Evidence of meeting #50 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 indian.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
I think that's what some of the chiefs have said to us—that they vote with their feet, and that not showing up sometimes is a “no” vote in the way they see that participation or lack of engagement.
Chief Thunder, your frustration is very clear about what you feel is an attitudinal problem of more and more top-down process and not being listened to and your very practical suggestions not being heard.
How do you think we should go forward, as my colleague asked?
Chief, Buffalo Point First Nation
As chief, I understand—and I said it earlier, in comments in my presentation—that a lot of our people lack the trust. When we have legislation that is done by the Department of Indian Affairs and then introduced, it's very difficult for us to convince our people that it's in our best interest, because the direction is coming from the wrong source. It needs to come from us, not from somebody else. The Department of Indian Affairs has a lengthy history that is not very favourable to first nations. When we keep coming up with new legislation or new programs that come from the top down, it is very difficult for me as chief to convince my people that it's in their best interests. That, to me, is where we need to find our own ways and our own solutions.
The other thing that really needs to be done I commented on two weeks ago, in Toronto at the aboriginal law forum. We're talking about the timeframes, and time is of the essence when it comes to business as well.
When we did treaty land entitlement in Manitoba, we studied the transferring of land to reserve status and found that it was taking 22 months to convert it to reserve status. There was a lot of duplication between the federal and provincial governments. We streamlined the process and brought it down to 18 months. Since treaty land entitlement in Manitoba was signed 15 years ago, it is now taking four and a half years to transfer a piece of land to reserve status, so we have regressed quite substantially.
My answer and solution to this is to implement penalty clauses. If the federal government or the provincial government doesn't meet the timeframes and the schedules that we included in our implementation process in our agreement, then for every day of delay there should be an extra acre of land given to the first nation. I can guarantee you that if these penalty clauses were incorporated into all of our agreements, the federal and provincial governments wouldn't be dragging their feet, taking us through a process that ultimately can take anywhere from five to 20 years.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you, Chief Thunder, and thank you, Ms. Bennett, for that.
Colleagues, for the Conservative folks Mr. Rickford was the last questioner, but he has suggested that it may be time for us to go to committee business, because we do, of course, have some, and he knows that many of you have responsibilities tonight as well.
We'll thank our witnesses. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for being here. We appreciated the testimony that you provided and your willingness to answer the questions that have been asked.
Colleagues, we'll suspend and return in camera to consider the report back to the finance committee. The meeting is suspended.
[Proceedings continue in camera]