Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 30th, 2017

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister Philpott, you're now responsible for the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. Minister Bennett had said she was not going to enforce that bill, which seemed like a complete dereliction of the rule of law in the country of Canada.

Will you be moving to repeal the First Nations Financial Transparency Act and replace it with something else?

[Jane Philpott, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

I need to re-emphasize the way that we have a responsibility based on inherent aboriginal and treaty rights with indigenous peoples to respect them—

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Will you be repealing the act?

[Jane Philpott, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

—to listen to them. They have widely, uniformly, called for a repeal of the act.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

You will, okay.

[Jane Philpott, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

It would be highly disrespectful of us not to take those requests seriously. We need—

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Will you be repealing it, yes or no?

[Jane Philpott, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

We are looking in that direction, but we cannot repeal it until the other mechanisms are in place that will allow communities to go forward.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

But you're not enforcing it.

[Jane Philpott, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

We are making sure that we work in a respectful way with communities to make sure they have the financial and fiscal tools they require.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Minister.

I'll go to the other area that I'd like to talk about a little bit. We have had comments both from the Premier of the Northwest Territories and Calvin Helin about the lack of consultation in regard to pipeline development and also the northern drilling ban. Do you have any comments to that?

It seems like your government is very much in favour of consultations when they are looking to delay something, but when it comes to implementing something there's no need for consultations. Do you have any comments to that?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Yes. What we are doing now is launching a robust consultation on an Arctic policy framework. That will include not only the premiers, but communities and indigenous-led—

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

The premier said that he got a phone call 45 minutes before the announcement.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Yes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Do you not consult before? Projects require an informed consent.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

This was a decision that was taken—

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

That ends our....

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

—that will be reviewed in five years, and we are working on the science.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you so much. Thank you for attending.

Now we need to go through supplementary estimates (B) and get some votes done.

CANADIAN HIGH ARCTIC RESEARCH STATION Vote 1b—Program expenditures..........$628,559

(Vote 1b agreed to on division)

DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS AND NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT Vote 1b—Operating expenditures..........$46,472,625 Vote 7b—Debt forgiveness..........$526,408 Vote 9b—Debt write-off..........$1 Vote 10b—Grants and contributions..........$395,670,049

(Votes 1b, 7b, 9b, and 10b agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Shall I report the supplementary estimates (B) 2017-18 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.