Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on May 29th, 2024

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

To be very clear, there are a number of outstanding cases that come in front of me, whether it's through the specific claims process or through litigation, where there needs to be a response. Any of those expenses are going towards—

[Eric Melillo, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Have you taken one concrete measure since this report came out to address the gaps that are highlighted in that report?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

We are working, for example, on the spending review. We ensure that the spending review does not impact programs. It impacts administrative costs—it impacts travel, for example—but we made sure that it doesn't directly impact any of the program expenses that are outlined as part of our programs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Melillo.

We'll go to our second member in the second round, Mr. Battiste, for three and a half minutes.

[Jaime Battiste, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you.

I'd also like to congratulate the chair on his nomination. I'm sure he'll do an amazing job.

Minister, I know that a lot of the discussion we've been having revolves around truth and reconciliation. We have a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, but that hasn't stopped a lot of individuals from saying residential schools either didn't exist or didn't have a harmful impact.

Can you speak about what our government is doing both to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action and to address the Indian residential school denialism that is out there and creeping up in Canada?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you, Jaime.

This is something that's increasingly worrisome because we're hearing about it more and more. There are some articles from south of the border that have spoken to this issue.

Residential school denialism is deeply hurtful and retraumatizing, and it really impacts communities, individual survivors and the families of survivors and of those who have passed on. It is troubling, and education is key to addressing it. As part of budget 2024, we will invest $5 million towards addressing the issue of residential school denialism.

The bigger job is to make sure we support communities in their searches, on their journeys and in their healing, and look at how they want to do the searches and achieve the results they want. Are they prepared to exhume the bodies? There is a range of questions every community is going through about how they want to move forward. That's the support we offer. We're here as a supportive partner, and we really enable and ensure the self-determination of communities to address it at the community level.

On a personal note, I think this particular issue is close to criminal behaviour and probably should require a Criminal Code amendment at some point. It's not something we can tolerate as a society because of the impact it has and the retraumatization of those directly affected by residential schools.

[Jaime Battiste, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you, Mr. Battiste.

With that, we'll go to our third questioner in the second round.

Mr. Lemire, you have two minutes to ask questions.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, Parliament has created the First Nations Finance Authority or FNFA to offer investment and loan opportunities to help First Nations establish a solid foundation for governance. Given its diligence in serving its role from the outset, the FNFA has proven to be reliable throughout its financial history.

If we allow the FNFA to support first nations project proponents on reserves, that might offer a solution for housing construction. The monetization of federal transfers could accelerate the funding and development of infrastructure and better protect community assets through the mutualization of risk for assets and responsibilities. Those are suggestions.

Further, at the last committee meeting, Rob Wright, the associate deputy minister of Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, proposed gradual changes to the legislation to address the issue of expanding loan guarantees.

Since it is much easier to make regulations than to enact legislation, can you assure us that new regulations will be given consideration and priority under your leadership?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Absolutely. In fact, I recently had meetings with them.

I was at the Bank of Canada round table on reconciliation, where Minister Freeland indicated that the $5-billion loan guarantee program is a floor, not a ceiling, in the sense that we are in new territory and we want to be able to support and explore how these programs can be best implemented to ensure self-determination over industry and engagement in businesses by indigenous people.

It's a very important component of the overall work we're doing on reconciliation. We will continue to work not just with FNFA but with all the other financial institutions that are working towards self-sufficiency and self-determination.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Yes, strengthening the tools developed by and for indigenous people is an interesting approach.

Thank you very much, minister.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lemire.

We now go to our next questioner for two minutes.

Ms. Idlout.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

[Member spoke in Inuktitut, interpreted as follows:]

Thank you, Chairperson.

Reconciliation is often mentioned, and it is only through communications with other nations, first nations. Although they have signed agreements with the federal government, which has stated that the agreement will help the reconciliation move forward, these have become obstacles.

For instance, I had a meeting with Sunchild First Nation. Their school has been renovated for a long time now. This has prevented the bilateral agreement from proceeding successfully. I think this agreement should be amended. Have you discussed any possible amendments to this bilateral agreement?

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

No, I don't believe so.

Martin, I don't know if you want to answer that.

This is something that we can, again, come back to you on, because I don't believe this is something that's come my way. I think Martin's office—

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

I'm sorry. Maybe my question wasn't interpreted correctly. I was asking if you could inform us about how bilateral agreements are designed or written, generally, considering reconciliation, because they seem to become obstacles for first nations as opposed to making improvements.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

On all of our practices, we are on a path towards decolonization. I think the challenge that we still have is that many of our structures are deeply colonial and deeply paternalistic, with the things that I think we were talking about earlier with regard to final releases and so on. I think we're in a state right now where agreements are much more iterative. They evolve as the needs change. They also evolve as our broader thinking changes.

In the modern treaties, for example, in British Columbia, a lot of the language that we have and a lot of the things that we're incorporating are quite different from things that we would have done 10 years ago. We are advancing our understanding, and I also think we are coming from a different place now than we were a decade or two ago.

I can talk about the specifics, if we have more information, but overall, the tone and the tenor and the way we are engaging and making treaties and agreements are very different. They still have—

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you, Minister.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

—many elements that we don't want, but I think it is something we need to get to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Ms. Idlout.

Next we have, for three and a half minutes, Mr. Schmale from the Conservatives.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, according to the Yellowhead Institute, “Zero Calls to Action were completed in 2023” for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. Eight years since the release of the 94 Calls to Action, 81 remain unfulfilled. According to the report, “Most of the Calls to Action remain incomplete as bureaucratic roadblocks, endless debate, and nearly every excuse imaginable delay progress.”

Minister, what concrete steps have you been taking in your ministry to speed this up? The report has even quoted former minister Marc Miller as saying that the “biggest...fights and challenges have been with our own institutional mechanisms.”

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you, Jamie.

I think I answered much of the question with respect to the TRC's calls to action earlier, but let me just add—

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

Let's go through it again.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

—to what I said earlier.

The work we're doing in terms of the calls to action is critical, but they're not linear check marks that we can do at the end of the day—

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

I would rather lean more into what's being done. If your former minister is saying the problem is within the department, I'd like to know what's going to be done to speed this up. Zero was completed last year, according to the Yellowhead Institute.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

We can go through the number of things we completed this year, including the work around the national council for reconciliation and the work around UNDA. These are advances we're doing.

From a leadership perspective, I want to say that Valerie Gideon is our new deputy minister. She brings with it a vision.