Evidence of meeting #26 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was management.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
Thank you.
Chief Bear, you talked about going through this for 10 or 15 years. That leads to my next question. Where do you see first nations land management in 10 or 15 years?
Chair, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
I envision that in 10 or 15 years, the first nations who wish and choose and determine that this is the direction their first nation wishes to go, with this piece of sectoral self-government, setting aside the Indian Act.... I envision that in 10 or 15 years almost half of the first nations in Canada will pursue this opportunity and will be making great strides in developing their first nations not only by enhancing governance, but also by creating opportunities from land developments and opportunities in economic development with partners who are now waiting, willing, and wanting to do business with first nations.
The first 38 first nations are now operational. There is evidence across the country that first nations are taking these meaningful opportunities and creating opportunities for their first nations and their people. Westbank's Chief Robert Louie is one prime example. We in Muskoday are proud of our accomplishments. Likewise with first nations in Ontario; I'll mention Nipissing First Nation and I'll mention Georgina Island. We have those examples all across the country. That's what I envision for our first nations in 15 or 20 years.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you. It does sound exciting.
Colleagues, we're moving into the cleanup session of questions, so we will take a little bit of time. We'll try to keep with the schedule of the third round, but if there are cleanup questions, we will make sure that people get those answered.
Ms. Duncan.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Thanks.
I just have three quick questions that I will throw out, and you can decide who best answers—all of you or some of you. Before I do that, I really want to thank all of you for your testimony and for taking the time to come. It's really helpful.
First, in your programs or in your referrals, do you also provide information to “students”, I'll call them, on technical information sources? An example would be technical experts on groundwater—where the aquifers are, what to do with groundwater contamination and how to avoid it, issues on air pollution, issues with dealing with contaminated sites and how to avoid them, and so forth.
Second, does your course also include instruction on how to address and respond to off-reserve environmental impacts that might impact your reserve lands?
My third question relates to something that was mentioned by, I think, Chief Bear, and that I found interesting—namely, the statement that it was your understanding that the government is obligated to support the framework signatories. I'm curious to know if that's somewhere in your agreement. From where do you find that obligation of the government to actually support the delivery of this capacity-building and help people to be able to develop and implement the codes?
Those are my three questions.
Senior Advisor, Capacity Building, Training and Professional Development, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
In regard to your question on groundwater, we have a course on natural resources management. It covers forestry, agriculture, air, water, and minerals. It's national. We address all the different provinces and the differences in legislation and how it's applied.
It's very general in the sense that here is the information and this is what it is: air quality and—
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I don't mean to interrupt you, but that's not actually my question.
Senior Advisor, Capacity Building, Training and Professional Development, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
Oh, okay.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I'm asking if, in addition to what you teach in all those categories, you also provide to your students resource lists, a directory of people they can contact, once they start to implement the land code.
For instance, where would they find a groundwater expert? Do you provide ways for them to find those people? It's not the substantive course I'm asking about, it's—
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Yes, the Yellow Pages: the directory assistance to the experts out there.
Thanks for that answer.
Executive Director, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
Our adviser on the environmental side is Dr. David Harper from Victoria. He's the one who would provide data like that to the first nations, because we provide his expertise to assist in ongoing environmental issues.
Advisor, Capacity Building, Training and Professional Development, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
I guess I could try to answer.
Executive Director, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
Okay, you try, Patti.
Advisor, Capacity Building, Training and Professional Development, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
Hopefully I'll be a bit more successful with the answer.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I'm not trying to be difficult; it's a specific thing I'm looking for.
Advisor, Capacity Building, Training and Professional Development, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
In the online meeting-place community, there is a forum where lands governance directors can share with each other the consultants they use and the advisers they use for specific areas.
Advisor, Capacity Building, Training and Professional Development, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
They would also be able to share who not to use.
NDP
Executive Director, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
Ruth, I don't know if you'd like to deal with an example that you faced when you were lands manager.
The issue is not just contamination; it might have been on a reserve that a first nation's taking over, but as you look at the external boundaries, it's what's coming onto the reserve. I know that Ruth has had to deal first-hand with that example.
Senior Advisor, Capacity Building, Training and Professional Development, First Nations Lands Management Resource Centre
I'm from the Squamish Nation, and when CN Rail derailed, it went into our Cheakamus River. As well, there was an oil spill off of our Stawamus reserve, but it seeped onto our reserve. My environmental officer connected up with both the provincial and federal governments, CN, and the shipper. So a whole gamut of people came together to deal with the emergency.
What basically came out of this was that our nation required a protocol agreement with the province and the federal government to not only understand who does what but also who is going to pay for this. In that sense, we have to deal with all of that, whether or not it is off reserve.