Evidence of meeting #1 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
The Clerk
If the committee chooses to adopt it unanimously, then we can proceed back to the routine motions having been adopted.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Okay, as the Speaker would say in the House, due to the nature of the current technology, I will hear from only those who are against unanimous consideration.
I see no noes. Mr. Clerk, we'll assume there is unanimous approval of that.
(Amendment as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Now we're going—
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
On a point of order, I know that members on this committee did a lot of virtual meetings, whereas some other committees didn't. However, it's a different situation to get the eye of the chair.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
How do you create a reasonable process in terms of the recognition of order? Certainly we have many motions that have been presented. How do you manage the order of people who are going to choose to speak to different issues? Should we have a more general discussion first before we get into any specific motions being put on the table?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
I think the point is that the chair is in charge of the speaking order, and I have two possibilities. One is the grid where I see hands, and then there's the blue hand, the “raise hand” function, where I see there are two raised hands, and now a third.
Mr. Anandasangaree, when I thought we were done with the previous routine motions—
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
We weren't done, though, so of course we weren't putting our hands up to catch your eye. I guess I just want to have that conversation.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Yes, that's fine. Really, it's the chair's prerogative on the speaking order, as I said.
Preferably, blue hands will go up on my screen here. I also acknowledge raised hands. I guess we'll have to see how it goes. Typically what would happen—and I'll ask the clerk to comment in a moment—is that someone might get upset that they've been waving away over in the corner and I never got to them. That's fair. I mean, chairs can make mistakes as well.
Mr. Clerk, do you have a comment with regard to this conversation?
The Clerk
I am happy to also provide support in terms of taking a speaking list and noting who has raised their hands in what order.
I'm happy to speak with you about that and how you, as chair, would like to coordinate that going forward.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Thank you very much.
Cathy, in this committee's experience, when we were doing it live in Ottawa, the previous clerk did exactly what our clerk said. I would look over and I would see her list, which usually would check with mine. Sometimes, when a topic gets hot and heavy, you might start to concentrate on a speaking point and miss the other point, because the chair....
I think meetings that have decorum have it because they're well chaired, and the reason they're well chaired is that the chair does the simple thing: He keeps the speaking order and allows people to speak within the context of what's before them. I'm not sure whether we'll ever be back in the live format again. I hope we will. However, perhaps even in this format, the clerk will also assist me, and we can do that with a speakers list that appears in text on my screen as well.
Having said all that, can we move on now to the studies and motions?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
On the routine motions as amended, as the Speaker says in the House on unanimous consent, I will only hear whether someone is opposed to unanimous consent.
(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
I have Mr. Anandasangaree, Mr. Battiste, Mr. Powlowski, Mr. Viersen, Ms. McLeod.
Ms. Zann, I'm sorry. You were before Mr. Powlowski, but not with a blue hand. I'll put the list as Mr. Battiste, Ms. Zann, Mr. Powlowski, Mr. Viersen and Mrs. McLeod.
Mr. Anandasangaree, will you go ahead, please?
Liberal
Lenore Zann Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
Mr. Chair, on a point of order, I can't find the blue hand. I've had my hand up for some time now.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Yes, I saw your hand and then I got distracted in going to the blue hands.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Look on the participants. There's a thing with two heads on the bottom of your screen. It says, “participants”. Click the arrow on that.
Liberal
Lenore Zann Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
I see, and then there are other hands in there.
The ones where it says “reactions”, is that considered a hand too?
Liberal
Liberal
Lenore Zann Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
That's what I was using as my hand. There's a hand in there.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
No. Try the other one.
On the bottom of participants, when you click it, there will be a white screen and then on the bottom right-hand side, it says “raise hand”.
Liberal
Liberal
Gary Anandasangaree Liberal Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Obviously there are a number of very important studies we should look at. I know we had an elaborate discussion in the last Parliament and we had a number of studies on the docket. I know that because of COVID we weren't able to get to them. I noticed on the notice of motions that a lot of them have come back.
Mr. Clerk, I don't know if you were able to send the notice I sent this morning, but there is one study I would like to propose as the first study to be undertaken. That is with respect to the recovery.
If I may read this, it says:
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee undertake a study of the opportunities to: support Indigenous communities, businesses, and individuals through a second wave of COVID-19; facilitate Indigenous communities reopening in a safe and responsible manner; build resiliency with an equitable and sustainable economic recovery plan; that the scope of the study take into consideration First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities and individuals, including those living off reserve and in urban centres; health, including mental health supports, supports for Indigenous organizations, businesses, and communities, that the committee also study measures undertaken so far through partnership between Indigenous communities and the Government of Canada as well as further opportunities for partnership during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the recovery phase; that evidence collected and received during the committee's study on the Government's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic from the 1st session of the 43rd Parliament be taken into consideration and used as evidence for this study and subsequent report to the House, that the committee report its findings and recommendations to the House; and that, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee request that the government table a comprehensive response to the report.
I'd like to note, Mr. Chair, that this has many of the elements that are outlined in Ms. Bérubé's notice of motion that was presented, I think, last week. As you're well aware, the numbers within indigenous communities, and in first nations particularly, are rising significantly. There are 792 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, 118 active cases, 64 hospitalizations and 13 deaths, and we see that basically across the country. In B.C. there are 169 cases, in Alberta 315, and so on. As a percentage, I think we did relatively well in the first wave, but we are quite worried about the second wave. I think it would be prudent of us to look at the government response, but also at how we support the businesses and so on that have been affected significantly on an ongoing basis, to support indigenous communities.
I hope this can be the first study we undertake. It will be relatively short because we did do quite a bit of work at the outset. Although there was no report from that, I think a lot of the information gathered there can be used to report on this. We're proposing between four and six meetings to be able to undertake this study.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bob Bratina
Thanks very much.
Does everyone have a copy of that motion? It's quite lengthy. I had to dig it out myself to keep everything straight.