Evidence of meeting #2 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was crowder.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:20 p.m.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
It would have to be no later than December 11.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
I think December 11 will be the first available meeting, so let's put that in, “on December 11”.
(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
Now the third set of motions. Ms. Crowder sent us a quartet of motions.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
The first one is that the committee adopt the recommendations contained in the sixth report of this committee in the first session of the 39th Parliament, entitled “No Higher Priority: Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education in Canada”, and report them to the House.
Did you want to speak to that, Ms. Crowder?
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As the committee members are well aware, we spent a substantial amount of time studying post-secondary education and we had a very cursory response from the government. Since we tabled the report, we've had a number of other factors emerge that talk about the importance of post-secondary education. Today a number of us were in discussions with the Mining Association of Canada, where it was clear that education and training are really important factors in development of the industry. The potential workforce is first nations.
As well, over this last couple of months we've had organizations like the First Nations Technical Institute. Part of that report dealt with funding to aboriginal-controlled post-secondary education institutes. The First Nations Technical Institute has had its funding severely curtailed, and it is in danger of having programs close down. FNTI has a stellar reputation. It has done a substantial amount of work in terms of attracting and educating students and building partnerships, yet they are losing significant amounts of funding from the federal government.
Given other information that has come forward around the increasing labour shortages in Canada, it would seem that we need a call to commit resources, not only to students but aboriginal-controlled institutions.
I think it would be important for the committee to resubmit that report and to ask the government to submit a response that is reflective of all that has happened over this last several months. I am simply asking the committee to submit that sixth report back to the House and ask the government for a response.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
Mr. Chair, I'm not sure if there are any double jeopardy laws that would be appropriate here, but this seems redundant. It has been submitted before; I'm not sure why it needs to be submitted again. I heard your reasons, but the committee has submitted this. We spent a lot of time on it. It has been done in the House previously, by our chair in the last session. I haven't been here long enough, but I haven't seen this done before, at least in my twenty or so months. I've never seen a report that has already been submitted being resubmitted.
I will defer to the committee, but I don't see this as something that needs to be done again.
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Actually, Mr. Chair, because the session was prorogued, we're actually starting fresh. In the last sitting other committees submitted reports--for example, the status of women committee submitted a report that had been considered in the previous Parliament and asked for a response. Again, I think there have been some changes that would warrant a response from the government. We still haven't had a response, for example, from Justice Berger's report in Nunavut that talked about education.
There is enough that has changed since that original government response that it would be warranted, particularly in view of the government's own throne speech around education and training. They had a different focus, so perhaps they'd like to have a different response to the report.
4:25 p.m.
Liberal
Anita Neville Liberal Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Briefly, Mr. Chair, I would support Ms. Crowder's motion. There is precedent for resubmitting reports. The House has prorogued. I've been a part of committees that have resubmitted reports of previous committees.
There are a number of issues arising, some of which Ms. Crowder has mentioned, as well as the B.C. education process, which we have all been hearing concerns about.
I think there is reason to do it, and I would certainly support the motion.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
Okay.
There's a difference of opinion here, but it also sounds like this is not a--
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
We're about to start a filibuster.
I'm kidding. Why don't you call the question?
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
4:30 p.m.
An hon. member
Let's have a vote, Mr. Chair
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
We will have a vote on Ms. Crowder's motion that the committee adopt the recommendation in the sixth report from the last session.
(Motion agreed to)
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
The second motion that came from Ms. Crowder is that the committee invite representatives from the Naskapi Nation to appear.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
The third motion is that the committee invite the Auditor General to appear to report on the audit done on the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.
Ms. Crowder.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
I'm sure committee members have had an opportunity to look at the Auditor General's very good work in chapter 3 from October. Those of us who have had an opportunity to look at it will be dismayed at some of the findings of the Auditor General. I won't go through this chapter and verse, because of course if we have agreement that the Auditor General will be coming before us, we'll have an opportunity to ask her about the details on these findings.
This report is not only symbolic of the problems with land claims implementation in Canada, but it's also a shocking display of a couple of decades' worth of neglect in terms of implementing what should be a federal government responsibility.
I think one of the reasons it would be important is that the Auditor General herself says:
The purpose of land claim agreements is to provide certainty for all parties and to clarify the rights of Aboriginal groups to lands and resources, in a manner that is intended to facilitate Aboriginal peoples' economic growth and self-sufficiency.
Throughout the report, she details a litany of government failings.
This is an all-party run at this, because it's over two decades. Various parties have been in favour, so they can all wear the blame for it. But there's some pretty strong language in here, so I would urge the committee to ask the Auditor General to come before us. Because we don't currently have anything scheduled for Thursday, if the Auditor General's department has somebody available it would allow us to actually do this in an expedited way. I'm sure the committee members would be very interested in hearing what the Auditor General has to say about this, particularly in light of some of the other land claim agreements that are going to be coming forward.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
It sounds like there's general agreement, or wide agreement anyway, that we go ahead with this.
From a scheduling point of view, as you know, Ms. Crowder, we currently have nothing scheduled for this Thursday. That's only a day and a half away, so I guess we can't be assured that the Auditor General would be available on that day. But that request could be made tomorrow morning—or tonight, if we're out of here before 5:30.
Are there any other comments on this?
Perhaps we should add to this: “on November 22, and failing that, at the next opportunity”.
(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Barry Devolin
The final motion we have to deal with today is also from Ms. Crowder: That the committee invite NWAC to appear and report on the outcomes of the National Aboriginal Women's Summit.
4:35 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
The Native Women's Association of Canada, and perhaps some others, at the summit that was held in Newfoundland Labrador in June, I believe.... There were a number of studies and reports that were tabled at the summit, and it would seem to me that given all the work that went into the summit, it would be an opportunity for the committee—since all of us here are concerned with women's rights and women's equality—to hear from, at a minimum, the Native Women's Association of Canada about what took place at the summit and some of the recommendations.
They had representatives from a number of organizations, including Pauktuutit, Inuit Women's Association, the women of the Métis Nation, the Native Women's Association of Canada, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, the Assembly of First Nations, the Northwest Territories, and the National Association of Friendship Centres. So you can see there was a fairly wide cross-section of representatives who came to the summit, and they covered issues such as violence against women, the environment, culturally relevant gender-based analysis, equality and empowerment, matrimonial property, and so on. There was a huge number of topics.
Out of that summit, the women came up with some recommendations. So I think that given a number of the issues the committee has talked about in the past, whether it's education or housing—certainly we've been talking about matrimonial and real property coming before the committee at some point—it would be timely to hear from the native women of Canada around their concerns and their recommendations.
This is not simply to talk about the problems. There are some real recommendations that have come forward that we might want to consider in the work that's going to unfold over the next several months.