Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 19th, 2020

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

I am not.

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

Have you spoken to the minister who is responsible for policing?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

I have.

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

Do you have a plan to ensure that the RCMP doesn't let down Nova Scotians again?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Again, my comments were made in relation to indigenous peoples feeling let down by—

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I have a point of order, Chair. Is the minister not here on supplementary estimates? This is not in the estimates.

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

I'll be getting to them shortly.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

But you're not right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We'll take that as advice.

Please go ahead, Mr. Viersen. You have two minutes.

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

As my question, Minister, have you spoken to the minister responsible for policing and has he come up with a plan?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

The answer is yes. Obviously I will not disclose cabinet confidences, but I will point the member to the Speech from the Throne, which I am sure he has read, and the four or five points dealing with policing therein.

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

Is there any requirement for your ministry to help with funding? Policing is considered a service across this country. Is there any requirement or will there be any proposals for your ministry to help fund this?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Actually, I appreciate that question, because Indigenous Services Canada does have that relationship with indigenous communities, and we obviously hear, from community members and leadership, about the need for policing as an essential service on numerous occasions, including today with partners from Treaty 7 wanting to be engaged in the consultation in and around police reform, and not only with respect to policing as an essential service.

I think when we say “essential service” for policing in indigenous communities, we should all reflect on the fact that we take our own policing services in non-indigenous communities for granted, as they are not taken for granted in indigenous communities. It is a reflection of where we are as a country—but the answer, MP Viersen, is absolutely yes.

We can also examine, with indigenous communities and Minister Blair and his team, alternatives to policing, particularly when it comes to mental health interventions. I think a lot of the stuff we saw at the beginning of the year are areas where it might not be appropriate to have—

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

Mr. Miller, what's—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I'm sorry, Arnold, but we're out of time.

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

You do that to me every time. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Well, you're right that when your time is up, I do in fact do it every time.

Ms. Zann, go ahead, please, for five minutes.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you so much, Minister, for being here and making yourself available to us for all of these questions.

Yesterday, I had a really good meeting with CASA, the Canadian association of students, and they were telling me about some of the issues that indigenous students are facing. It is true that indigenous students and youth are another group of people who have been significantly impacted by COVID-19, and I want to commend them for being so resilient during this crisis.

Minister, could you please expand on the $15.9 million for supporting first nations and Inuit students and youth? How many students and youth will this help? What is our government doing to support them during the COVID-19 pandemic?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Thank you so much for the question.

As schools were shut down at the very beginning of the pandemic, particularly given the vulnerabilities that I've highlighted earlier on, people were very worried about their children not only getting COVID but also being vectors of spread within the communities. The portrait of indigenous education across Canada is obviously not limited to the on-reserve reality of schools, although it is one reality, and we continue to build schools on reserves where they're requested and needed.

To that end, a month ago the Prime Minister announced, as part of the school support packages, $112 million dedicated to helping kids go back to school as part of a safe return now. It should be an inescapable reality that there are enhanced needs with respect to communities that have taken the difficult decision to keep their kids at home. Not everyone can be plugged in to an iPad or a computer device to do online learning, so some of the supports we've given—for example, under Jordan's principle—have been precisely to give supports to indigenous students in communities that are keeping them at home.

There is also the reality that this has stressed the mental health of children. A lot of the funding support for the stress we see—funding on which the estimates touch—deals with that reality. It is bleak at times, but we're obviously there to help. Wherever communities see that need, we do our best to step in.

MP Blaney raised the issue of connectivity, and it isn't just the reality of remote communities necessarily. It is the reality, for example, in Six Nations, which is between Toronto and Brantford. It is a challenge across communities to deliver the quality service and quality education to which indigenous children are entitled. It is not one we've overcome completely yet, but we're working toward it.

We also have invested, as of October 30, about $200 million in additional funding to provide education-related supports to indigenous peoples in the community. When it comes to the older students, if you recall, I believe in May the Prime Minister announced education supports to all Canadians, and about $60 million or $75 million was dedicated specifically to indigenous students. That's an important aspect of it. This is coupled with the supports for post-secondary institutions, which had been suffering up to now, that we announced a few weeks back.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you for that. It was actually the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, as I should have said. Sorry about that.

Minister, I also want to ask about your supplementary estimates, particularly the $240.9-million investment in funding for child and family services.

Could you please tell us how this funding will support the implementation of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal's ruling, and what our government is doing to make sure that all children, including indigenous children, are safe and healthy, and that indigenous families remain together? That's very important.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Minister, you have less than a minute. Go ahead.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

As a result of the rulings, with respect to which we continue to implement the support for children, $200 million has been dedicated to supporting children and families. This is an ongoing challenge as we reform our approaches internally at Indigenous Services Canada to ensure substantive equality between indigenous and non-indigenous youth. We continue to implement those orders. We continue to work with the partners that continue to introduce claims, whether within the CHRT or through class actions, to ensure that we come to a resolution that properly compensates indigenous children.

With respect to the sums in question, they reflect an additional amount that was added to the larger amount of supports for indigenous children to ensure that we get to that goal, which is what all Canadians want to see.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Before we go to Ms. Bérubé again, your mike could be bent a little closer to your mouth, Minister Miller. Interpretation thinks you could speak a little louder or have the mike a little closer.

With that in mind, Ms. Bérubé, you have two and a half minutes. Please go ahead.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Miller, we have seen that indigenous businesses are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, as compared with other businesses in Canada. The federal government rarely turns to indigenous businesses to procure goods and services, including those to address COVID-19.

When it comes to procurement spending, do you plan to turn to indigenous businesses more often?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Since the pandemic began, indigenous businesses have been worse off. They have had trouble with financing, so we invested more than $400 million to support local business. We also invested millions of dollars to support indigenous tourism.

Clearly, the role these businesses play in the communities can be a bit different. That is especially the case with the band council-run businesses, which often replace investments in the community. Their purpose is not necessarily to turn a profit. The challenges are numerous and multi-faceted, and we are prepared to do more because we do not know when the pandemic will end.

I can't thank you enough for that question. Although the communities do have access to the support measures that were announced for all of Canada, they have specificities that call for a direct response.