Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 3rd, 2014

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you both for being here.

For the first question I will start with Ms. Christiansen.

I'm from Saskatchewan. I think we have at least some common friends. One of my closest friends was the late Jim Sinclair. I know that any first nations person or Métis in Saskatchewan and probably across Canada knew Jim. I was a big admirer of his and I was very sorry to see him pass. I'm not sure whether you went to the funeral. I say in passing—no pun intended, obviously—that I was the only non-aboriginal to speak at his funeral. I miss him greatly. I know he always had, as much as any Canadian I've ever met, the best interests of all first nations people, all aboriginal people, and Métis in his heart.

I want to ask you a couple of specific questions based on comments you made about voter identification being a barrier to voter turnout. You mentioned that just more than 3,700 people, I think it was, live on the reserve in Lac La Ronge, but whatever the number is, it's really fairly irrelevant.

You've lived there for most of your life, if not all your life. I know you can't probably give me an exact number, but roughly what percentage of members of your reserve would have their status cards? Is it the majority?

[Gladys Christiansen]

These are all status members.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

I know they're all status people, but you said that some don't have their...that they've been waiting years to get their status treaty cards.

[Gladys Christiansen]

That doesn't mean that you don't have a....

Mr. Chair, may I...?

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Sure.

So they all have cards?

[Gladys Christiansen]

They don't necessarily have cards; they have treaty status. The number I was using was for how many registered first nations members there are in Ottawa's books, wherever they are. When we are born, we are born status.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

But the treaty status card that they have would be an acceptable form of identification as to who they are. It doesn't have their address on it; I understand that. But it does have an identification of the person themselves, doesn't it? It has your name on it.

[Gladys Christiansen]

I have my status card right here. I got it in Ottawa the last time I was here. It has a picture ID. This is supposed to be the new card, as I understand it. The one I had prior to this didn't have a picture.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

No, but I'm saying it has your name on it.

[Gladys Christiansen]

It has my name on it, but it doesn't have an address.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Right, and that seems to be the problem for most people, that they don't have addresses. I can certainly appreciate that on reserve. But are you aware that you can use just a letter from any band council member or chief or administrator from the reserve to verify address, and that it would be acceptable?

[Gladys Christiansen]

No, I'm not aware of that and I don't think my chief or the leadership is aware of it.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Yes, it's part of the 39 items that are available to prove address. So in other words—

[Gladys Christiansen]

Well, I read that listing.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

—if you have your status card, all you would need is a letter from someone in the band administration to say that this is so and so who lives on this reserve. Then you would be able to cast a ballot.

The problem with VICs, as explained by a couple of witnesses, is that they're pretty unreliable, particularly voter information cards going to on-reserve recipients. So one of the provisions in this bill was to try to alleviate that problem and make it as easy as possible to show proof of residence. With a status card and a letter from either a band council member, a chief, or a band administrator, you would be able to use those together as identification and proof of identity and cast a ballot.

I guess my question to you, then, is this. Would that alleviate a lot of the problems that you have identified?

[Gladys Christiansen]

I just read about that this weekend to give myself the background information I needed to be able to come and speak here. When I read it, I had never heard of it before, so I don't know whether the people who look after the voting polls know it.

What I was saying was that we have close to 10,000 members, of whom more than 6,000 are of voting age. Who in the band administration is going to be writing out these letters to say that you can go vote? Why should it be an additional burden for the first nation all the time?

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

I guess my point would be—I'm just trying to find a simple solution here—that you can have one letter, like a template—

[Gladys Christiansen]

A simple solution would be to put an address on this card.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Yes, it would, but in lieu of that, I'm saying that there's really no impediment to voting for anyone on reserve, because those options contained in Bill C-23 are available. Thanks for the commentary, but—

[Gladys Christiansen]

But you still need an additional piece of ID, in addition to that letter.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Pardon me?

[Gladys Christiansen]

You still need an additional piece of ID, in addition to the letter.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

You have that with your status card.

[Gladys Christiansen]

That's if we have a status card.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

That's true. That's why I asked the question originally about what percentage of your reserve would have status cards.