Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon to the members of the committee.
My name is Kevin McKay, and I'm the executive chairperson of the Nisga'a Lisims Government. The Nisga'a Nation, as some of you may or may not know, is located in northwestern British Columbia, just south of the Alaskan Panhandle. We are very proud to be B.C.'s first modern treaty. For your information, on May 11, 2016, we will be celebrating the 16th anniversary of the effective date of the Nisga'a final agreement.
We are, of course, pleased to appear before you today on behalf of the Land Claims Agreements Coalition. We describe ourselves as a coalition because we are just that. This was a deliberate decision that was taken when we were first formed in 2003.
Further to that, we are not a separate political or corporate body. We are not another national organization. The AFN, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, and ITK continue as umbrella aboriginal organizations, and our members may be affiliated to one or the other. The coalition is not a similar organization.
Following our 2003 conference, it was decided that we would work together on modern treaty implementation issues. Our principles, as described by co-chair Towtongie, were put forward in 2003, against the background of frustration and disappointment with the way our agreements were being implemented.
For your information, we were close to an agreement with the former Liberal government of Prime Minister Martin in December 2005, when, as we all know, the writ was dropped and discussions ended.
In 2008, the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples issued a report entitled “Honouring the Spirit of Modern Treaties: Closing the Loopholes”, in which it agreed with most of our suggestions. We would respectfully recommend that the members of the committee refer to that important document.
In partial response to these concerns and our demand for the adoption of a federal implementation policy in accordance with our four principles, the previous government, after 12 years of continuous lobbying by the LCAC, took some steps forward with the adoption of the cabinet directive on a federal approach to modern treaty implementation.
The directive outlined a whole-of-government approach to implementation. The LCAC has committed to working with Indigenous and Northern Affairs officials to further develop the federal processes and approaches that we are told should improve the federal system of implementation.
The cabinet directive is generally limited to establishing processes which, while constructive, are focused on holding the various federal departments to account. In our view, there are still steps needed to ensure effective and efficient treaty implementation. These include a public policy, an external oversight body, identification of the broad objectives of modern treaties within the context of the new relationships, and measurement of progress against these modern treaty objectives rather than against a unilateral list of narrow legal obligations.
Additionally, the previous government also took a significant step that, in our view, undermines the success of many modern treaties by adopting “Canada's Fiscal Approach for Self-Government Arrangements” in July 2015.
This fiscal approach purports to be an important step in making funding processes transparent. However, despite certain limited engagement with members of the LCAC, questions and concerns of coalition members were ignored or deferred. The new approach was then produced and adopted behind closed doors, with no meaningful consultation as to its contents. The result is a policy that is in direct contradiction to the solemn promises contained in many of our treaties. It is a policy that seems based upon the idea that Indian Act band funding is the appropriate foundation for aboriginal self-government.
This is the opposite of the nation-to-nation approach to which your government has committed itself. Assurances that the treaties will nonetheless be complied with have not been accompanied by any detailed description about how this can be accomplished.
With the election of Prime Minister Trudeau in 2015, we have been pleased to see that the current federal government has set an overarching goal for the renewal of the relationship between Canada and indigenous peoples, based on recognition, rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership. Our modern treaties were entered into precisely upon this understanding. They represent a reconciliation of our rights with the interests of the crown, and they require co-operation and partnership to be implemented.
Consistent with the mandate letter for Indigenous and Northern Affairs, we wrote to the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs in November 2015, calling upon the honourable minister to, number one, continue to engage with LCAC members on the development of a modern new treaty implementation policy intended to replace current federal operational practices and policies, which are inconsistent with the terms of our constitutionally protected agreements; number two, continue the mandate of the LCAC-INAC working group to collaborate on the implementation and improvement of the federal cabinet directive; number three, immediately suspend the previous government's fiscal approach, as it is a policy developed without consideration for, and is incompatible with, the terms of our agreements; number four, revisit existing negotiation mandates and conclude current fiscal renewal and other financial capacity-building negotiations in an expedited manner, and in accordance with our agreements; and, finally, number five, engage with our members in a meaningful, collaborative manner to develop a proper approach to fiscal relationships between the parties that is based on the principles of the agreements.
We met with the minister on December 7, 2015, in discussions that were brief but that signalled a promising opportunity for renewal and change. Unfortunately, we must report to the committee that certain vestiges of the old top-down approach continue to manifest themselves in the federal bureaucracy in a manner that, in our respectful view, is contrary to the Government of Canada's commitment to a nation-to-nation relationship.
However, notwithstanding that, we are in the early days of developing this new relationship, and we hope to work with the government to change the fiscal approach.
Thank you very much.