and household goods. For indigenous seniors on fixed incomes, this means hard choices between heating their homes and buying food; for indigenous parents working minimum wage jobs or multiple part-time jobs, it means stretching every dollar just to keep a roof over their children's heads; and for indigenous youth trying to launch careers, this means fewer opportunities and more barriers.
This is not rhetoric; it is what I hear every week from constituents in Saskatoon West. What indigenous communities in urban Canada and in my riding of Saskatoon West need are policies that empower, employ and uplift them, not policies that just observe and report. They need real job creation and skills training. Indigenous youth and adults in our community deserve sustainable employment that offers a living wage.
The Conservative plan, rooted in economic growth, will remove barriers to investment, cut red tape for small businesses and help urban indigenous entrepreneurs succeed. This is the kind of approach that creates dignity and independence, not dependence on endless studies. Like many places in Canada, housing is also a crisis in Saskatoon West. Indigenous families, like all families, struggle with unaffordable rents, limited supply and skyrocketing prices. Building more homes means more supply, which means lower prices. Conservatives have long advocated for removing the federal policies that slow housing construction, cutting needless regulatory barriers and incentivizing both private and indigenous-led housing.
Conservatives support strong relationships with indigenous leaders that are rooted in accountability. If departments fail to uphold their commitments, there should be real consequences, not another memo to a bureaucratic office. If funding is promised, it should be delivered on time and in full. If jobs or housing targets are set, they should be measured independently and transparently, but with teeth, not just reports.
Indigenous residents of Saskatoon West are not interested in symbolic gestures. Like all Canadians, the indigenous people in the riding of Saskatoon West are interested in outcomes, including jobs that pay, homes that are affordable, children who are safe and futures that are bright. Bill C-10 does not deliver these outcomes; it will not reduce food costs or lower energy bills. Nowhere in this debate are Liberals talking about creating jobs that indigenous and all youth are desperate for. The Liberals are making no effort to build the homes that families need to live in housing they can afford. The government must do better, and we must do better.
I have already said that this legislation is about building bureaucracy. Ronald Reagan famously said, “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” We have seen time and again from the Liberal government that the solution to every problem is more government, another department and more layers of bureaucrats. To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. That summarizes the government. We have seen this approach repeatedly.
Starting with indigenous affairs, the Liberals split the former indigenous and northern affairs Canada department in 2017 into two new departments: Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, and Indigenous Services Canada. The stated goal was to improve service delivery and reconciliation. The real-world result was more deputy ministers, more bureaucracy and more spending, while indigenous communities continued to face housing shortages, boil water advisories, health gaps and treaty implementation failures. Indigenous Services Canada was sold as the delivery department. Years later, outcomes have not really improved, and here we are with Bill C-10. The lesson is clear: Creating a new department did not fix the problem. It added complexity.
The same pattern appears in climate and environmental policy. When the Liberals repeatedly missed their own emissions targets, they created the net-zero advisory board in 2021. This body has no authority, no enforcement power and no accountability mechanism. It exists to advise, audit and report, while Canadians pay higher costs and targets are still missed. This is the exact same model as is proposed in Bill C-10. They also replaced the environmental assessment regime with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada in 2019. The promise was better assessments. The reality has been longer approval times, regulatory uncertainty, stalled projects, lost investment and fewer jobs. With more regulation comes less certainty and fewer results.
In housing and infrastructure, the pattern continues. The government launched Build Canada Homes and rebranded funding envelopes, but communities are still waiting years for approvals. It created the Canada Infrastructure Bank in 2017, claiming it would unlock investment and accelerate major projects. Billions were allocated, but project delivery was slow. Even the Auditor General raised serious concerns. When housing affordability spiralled out of control, the response was not to build more homes or remove gatekeepers. It was to create the federal housing advocate in 2021, an office that can issue reports and recommendations but cannot build a single home. Housing affordability continues to worsen.
Bill C-10 fits this exact pattern. Just like with Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Indigenous Services Canada, the net-zero advisory board, the Impact Assessment Agency, Build Canada Homes, the Canada Infrastructure Bank and the federal housing advocate, the bill risks becoming another Liberal monument to process over results.
The debate we are having today is about something fundamental: the honour of the Crown, and the relationship between the federal government and indigenous people. That relationship is not built through org charts, offices or glossy annual reports, but on trust, action and delivery. Unfortunately, after nearly a decade in power, the Liberal government has demonstrated a consistent pattern. When it fails to deliver results, it creates another level of bureaucracy and calls it progress. This legislation, Bill C-10, is a perfect example of that.
Let us be clear about what the commissioner could and could not do. They would have no binding authority. They could not compel departments to act, enforce treaty obligations or impose consequences on ministers or officials who fail indigenous treaty partners. What are we doing here? What would the commissioner actually be able to do? They could observe and report. Then what? Indigenous nations would still be left to do what they have always been forced to do under Liberal governments: hire lawyers, go to court and fight the Crown to enforce agreements that are already law.
We already know where the failures are. The leaders have told us. Parliamentary committees have heard it. The Auditor General has reported on it repeatedly. The problem is not a lack of oversight but a lack of execution. Creating a commissioner does not fix that.
It is worth reminding the House that modern treaties are not symbolic documents but constitutionally protected agreements in federal law. Implementing them is not optional, yet under the Liberal government, not a single modern treaty has been finalized, despite more than 70 groups currently being in negotiations.
The Conservative record was much better at completing agreements. Until such time as the Liberals start putting the needs of the indigenous people of Saskatoon West ahead of those of the bureaucrats in Ottawa, I cannot and will not support this legislation.
