Evidence of meeting #18 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 criteria.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Representative, Mi'kmaq First Nations Assembly of Newfoundland
There is an application process and there is a membership fee that covers whatever costs the assembly has to retain legal counsel or.... There is an application process.
Conservative
Conservative
Representative, Mi'kmaq First Nations Assembly of Newfoundland
There is a constitution and bylaws, and there's a board of directors. There is a web page that's been set up so that we can share everything that's happening with the membership. We're structured as a.... We're incorporated.
Conservative
Mark Strahl Conservative Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC
When we tried to access the constitution and bylaws I think there was a web problem. It was bouncing back to a donation page or something. Perhaps you could provide the committee with a copy of the constitution and bylaws.
Representative, Mi'kmaq First Nations Assembly of Newfoundland
Certain aspects of the organization's website are restricted to members. Unless you've paid the membership fee and submitted an application you can't access things like the constitution, the bylaws, and the legal updates.
Conservative
Mark Strahl Conservative Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC
Okay, I appreciate that.
One of the things that was interesting to me, having reviewed this file going back a ways.... We had 101,000 or so...I think you said 105,000. Seventy thousand applications were received in the last 14 months, including approximately 46,000 in the last three months prior to the application deadline.
From your perspective, why do you think there was such a spike, nearly 50% or whatever it is, in applications in the last three months of a multi-year enrolment process?
Representative, Mi'kmaq First Nations Assembly of Newfoundland
As far as numbers go, I personally can't give you an answer as to why it's 105,000, but today we're actually speaking about this bill and about how many of those 105,000 are going to be affected by Bill C-25.
Conservative
Mark Strahl Conservative Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC
Right, and I think the reason there was a supplementary agreement in 2013 is that they were expecting 10,000 people to apply and 101,000 did so, and they realized that while they kept the eligibility the same, they needed to change the requirement for proof of all the connections to the band.
Yes, we are discussing the bill, and the reason the bill has come forward is that 10 times the number they were expecting applied. Does your organization believe that 101,000 applications is a reasonable figure, considering that the government and the band were only expecting 8,000 to 12,000?
Representative, Mi'kmaq First Nations Assembly of Newfoundland
Again I'm going to say that it was as a direct result of the mismanagement of the enrolment process, because if you look at the agreement in principle that was submitted and signed with the Federation of Newfoundland Indians and the federal government in 2008, the criteria were very open.
When the supplementary agreement was put in place—nobody was even aware it was coming down the road—they did put in criteria. But at that time you had the numbers, based on the 2008 agreement, and that's what everybody was going by. It's only in this last submission that people were having to put in their telephone bills, trying to track down travel itineraries, government forms, income taxes, and all that. That was never a requirement as part of the agreement in principle.
Conservative
Mark Strahl Conservative Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC
We had the FNI here last week, and they and the minister both indicated that while keeping the eligibility the same, it was as a result of that huge number that they needed the supplementary agreement to ensure that the integrity of the band was protected. If you have 101,000 applicants, I don't know how many would be successful, but that number represents 11% of first nations across the country, and certainly for the first nations themselves, that wasn't what the 2008 agreement intended.
I guess I'm struggling a little. I understand what you're saying, but at the same time, what should have been the response to 101,000 applications, if not something to protect the integrity of the first nations?
Representative, Mi'kmaq First Nations Assembly of Newfoundland
I believe that when they brought the agreement in principle to the membership at the very beginning and when it was signed, it was ratified. It's now five years later. We had government officials sitting around the table; we had enrolment committee members who knew what the criteria were. This should have been brought forward long before now. It should not have taken five years.
When they saw 24,000 applications come in up to November 2009, something should have been brought forward at that point, instead of letting it go until now, in 2013, only to have a supplementary agreement put in place to cut back the numbers, to make the criteria a little bit more stringent, to see whether we can get some of the applications rejected.
This supplementary agreement was never ratified. We were never consulted. Nobody in the community, none of the membership, none of the band chiefs came to their membership and asked whether this could be ratified.
Conservative
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
I guess what I'm hearing from you is that you think this is an issue that would be more appropriate for the court to decide, which would have the benefit of the facts of a particular case or class of cases.
Representative, Mi'kmaq First Nations Assembly of Newfoundland
I think there has to be a decision made on what it is they're looking for as far as criteria are concerned. The problem began back when the agreement in principle began, because as I said, it was open. I think the enrolment process was flawed because there were no real criteria put into the agreement in principle. As long as people showed that they lived in a Mi'kmaq community, there was no stipulation that they had to be doing Mi'kmaq culture, none of that. They didn't have to prove any of that. They lived in a Mi'kmaq community, they showed their ancestry line, and basically that was it.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
The government says that the supplemental agreement doesn't change the enrolment criteria, but they've changed the guidelines, and that really changes the interpretation of those criteria.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
This means that certain people who were previously granted status and added to the list might lose that status.
Liberal
Carolyn Bennett Liberal St. Paul's, ON
It also means—and it was quite interesting to hear that the band hadn't even asked for this—that the bill would also remove any ability of the individuals who had incurred significant costs, perhaps flying back and forth to Newfoundland, to be reimbursed for this cost, even though a court could find that the government was at fault for this confusion—
