Foreign Affairs Committee on Oct. 9th, 2025

[Natan Obed]

The Arctic Council is a very interesting model in which indigenous peoples have permanent participant seats. There is still a line between nation-states and indigenous peoples within that particular body. I would love to see, in the future, clearly articulated peer-based spaces in which rights-holding indigenous peoples and their representatives sit alongside state leadership in outcomes from these types of bodies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you.

We'll now go to the next member.

Go ahead, Mr. Simard. You have six minutes.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here, Mr. Obed.

I want to follow up on what you said to Mr. Oliphant about codevelopment. You talked about the frustration that can arise, and I understand that.

At the end of the discussion, you talked about the Arctic Council, which you are involved in.

That brings to mind a doctrine unique to Quebec, which you may be familiar with, the Gérin‑Lajoie doctrine. It calls for greater responsibility in international forums, particularly in areas specifically under Quebec's jurisdiction.

Isn't your development shaped by a need for greater political autonomy? I'd like to know whether you have any demands of the federal government on that front.

[Natan Obed]

Our asks to the federal government have been based more on respect and structured respect, whether it's how we get into these halls and have passes so we're not seen as visitors to the House of Commons but peers doing work, just like premiers when they come into these spaces, or whether it's Canada Day and the Government of Canada presents its ministers, Prime Minister and Governor General but also decides who speaks on behalf of indigenous peoples, not the indigenous peoples ourselves. How we are treated when we come to the House of Commons, the protocols and processes that are housed within the Speaker's office or within legislation that is housed within Canadian Heritage and also Privy Council's responsibility for the order of precedence, they need to be changed. That's how we get to true respect for Inuit rights holders in this country, by treating us as a part of the construction of Canada as a nation-state, rather than as groups that you have to placate because that's the political norm in this country.

We are an essential part of the construction of this country, one that not very many parliamentarians or those who enact and implement the rules around the functioning of this democracy care to respect.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Obed. I agree with you in many respects.

Earlier, we were discussing the development of necessary infrastructure, but I think development in the north has to adhere to two key parameters. On one hand, of course, there's economic development and infrastructure development, but on the other hand, there's social and cultural development, especially for Inuit.

Something you said struck me. If I heard correctly, you said that 85% of essential services provided to your people are not delivered in their mother tongue. Is that actually what you said in your opening remarks? I thought I heard something like that.

I want to understand the dynamics around essential services, because 85% is a staggering number. When I think essential services, I think of health and social services, which would mean that most of those services are not available to you in your mother tongue. Do I have that right?

[Natan Obed]

Thank you so much for the question.

To clarify, for Inuktut, our language, I was speaking specifically of Nunavut, one of our four jurisdictions, which houses half of our population. However, in that particular jurisdiction, 85% of the Nunavut population is Inuit. The majority mother tongue, for upwards of 80% of those people, is Inuktut. The federal government has no obligation to provide any of its services to any of those people in Inuktut.

I give that as an example because it's the strongest example that you have in the country of a jurisdiction not respecting the linguistic rights of the majority population.

In other parts of Inuit Nunangat, like in Nunavik, in northern Quebec, almost 100% of Inuit speak Inuktitut. Again, there is no obligation for the federal government to provide services in Inuktitut to them either.

These are essential things that we tried to change through the indigenous languages legislation, but we were unable to do so. There is a five-year review of that legislation coming up, and I do hope that there can be consideration of official language status within our homeland so that we can get beyond this very glaring gap in service.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

You can have a very brief question and answer.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

I'll be very quick.

I know this isn't the purpose of our study, but if you have any specific recommendations to share on language use, I would be glad to read them. You can submit your recommendations to the committee.

Thank you, Mr. Obed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Give a very brief response please.

[Natan Obed]

Thanks. I'll be sure to follow up with you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much.

We go to the second round of questioning, beginning with MP Rood.

You have five minutes.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much.

Thank you for being here today.

How are Inuit organizations leading decisions, day to day, toward food sovereignty?

[Natan Obed]

Thanks.

We have tremendous food insecurity issues. We also have tremendous poverty issues across Inuit Nunangat. We have food insecurity rates upwards to 70%. We also have median income gaps of approximately $70,000 between Inuit and non-Inuit who live in our homeland.

We have relied on government programming for some of this equity piece. The nutrition north program has helped. It is also challenging in some ways from a social policy lens, but there are also traditional harvesting grants that are now associated with the nutrition north program that allow for us to harvest healthy, nutritious country food and provide that as part of food sovereignty or food security within our homeland.

The transmission of language and culture is also essential to ensuring that our food sovereignty and food security needs are met. We know that we have a mixed diet. We know that we need more employment and greater earning levels to be able to fix the food insecurity issue more broadly. We are trying to work with the government on things like school food programs so that our children, if they are in food-insecure homes, can have food at school to get them focused on their tasks for the day.

We have a multipronged approach. We are involved at the community level and all the way up through our national level in either delivering programs or creating strategies for this work.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Are there any other partners besides the Government of Canada that are working with you or with the Inuit on food security? How is success being measured?

[Natan Obed]

There are ad hoc, not-for-profit societies that have worked with Inuit communities. Also, the child first initiative was very progressive in the way that it provided funding for food for Inuit children who were in need of food. That has been drawn back this fiscal year by the Government of Canada.

On the ad hoc, individual stopgap measures, whether they be from southern-based institutions shipping food up or food centres within Inuit Nunangat that are volunteer-run, we know that we need to give them more support. There are incredible individuals who are helping with food insecurity within our communities. We have a food security strategy nationally, and we also then need to fill in policy gaps or improve the programs that exist to ensure that, when we spend a dollar, that dollar is spent on those who need it most, rather than lining the pockets of for-profit corporations or getting lost in general administration.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Is there a particular department that your group has been working with to advance the advocacy on food security?

How much money is committed over the next five years and to what programs?

[Natan Obed]

We've worked with this government on funds specifically for the school food program. There were a few different departments that were involved in the implementation of that particular announcement. Generally speaking, though, we don't have the resources that we were looking for. We put pre-budget submissions in for a 10-year solution for school food programs, just for one.

We generally go to Indigenous Services Canada with a lot of our requests. They're the ones we are working with on the Inuit child first initiative. They're the focal point of the federal consideration. Within each of our jurisdictions, our land claim treaty organizations work with their governments on this issue as well.

[Lianne Rood, Conservative, Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you.

I have one quick, final question.

In your opening, you mentioned foreign interference. I'm just curious. Are foreign actors seeking to influence Inuit and how?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Give a brief response, please.

[Natan Obed]

This is a much longer conversation. I would just say that it's through industry, through research and also through social media. There are a number of different ways in which foreign actors have or can influence our populations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ahmed Hussen]

Thank you very much.

Next, we'll go to MP Mona Fortier.

You have five minutes.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier—Gloucester, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you again for being here today. Congratulations for your fourth term. We had the privilege of working together during the Inuit-Crown partnership and in different meetings when I was president of the Treasury Board. I believe we made some progress, even though I know there's much more progress that needs to be done. Your leadership is exemplary and very effective. I know that the next few years will be another opportunity to move that forward.

We are undertaking a study on Canada's Arctic foreign policy and related efforts to secure Arctic sovereignty. I wanted to ask about how we should look at the foreign policy, in the sense of.... Do you have a position paper? How do we include self-determination of the Inuit in the foreign policy development we're doing?

[Natan Obed]

Thank you for the question, Mona.

We did codevelop the piece specifically around inclusivity in our Arctic diplomacy. We're very thrilled that the Arctic ambassador position has been filled. Virginia Mearns is a capable and extraordinary person. I know she'll do well in the role. We also are hopeful that the consulates in Anchorage and in Nuuk can be opened as soon as possible.

There's this overarching principle of inclusion in diplomacy. We are not part of the Canadian state in that I'm not a member of the House of Commons, but we are serving the same ends. We are a part of a nation-state and part of the structure of the nation-state. This is something we spoke quite a bit about within indigenous peoples' direct interventions at places like the climate change COPs.

I think it's possible for indigenous leaders to work with Canada on positions and sometimes bring forward nation-state positions on behalf of all Canadians. I think there's a way in which we can reimagine the way rights-holding indigenous peoples make this nation-state stronger. On certain things, like Inuit Nunangat, it would only make sense for Inuit leadership to sometimes bring the Canadian position forward to our global counterparts instead of it being exclusively ministers of the Crown or the Prime Minister.

We have an unbelievable advantage in our constructive arrangements with indigenous peoples in this country. My plea to all of you is to use it. We want to be helpful. We want to ensure that our nation-state is as strong as it can be internationally and that our foreign policy is the most progressive and the most effective. That can only happen with greater inclusion of Inuit voices.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier—Gloucester, ON]

If ever you have a position paper or some supporting document that we can have as a committee to look at how we can include a recommendation or look into this, it would be very appreciated. It could guide our report.

Another question I wanted to ask is this: What role should Inuit organizations play in shaping Canada's relationship with Arctic neighbours, such as the U.S., Greenland and the Nordic countries? Do you have any response to that?

[Natan Obed]

These are our neighbours and our relatives, in many cases.

Again, I think Canada has not really considered to its fullest extent the tactical advantage of having a homogeneous society across nation-state borders and the positive ability for us to work with our separate governments for a common interest.

With the Kingdom of Denmark, the tie that binds us is Greenland. The policy issues that are essential to Greenlandic Inuit are the same for Canadian Inuit. There has been the willingness by other nation-states, like Denmark, to provide Inuit-specific considerations for diplomacy that allow for better relations with other nation-states. Also, with the United States, with the connections we have with Inuit in Alaska and the work we've done since the 1970s in the Inuit Circumpolar Council, we could leverage all of that for the nation-state concerns that we have, whether in defence, sovereignty or development of the region. We have great opportunities.