Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 10th, 2009

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

If we can't address Bill C-5, I'd like to talk about post-secondary education and get briefed on the current state of affairs. There are issues. I'd not only like to hear from the representatives from the department, but also from the Assembly of First Nations. Many people have asked me to raise the issues of post-secondary education and education in general at committee, so that we have an opportunity to ask the officials what's happening. You don't just fix the problem by building or renovating schools. The amount earmarked for post-secondary education is a discretionary sum and that's something that needs to be discussed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

So in general, the issue would be the education in first nations communities, and the proposal by Mr. Lemay is that the briefing come from the department but also from the AFN.

Let's go to Mr. Russell.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

What you've suggested in terms of moving the briefings up and hoping we'll get to Bill C-5 is fine with us. When you talk about a Statistics Canada presentation, that will have to be broad in terms of aboriginal peoples. I mean, there's an Aboriginal Peoples Survey out there as well, and it would be good to get some feedback on that.

Now, I'm open to it, but if we're talking first nations, we're talking Métis, and we're talking Inuit as well? So that's the gamut?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

It's a big area.

Going back to earlier comments, the issue of the post-secondary school support programs was discussed.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

With Statistics Canada you can have a very refined presentation or you can have it broader in terms of looking at the Métis statistics and Inuit statistics. I think you want to include it all.

I firmly agree with Mr. Lemay on post-secondary education. A lot of the correspondence coming in now is dealing with that particular issue. But I would also like to open it up a little bit. I've had some representation from Inuit regions as well that are also affected by post-secondary education. I'd just like to broaden it in terms of the briefings.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Just so that I understand, then, on the suggestion that we look at this education question, that would be unrelated to my comments; it would be more specifically the post-secondary school student support program in particular and how that is rolling out. Is that the issue? In a one-meeting briefing, obviously we're not going to be going into a study per se.

Mr. Lemay, and then Mr. Russell.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Russell told us we have received a lot of requests for information about the government potentially withdrawing from its commitments in the areas of first nations post-secondary education, obviously, because there is no legal obligation in that regard under the Indian Act, but also with respect to secondary education. We get the sense that the federal government wants to transfer this responsibility to the provinces.

What is the department's intention with respect to education?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Let's go to Ms. Crowder.

I'm sorry, Ms. Crowder, I'd had that flipped around. Pardon me.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

That's okay.

I just want to support Monsieur Lemay's request to have a briefing from the department on education, and I would support having the Assembly of First Nations. ITK or an Inuit organization probably would be important as well. We've had Justice Berger's report and recommendations around education; it wasn't just post-secondary.

Again, it's not a study--the committee already did a fulsome study on post-secondary education--but it would be important to know where the department has gone based on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Very good.

Mr. Duncan.

[John Duncan, Conservative, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Building on the comments of those who have spoken previously, I think it's great that we get the department in to talk about post-secondary education and get a briefing. But if we start going to the AFN and others, I'm sorry, but that's not a briefing. We're getting into some other territory, and it won't be devoid of politics.

Is that really a briefing? No, it's not. We're getting into a study all over again. I wouldn't know where to draw the line if we started doing that. If we invite AFN, then do we have to invite CAP, for instance? Where do we stop?

So I do have a concern there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Mr. Russell, and then Monsieur Bélanger. After that, members, we'll have to wrap this up, unfortunately.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

It's an important issue. You can have briefings from agencies other than the federal government. There's nothing wrong with AFN briefing the committee on where they're at in terms of the post-secondary education or the 2% cap. There's no problem with ITK. All we're doing is just getting as fulsome information as possible.

That doesn't mean we're going to move into a full-fledged study. That means we're getting different aspects of this particular matter presented to the committee. So I don't see that being protracted. We can get these various viewpoints, these various briefings, and then we can decide as a committee where we want to go. I don't see this spanning any more than maybe two meetings right now, with a series of briefings from different national aboriginal organizations in conjunction with the department.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Fine.

Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

May I raise another matter, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

No, it is on the same topic.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'd like to bring up another issue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

I see, go ahead.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'd like to begin by thanking the clerk and our staff for having distributed the list of members with their contact details.

Also, we received notice of a nomination by order in council. In previous committees I've sat on, it was common practice for the clerk to attach a copy of the nominees' curriculum vitae to the notice. Could this be done here? This would give us a sense of who the nominee is.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

These are sessional papers provided to the committee from time to time. I don't even have much history with this. We got them in the industry, science, and technology committee, but I don't recall that the CVs were actually distributed with the appointments. Mr. Bélanger, can we check into that to see if that's available and report back?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

That sounds good, Mr. Chair.

When the government proceeds with a nomination by order in council, a curriculum vitae is also produced. This curriculum vitae is made available. You just have to get a copy and have it attached to this document.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Of course.

Okay, members, we'll take that under consideration and plan the next four meetings accordingly. As you can tell, we have some uncertainty around timing here, but we'll do our best to make sure we have a fulsome agenda in front of you and we can continue our good work.

Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.