Evidence of meeting #156 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was businesses.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Mr. Boulerice, you have six minutes.
The vote starts in five minutes. I'm going to suggest that we just continue for the full six minutes, and then we'll suspend to vote.
Go ahead, sir.
NDP
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all our witnesses for being with us today to discuss this very important issue for us in the NDP. We believe it is important to be serious and responsible in the context of a reconciliation approach, a nation-to-nation relationship. This is really a priority for us.
As a non-indigenous person, I am fortunate to be part of a caucus that includes first nations representatives. We have Leah Gazan from Winnipeg, Blake Desjarlais, a Métis from Edmonton, and Lori Idlout, who is Inuit and represents Nunavut. So this topic is part of our discussions and proposals.
I also want to highlight the work my former colleague Romeo Saganash did to bring about the acceptance of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as part of federal legislation. There's still a lot of work to be done, but we're on that path.
Ms. Semaganis, I really liked your testimony. You became quite passionate, quite emotional even, when you talked about the issue of drinking water and access to water.
Could you explain to us exactly where things stand? What is being done and what is not being done?
What is the reality on the ground for communities that unfortunately don't have access to something as basic as water?
Leader, Ghost Warrior Society
As an activist, to me the issue of clean drinking water is prevalent. I first got into this when I was working with and following the Wet'suwet'en situation from 2019. I was actually here on Parliament Hill when the yellow vest convoy came on February 19, 2019.
I crunched the numbers in Alberta on fracking processes and the amount of water required for a single fracking, and then I crunched the numbers for every indigenous community across Canada that has no potable water or drinking water. It's astronomical.
Government estimates are about 200,000, but it's closer to 300,000 in various communities such as Grassy Narrows, which has mercury and contaminants in the water. The challenges that our communities face just for these very basic human needs.... If they were the cities of North Bay or Toronto, it would be declared a national emergency, but seeing as we are relegated back to the most undesirable land in this country, called reserves, we are a very low priority.
When we have these kinds of exploitation misdirecting much-needed resources away from capacity building.... We do not live on fee simple land. We have these extra economic barriers when we try to leverage mortgages and build capacity.
The Métis Nation of Ontario has significant post-secondary education funding. I don't have a university degree because I don't have access to post-secondary funding through my first nation. It's things like this. We need to increase that talent pipeline. We need to fund that talent pipeline and increase post-secondary funding for first nations, Métis and Inuit.
You need to allocate dollars to study the impact of first nations, Métis and Inuit identity fraud on our people, because once you realize those numbers, there will be much more public support for deterrence, for making legal changes and laws and creating legislation that will stop the grift in its tracks. This is a serious, traumatic misallocation of resources, and it must be stopped.
I thank you for this time at this committee to actually speak to what it means to somebody who does not have access to these colonial regimes and this colonial settler privilege that truth and reconciliation aims to bridge. We cannot pick and choose from these calls for action and say, “Oh, I did this one and this one.” No. Look at all of them, implement all of them and make a commitment to all of them. Make a timeline, make a framework, build these relationships and stop first nations, Métis and Inuit identity fraud. Stop it.
Thank you.
Alexandre Boulerice NDP Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC
You talked a lot about the historical exploitation of first nations, Métis and Inuit and colonialism.
When it comes to federal contracts, to what extent do fraud and misappropriation of funds fit into a framework that reeks of colonialism, as is the case with natural resource projects that do not respect the will of first nations as stewards of the land?
Leader, Ghost Warrior Society
The impact of fraud is what I referred to earlier in speaking about our data deficit. When you don't measure these things, you don't know the extent of the problem.
Across all sectors, fraud is in the billions of dollars each year. It's absolutely billions of dollars. If you look beyond procurement, it's in the billions of dollars. It is significant. It is detrimental. It is stunting our growth and our capacity. It is trauma for everyday people who live in these indigenous communities and are trying to build capacity and be equal partners, but our resources are pilfered, misdirected and misused.
The general public looks at that and says, “Hey, these indigenous dollars are being wasted,” but we're not even receiving the dollars because of this misrepresentation and exploitation.
That's the injustice.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thanks.
I have to cut us off here. We're going to suspend so we can vote, and we'll be back in a few minutes.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you for your patience, everyone. We're no longer suspended.
I understand that Mrs. Block wishes to put a motion on notice.
Go ahead, please.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Thank you very much, Chair.
I will be very brief and just get to the motion. The motion is that, “Given recent reports that Global Affairs Canada spent $523,000 on furniture in a single day on March 31 of this year, and has spent approximately $25.5 million on furniture since 2022, and considering that this apparent end-of-year budget spending blitz occurs at a time when Canadians are facing financial hardship and accessing food banks in record numbers, that the committee invite senior officials from Global Affairs Canada to a meeting to explain this spending.”
Thank you.
Conservative
