Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on June 10th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I call this meeting to order with the acknowledgement that in Ottawa we are meeting on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin people. Here in Hamilton, we have the Anishinabe and Haudenosaunee. It's often said that we are also on the territory of the Neutrals. That's an incorrect term, as is Attawandaron. It's a descriptive term for the way they speak their language. The name of that nation was Chonnonton.

Having said that, the committee is meeting to consider the supplementary estimates (A), 2021-22.

To ensure an orderly meeting, participants, please make sure that you have the language selected via the interpretation globe at the bottom of your screen. You can change languages back and forth when speaking, but select one to hear the translation.

With us today, virtually, for the first hour are the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Carolyn Bennett; and the Minister of Northern Affairs, Dan Vandal. They're accompanied by the following senior officials: Paula Isaak, associate deputy minister; Serge Beaudoin, assistant deputy minister; Martin Reiher, assistant deputy minister; Chantal Marin-Comeau, director general; and Annie Boudreau, chief of finances, and also the results and delivery officer.

Is that the whole list? That's quite a long group. I think so, though we're awaiting Deputy Minister Quan-Watson.

With that, let me welcome everybody.

I open up the floor, Minister Bennett, for your opening remarks.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations]

Kwe kwe, Unnusakkut, Tansi, hello.

I am speaking to you today from the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. I also wish to honour the waters they paddled and their moccasins which walked these lands.

I am joining you along with my colleague, the Minister of Northern Affairs, and we are supported by our deputy minister, Daniel Watson, and his team.

While I am appearing today on my department’s 2021-2022 supplementary estimates (A), it is also at a difficult time for indigenous communities, and all Canadians.

We are all deeply heartbroken at the discovery of the unmarked remains of children at the former Kamloops residential school. This has shocked and disturbed the nation. For indigenous people across the country, these findings are deeply painful and traumatizing, but for them not as surprising, as this was forecast. These have been the stories and the “knowings” for a very long time. For six years the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard these hard truths, along with many others, during their national and regional reconciliation gatherings. These revelations have reopened many wounds and renewed a necessary conversation on the role of residential schools, those responsible, and how as a country we can move forward together.

We are working with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation and our partners, such as the B.C. First Nations Health Authority, to provide the resources and the supports needed, as determined by the community. I have spoken with Kúkpi7 Casimir, most recently on Monday night, and her leadership and strength have been exemplary. We have offered support for healing, mental health supports, security and whatever she needs to support her community now, as well as support for research, archaeological expertise and commemoration going forward.

In memory of all of the children who went missing, and in support of their grieving families and communities, we provided $33.8 million through budget 2019 to implement TRC calls to action 72 to 76.

To support implementing calls to action 72 and 73, we have funded the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to develop and maintain the national residential school student death register and establish an online registry of residential school cemeteries.

In keeping with the principles laid out in call to action 76, after the passage of budget 2019 we engaged with communities to ensure that any program to deliver the funds to support calls to action 74 and 75 was designed in a way to meet their needs, be flexible enough to support community-led approaches and respect community protocols.

Based on what we heard, we are currently providing funding, on an urgent basis, to support indigenous-led, community-based, survivor-centric and culturally sensitive investigations of these burial sites. We are actively reaching out to indigenous communities to work with them on how they can access the $27 million of funding being delivered to support them in finding their lost children. Communities know what they need. Our government will be there to support their way forward.

In discussing the supplementary estimates (A), we know that the money is there to heal past wrongs, support self-determination and advance reconciliation with first nations, Inuit and Métis people. They reflect a net increase of $997 million, which includes the $136.4 million in new funding and $868.2 million in re-profiled funding. The re-profiled funding in these estimates will preserve funding for the ongoing implementation of the Federal Indian Day Schools Settlement Agreement and the sixties scoop settlement. As of May 31, 2021, of more than 113,000 claims received under the Federal Indian Day Schools Settlement Agreement, over 75,000 survivors have received payment of individual compensation. While COVID-19 has delayed the implementation of the Sixties Scoop Settlement Agreement, approximately 15,000 interim payments of $21,000 have been paid. These supplementary estimates will preserve the funding to complete the individual compensation, which should be determined later in the fiscal year.

These supplementary estimates also include funding to support Inuit housing, Tŝilhqot’in community priorities through their pathway agreement, implementation of the Nunavik Inuit Land Claims Agreement and many other important measures to support reconciliation.

We have provided you with a comprehensive deck on the supplementary estimates (A). I look forward to providing further details through your questions.

Meegwetch. Nakurmiik. Marsi. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thanks very much, Minister.

We go on now to Mr. Vandal.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Minister of Northern Affairs]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Tansi. Boozhoo. Good morning and hello.

First I want to acknowledge that I'm speaking to you from my office here in Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, in the city of Winnipeg, the homeland of the Métis nation and Treaty 1 territory.

This committee meeting comes at a time when our nation is grieving. The remains of the 215 children buried at the Kamloops Indian residential school sent shockwaves through our country. It has reignited a very important conversation and brought it back to the national consciousness.

I want to be very clear, reconciliation and the lives and well-being of indigenous peoples never stray from my mind. This is my focus and motivation as a minister and member of Parliament.

I am a proud citizen of the Métis Nation. I am honoured to live in and represent the constituency of Saint Boniface–Saint Vital. Louis Riel, who was born in Saint-Boniface and was laid to rest there, was never granted the same privilege that I am being granted. Louis Riel was democratically elected as a member of Parliament for the constituency of Provencher, not on one or two occasions but on three occasions, yet he was never allowed to rightfully take his seat in the House.

The opportunities that I have been granted are some that my ancestors would never have believed possible. I work every day with this knowledge; it drives and motivates my work.

As Minister of Northern Affairs, I strive to listen to northerners to ensure that their needs and priorities drive my department's work. A year and a half ago, when I was appointed minister, I stated that decisions for the north would no longer be made in Ottawa boardrooms. My team and I remain committed to that vision. We work for the north and with the north. That's why the Arctic and northern policy framework is so important to our combined work together.

The investments my department is seeking through supplementary estimates (A) are driven by this approach, focusing on the responses to COVID-19, as well as housing and infrastructure needs. The pandemic has highlighted what people have known for far too long, which is that indigenous peoples and northern communities have been underserved. Further, we have recently been reminded of the consequences of colonialism for indigenous peoples and communities.

We know that in Canada's north, food prices can be significantly higher than in the rest of Canada. Additional factors, such as geographic isolation, make northerners particularly at risk for food insecurity. This vulnerability has only been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, our government provided an additional $25 million to Nutrition North Canada to increase subsidy rates on nutritious food and essential hygiene items. Our government also introduced the harvesters support grant, which was co-developed with Inuit partners to help with costs related to hunting and harvesting, and to create greater access to traditional country foods. Building on this, and to address the ongoing concerns, the estimates in front of you provide $20 million in funding to maintain Nutrition North Canada measures introduced in April 2020.

These supplementary estimates also provide $50 million in 2021-22 for the Governments of Northwest Territories and Nunavut. There is $25 million each to respond to their short-term critical housing needs. I view these as down payments on the housing situation in the north. The need is clear and we are committed to closing the unacceptable gap that exists in the north. These amounts are intended to address immediate and pressing housing needs this year.

We recognize that more investment is required. From budget 2021, northerners will also benefit from the $2.5 billion in new funding through the national housing strategy, delivered by CMHC across Canada, and the $4.3 billion in new funding in distinctions-based indigenous infrastructure, which can include housing.

Mr. Chair, as I stated before, reconciliation is always at the forefront of my mind as minister. I'm working toward a renewed relationship between Canada and indigenous peoples, including through the Inuit-Crown partnership committee, that respects constitutionally guaranteed rights and is based on collaboration and co-operation.

I want to thank you again for this opportunity to meet with you virtually today.

I welcome your questions.

Thank you. Meegwetch.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thanks so much, both ministers.

Mr. Clerk, I believe Mr. Quan-Watson is here.

Sir, could you recite the first soliloquy of Hamlet, act 3, scene 1, just for a sound check?

[Daniel Quan-Watson, Deputy Minister, Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs]

I could, but you would probably prefer that I didn't, so perhaps this will suffice: “Once more unto the breach” is maybe the closest I could get to responding positively to your request.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

That's a thumbs-up. Thanks so much.

We're going to our questions now, and we're tight for the hour ahead of us.

I don't have the first Conservative speaker.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

That would be me, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Go ahead, Mr. Schmale, please go ahead.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you very much.

Good morning, Ministers. It's great to see you both again.

I'll start with Minister Bennett, if I could. Minister, talking about the $27 million that was released last week, that was previously announced funding to uncover what are believed to be thousands of indigenous children buried in unmarked graves at residential schools across the country.

Minister, why did it take two years to release that money?

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

What we had been told, obviously, was that we needed to get money to the NCTR to be able to work on the registries, but our advice was that we needed to go to communities and experts to make sure that the design of the program would be respectful and meet the needs of communities. In that engagement over the last year, we were able to determine that it had to be indigenous led, community based, survivor centric, as well as culturally sensitive. They wanted the flexibility to know that whatever the community needed would be funded in a way that would indeed meet the needs of that community—things like gatherings and commemoration, research or archeological expertise. The program that was launched last Wednesday will be very flexible.

We really want communities to know that we'll be there to support them in their way forward.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

What was the delay, the fact that it was announced two years ago and that this previously announced funding all of a sudden was made ready? Was it just a coincidence that it's just all of a sudden made, or what happened?

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

What happens is that you need to design the program. Then you need to go to Treasury Board, and all of that has been taking place since I met with the NCTR and with former Commissioner Marie Wilson in November of last year. We then designed the program based on the very best advice we had, and it was able to be released last week.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

You understand where I'm coming from here. It was previously announced two years ago and just got finalized, released and ready to go, but it almost seemed like it took that tragedy, that discovery, for the government to finally release the cash.

I'll move on because I do have a number of other questions.

As you know, our leader, Erin O'Toole, wrote to the Prime Minister asking a number of things, four points specifically. The one I want to ask about is the plan to address the TRC calls to action 71 through 76 and to develop a concrete action plan by July 1. Is that something the government is able to commit to?

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

Jamie, call 71 is a provincial one that deals with the coroners. That is not under federal purview, and on 72 to 76, as I explained, we're well on our way. It is the money that has gone to the National Centre on Truth and Reconciliation for it to be able to develop the death registries. There is also more money going forward to them as they do their important work as well as the money to go to communities that was in this recent announcement. When we look at calls 72 to 76, we really do believe that we have a plan to be able to honour what was in those calls to action.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Can you commit to that action plan—releasing it to the public and to us—that as of July 1 of this year you will have a concrete road map on how you're going to get there?

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

Absolutely, Jamie. We have a plan for every one of the calls to action that is a federal responsibility or shared responsibility and, as you know, we're either completed or are well under way with 80% of them.

Obviously, with what's happened just now, with Bill C-5 and Bill C-8, as well as Bill C-15, we are making tremendous progress on the calls to action, and we really do believe that calls to action 72 to 76 are well under way.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Well, Minister, prior to the announcement of the $27 million, that previously announced funding of two years ago—sorry to bounce back to that—how much funding has already gone out to communities to assist in investigating unmarked graves across Canada outside of that $27 million?

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

As we understand it, and as you know, the Tk'emlúps community did receive $40,000 from Heritage Canada in the pathway to healing. There have been many different avenues, but this money in budget 2019 is dedicated exactly to calls to action 72 to 76.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Minister, as you know, the Tk'emlúps first nation is paying for security and commemorations and other costs associated with the discovery of those graves. They've asked for short-term funding from the government, as I'm sure you know, to assist them with that. Is that something the government is investigating? If yes, has money been provided? If no, is there a timeline on when they might see that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We're over the time, so can we have a quick answer, please?

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

Sure.

Minister Miller and his department are providing whatever Tk'emlúps needs by way of security and mental health supports, and we will work with Kúkpi7 Casimir on anything around gatherings or the kind of commemoration they are planning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thanks very much.

Mr. Powlowski, you have six minutes.

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

My questions are for Minister Bennett—or perhaps Mr. Quan-Watson can answer.

Murray Sinclair, former senator, in a recent statement relating to the bodies that were found in Kamloops, suggested that churches have documents related to missing and dead children that they haven't disclosed. I've also heard the suggestion that perhaps even the Vatican has such documents. Do we believe that there are such documents out there? What have we done to try to secure those documents?

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

As the Prime Minister has stated—he reached out to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and spoke with them on Monday—I think we've been very clear that we expect the church to release all relevant documents. I understand that the diocese in Vancouver is open to that. We are hearing from the bishops in the north on their willingness. I do believe that we need these documents from the church. The Canadian government has handed over all relevant documents and it is really time, in order to do the work of identifying these lost children, that the records the churches hold must be handed over, and we will continue to pursue that.