Canadian Heritage Committee on Nov. 22nd, 2011

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

I am going back to education. What would you say to a legacy project in regard to education?

Mr. Cyr, you had talked about basicaly revising the curriculum taught in schools to a more inclusive teaching of history. As my colleague mentioned, not a lot of Canadian students graduate from high school with a full sense of history, their history, Canadian history.

I've always believed that being able to see yourself in your educational material is one of the things that help keep students in school. It creates a relevance to their being there. It creates a meaning to what they're learning that they then take into the world.

As a legacy project, what would you say to a full-fledged revising of our school curriculum to make it more inclusive of the aboriginal contribution to Canada?

[Jeffrey Cyr]

I think that's a fantastic idea.

I think collaborating among national aboriginal organizations, to sit down and collaborate together, bringing expertise from different first nations and Métis education institutions.... There are some areas in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, I know, where the curriculum has been adjusted to some degree to more properly reflect Métis history and in some other areas to reflect first nations history.

I think a global look at exactly how that curriculum is presented to students, how this history.... The history of residential schools, the history of treaties, the history of the Manitoba Act and the role of Louis Riel needs to be better told.

We're a professional service-delivery organization in friendship centres, and of course we would volunteer to work with other aboriginal organizations to assist in that. It would take a collaboration of people to bring that forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you.

Mr. Armstrong.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Thank you both for being here. I enjoyed your presentations.

Mr. Chartier, you talked about the December decision that's going to be made at the Supreme Court, or the case that's going to the Supreme Court. When that court case is resolved, do you see anything coming out of it that we should consider as a committee to try to include in this study on Canada 150?

What impact could that have on our preparations for 2017?

[Clément Chartier]

On that note, what's on trial, if I can use that term, is the history of Manitoba, and of course the history of Canada, in that sense. There are going to be certain findings coming out of that. A lot of that the Canadian public is not aware of, and a lot of our own people aren't aware of it, because it's been a long time; it's been over 100 years.

Again, as part of the legacy projects, in terms of history, that would be one of the things people should be educated about. As I mentioned, with the minister and the Office of the Federal Interlocutor we are looking at ways of trying to get messaging out, and it's possible that once we learn more, perhaps we could share that information with you as well.

Certainly it's a very important part of Canadian history, and regardless of which way the court comes down on the question, I think Canadians should understand why that result was reached, based on what the history is, just so people are fully aware of it.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

Sure.

Leading up to the Olympic Games there was a well-celebrated impact or role for aboriginal communities in the planning and the celebratory nature of that whole festival we had in British Columbia. It wasn't just athletics; it was arts, and it involved many cultures across this country. We really showed the world what Canada is all about.

Do you see a consultative process leading up to this in which we include first nations? What type of structure should that have for our sesquicentennial?

Mr. Cyr, I'll send that to you.

[Jeffrey Cyr]

I didn't participate in the Vancouver Olympics, so I won't comment on that side, but in terms of structure, we need to find a way to have a very strong and vocal aboriginal participation in the 150th.

I don't know what that looks like structurally. I know it would be a group of national organizations that sit down together and start working on how we bring legacy projects forward that properly reflect the history of those aboriginal peoples. It immediately strikes to mind that you'd be in some sort of a committee or national working group structure that would start that way, and there might be a whole bunch of regional representations of what that would look like in each province.

Those are just my opening thoughts on it.

[Scott Armstrong, Conservative, Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley, NS]

We and many witnesses talked a lot on this committee about moving people around, relating it back to 1967, when there were a lot of youth exchanges. We have an incredibly immense geographic nation, and it's important that we encourage people as much as possible to see different parts of the country.

I'm a former educator who has had the opportunity to work with a lot of first nations communities in the schools where I was a teacher and administrator. If we engage in that again, where we're moving people around and having youth exchanges, I see us having to work really closely with our first nations communities to encourage people to engage in that, to encourage our youth. With aboriginal people having the highest demographic growth in the youth component, I think we have to do it not only through the schools or through municipalities, but we're also going to have to engage directly with aboriginal communities across the nation.

For the aboriginal students who live off reserve, though, it's going to be even more difficult for us. Is there some mechanism to engage directly those aboriginal youth, and maybe youth living in the urban areas? Do you have any ideas on how we could do that, as a recommendation to this committee?

[Jeffrey Cyr]

I think it's a fantastic idea. I'm a product of an exchange program myself. I spent a year and a half in India, and I think it's a fantastic learning opportunity.

Within Canada itself, of course, it opens up a whole bunch of possibilities to take, for example, urban aboriginal youth, who are often disconnected from their culture, back to even other aboriginal communities in rural or remote settings, and of course to bring non-aboriginal youth both into the urban reality of aboriginal people and the remote reality—the reserve and small communities, and the Métis settlement reality.

There are several infrastructures in place. We have provincial associations and then we have the friendship centres themselves in communities. The Métis organizations have their structures as well, as do first nations, and I think there are easy, ready-made structures to at least start the conversation and to work through and to get access to it.

For example, in Ontario, the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres runs urban, alternative, aboriginal high schools. There's one here in Ottawa, for example. There are eight or nine of them across the province. There are urban high school students going to alternative high schools, because they get better rates of graduation from it.

So you could already see there's a ready-made group. But you can go to a lot of school boards and with the help of organizations you can find the appropriate students. It's important to find the non-aboriginal students as well and to bring them to a Métis community, or to a first nations or an Inuit community, and do that part of the exchange to learn.

It's a great idea.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Mr. Cash.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank both of you for being here today on this incredibly interesting and thought-provoking....

You've been getting some questions, and the committee has solicited your comments around things like the opening and closing ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics.

I have to say that today being national housing day in this country.... We have a crisis up in Attawapiskat right now. We have 70,000 or more people in my city, Toronto, who are on affordable housing waiting lists.

Mr. Cyr, you referenced housing as one of a host of issues that affect urban first nations, Métis, and Inuit—indigenous peoples who are living in our urban centres. So if you were on this committee studying this, or if you were potentially named to an independent committee that was going to organize our 150th, I wonder how you would prioritize things.

Beautiful ceremonies are great, and they teach us about ourselves to a certain extent, but if we're talking about substantive legacy commitments, legacy issues, especially in terms of young people.... You know the median age in 1967 for Canada was 26; the median age for Canada now is 41. What you're saying about aboriginal youth in our cities is that they're at the median age that we were as a country 50 years ago. It's a staggering statistic, which I'm not convinced a focus on the ceremonial aspect of our culture is going to get at.

I'm wondering if you could both comment on what your priorities would be if you were on an independent body studying this issue and planning it.

[Clément Chartier]

Of course my priority would be looking at the accommodation of the Métis people within Canada that's going to be lasting and productive for both the Métis people and Canada. In this case again, I would go back to the need for a land base and the opening of the space for self-government.

As I said, we signed this Métis Nation protocol. Some good things have come out of it. We have a Métis economic development symposium process. We've had two meetings chaired by the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development with the five provincial aboriginal affairs ministers from Ontario west. Certainly part of that is the need for youth. We have the aboriginal affairs working group under the Council of the Federation. More economic development is an important issue. Violence against women and education are both important. We deal with CMEC.

I believe Mr. Watson was asking about school. In Manitoba they came out with a new curriculum or history text—I think it's for grade 10—that deals with contemporary issues and actors. We're looking to see if we can replicate that across the rest of western Ontario.

I would say, for us, it's accommodation of a people. Of course there are various issues that would need to be addressed in the long run, such as housing, employment, and so on. In terms of bursaries or education for the Métis, we don't have access to federal scholarships and so on, as do first nations people. Through our assets program, which is the employment and training program, we have a system set up with some universities where we have endowment funds. We contribute so much and the universities match them. The proceeds of that go towards scholarships. It's minimal, but if we can build up things of that nature, it's going to assist our young people.

The big issue for us is the accommodation of ourselves within Canada.

[Andrew Cash, NDP, Davenport, ON]

Okay, thanks.

Mr. Cyr.

[Jeffrey Cyr]

I agree with you that celebrations are nice. They're perhaps galvanizing. People get focused on a date, and they're galvanized towards it. That plays an important role in celebrating Canada. As a legacy project, I would say we need to invest in aboriginal people. The question is, how do we do that? We need to invest in reflecting the demographic realities of where they are. They're young, unemployed, and facing social issues.

It would be a legacy project for the Government of Canada to reinvest in itself. How would it do that? It would look at the existing infrastructure through friendship centres and through first nations or Métis organizations, the infrastructure that Canada has helped build but has let slide over the last couple of decades. Reinvest in that seriously. That's how we deal with those social issues. It's proven to be successful when aboriginal people have self-created friendship centres: they are self-determined; it's aboriginal people running programs for themselves, essentially. It has proven to be successful over 60 years.

Then we need to look seriously at investing in our youth. How do we do that? Education is one, but we have to prepare the fertile ground for them to take up education. I would say there should be a serious expansion of the aboriginal head start program off reserve, where the majority of aboriginal people are. Almost every friendship centre I know has one. They're under-resourced. You can have maybe 23 children.... Here in Ottawa, there are almost 30,000 aboriginal people in the area, so there are more than 23 aboriginal kids who need a head start program.

We need to invest in things that work. We know head starts work. We know friendship centre structures work. We need to look back at what we were doing and proceed forward. That's what I would consider a real legacy—investing back into young people, to be honest.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mr. Cash.

Ms. Block.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank our guests for being here.

I should start off by saying that I am not a regular member of this committee, but I certainly feel very privileged to be here today during the study that's taking place at this committee.

I'm from Saskatchewan. I represent the riding of Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar and perhaps have the largest first nations and Métis population in the city of Saskatoon in my riding. It is also home to the Gabriel Dumont Institute, which has been talked about today. I have also had the privilege of attending the Back to Batoche celebrations in Saskatchewan, and working somewhat with Claire Bélanger-Parker on the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Northwest Resistance.

In 2010 Premier Brad Wall proclaimed 2010 to be the year of the Métis in Saskatchewan. I know there was a very significant ceremony that took place in which the premier was presented with a Métis sash. That sash now resides in the legislative chamber and is part of the ceremonies whenever the House sits. So I know we recognize the contributions that the Métis people have made economically, culturally, and socially to our province.

In talking about the various issues that have been raised here today, I'm wondering, Mr. Chartier, if you could talk a little bit about Batoche and the role it plays in the province in terms of telling the story. I know there's an interpretive centre at Batoche.

Also, in reflecting back on the 125th celebration--I know you were there and had an important part in that--would you describe for us best practices that you saw in the development of that celebration, moving forward to 2017?

[Clément Chartier]

Thank you.

Before I get to that, I want to say that in addition to what you mentioned with the legislature, I should inform the committee that on November 15 the City of Regina, Mayor Fiacco, and the Métis Nation raised the Métis Nation flag, which is now going to be flying permanently at city hall. I think that's another positive step.

In terms of Batoche, I was more engaged in the centenary in 1985 than I was last year. What I saw from last year was that there's been an expansion and growth from 1985, speaking to the greater regional actors, in terms of destination tourism. I think last year there was a greater cooperation or coordination between not only the Métis Nation and the Back to Batoche site itself, but also with the—I'm not sure what their name is—the tourism committee that deals with the northeastern part of Saskatchewan. So there was that collaboration. I think they're trying to coordinate it with those other destination sites within the province. I think that's been helpful, so people don't look at Batoche as only the one week and then nothing else. I think they're looking at various aspects.

We'd actually like to build that into northwest Saskatchewan as well, where you have the Methy Portage, which is a significant portage on the fur trade route, and there are various sites within northwest Saskatchewan as well that could attract tourism. I see that sort of thing being a major part of it, but being an integrated part of something bigger I think is important.

In this case, the 150th is for Canada as a whole, but I think there needs to be a significant part for the aboriginal peoples and nations and in particular the Métis Nation right from the outset. We're engaging today through the carrying out of various activities and developing infrastructures that are going to be lasting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

You have 30 seconds left.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Could you comment on the Gabriel Dumont Institute and the training and employment initiatives, the impact they also have in Saskatchewan? I know I've had the privilege of participating in a number of announcements for funding to the Gabriel Dumont Institute. Could you comment on that?

[Clément Chartier]

It was set up basically coming out of 1976, on behalf of Métis saying that we have to start promoting our culture, we have to start preserving our culture, we have to make our culture known and our people known. That is where the Gabriel Dumont Institute came from. It's expanded now. Of course it has SUNTEP, the teacher education program. It also has Dumont Technical Institute, which delivers employment and training within Saskatchewan. It has Dumont college, which is part of the University of Saskatchewan.

Of course Gabriel Dumont Institute itself has a working relationship or affiliation with both universities in the province. So it plays a tremendous role in Métis education. It also does publishing and curriculum development. It's very successful and a leader in terms of how it could be replicated in other provinces as well. Federal funding has been made available over the past few years to enable it to do further research, have a website, and so on. More of that certainly would be helpful.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Moore]

Thank you, Mrs. Block.

Thank you to both of our witnesses, Mr. Chartier and Mr. Cyr. Your input is valued. As we study Canada's 150th anniversary, we certainly will take into account everything you said in your opening remarks as well as your answers to all our questions. Usually we have a couple more witnesses, so you took a lot more questions than people normally would have in a panel, and we appreciate your doing that. Thank you.

At this point we will go in camera to discuss upcoming committee business.

We'll suspend for a couple of minutes.

[Proceedings continue in camera]