Evidence of meeting #16 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:25 p.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
But we know that there are significant delays in having the TLEs move ahead. The Auditor General's report from a few years back was very critical of the department.
Couldn't that money have been used for some other TLE?
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Valcourt Conservative Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
To be fair to the process, with respect to treaty land entitlement acres available for acquisition or selection by first nations, approximately 40% of land has been converted to reserve status in Manitoba, with close to 9,000 acres remaining to be converted.
4:25 p.m.
NDP
4:25 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
It can.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Valcourt Conservative Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
It can, but it doesn't mean that they were all urban or not. Some of it may be urban reserves.
When you talk about treaty land entitlement, if you look, for example, with respect to those acres currently selected or acquired by first nations in Manitoba for additions to reserves under the treaty and land entitlement agreement, approximately 61% have been converted to reserve status, with close to 370,000 acres remaining to be converted.
If you want to know how much of these acres have gone to urban, I'm sure we could provide you with that information.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Valcourt Conservative Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
It's not so much the backlog. On the backlog, work is taking place all the time. I think they've made serious progress in recent years and we are continuing because there are over a million acres that are provided for in the Manitoba treaty land entitlement framework agreement. I think we're making good progress.
4:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you, Minister.
Minister, again we want to thank you for the time that you've taken out of your day to spend with us. That went very quickly, but it is more than an hour. We do appreciate you being here.
We'll suspend, colleagues, and we'll return momentarily with the officials.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
I'll call the meeting back to order.
We do want to thank our officials for staying. We recognize that most of the questions that members wanted to ask have been asked of the minister. We want to thank you.
We also want to simply remind you that there was a commitment to get back to Ms. Crowder with regard to information on one of the questions. I don't think there is anything else.
Pardon me, Mr. Genest-Jourdain, there may have been something.
4:30 p.m.
NDP
Jonathan Genest-Jourdain NDP Manicouagan, QC
The minister also indicated that he would provide me with a written response, because some of my questions deserve to be answered in greater depth. I would like to draw that to your attention, Mr. Chair.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Very good.
If that can be undertaken it would be appreciated.
4:30 p.m.
Deputy Minister, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Certainly.
Mr. Chairman, I have a general comment that might be helpful on a couple of the questions. There were a lot of questions about why didn't you just move money from one thing to another within the year, and it's a fair question.
The basic ground rules are that once you have voted money and it has been appropriated for certain purposes, Treasury Board makes sure that the money is spent for the purposes that Parliament allocated it. I don't have the authority to move money willy-nilly from one thing to another. We usually have to go through Treasury Board to move money from one thing to another and in many cases we will have to come to Parliament to make those changes. Those often show up in the supplementary estimates.
We try to squeeze out every value that we can, but sometimes money has to move from one year to another and sometimes it does move within programs within the department's overall appropriation.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you.
Again, I hope we can get some of that information for which commitments were made.
I do appreciate your being here.
Colleagues, these estimates have been reported back to the House. Therefore, we will adjourn and see everybody in a couple of weeks.
The meeting is adjourned.