Thank you, Chair.
Tansi, honourable members of Parliament. On behalf of our chiefs committee, thank you for this opportunity to speak to Bill C-61.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that I am speaking on the unceded land of the Algonquin people.
With that, I will get right to it.
For the past year or so, we in the appointed Chiefs Steering Committee on Technical Services regarding water and water management in Alberta have monitored the progress of Bill C-61. As a committee, we have watched this bill progress from afar, since we were not engaged in the process, regrettably and unacceptably—not until the bill was already written. This bill does not meet our needs or expectations. We know we are not alone in this position. We have many regional issues in Alberta respecting water that need to be addressed and incorporated into this legislation. Without meaningful inclusion, this bill will fail first nation governments and peoples.
We must state here on the record that the Assembly of First Nations is being used to manufacture consent. This must not be allowed. At the recent AFN July session, a resolution to support Bill C-61 garnered the support of only 100 out of 600-plus first nations, yet Canada has asserted a position of strong engagement and support from first nations throughout the development of the bill, at every opportunity. This is false. Canada continues to hide behind the AFN to manufacture consent to pursue the very things we want to talk about with you today.
Please note that our committee will be submitting a substantive assessment of our concerns, which will include additional issues about specific aspects of the proposed legislation. We understand that the line-by-line work is still to come through this committee.
Today I want to spend some time expanding on our deep concerns over how Bill C-61 ignores unfinished business related to treaties. Bill C-61 does not meaningfully consider or incorporate our inherent and treaty rights to water in its framework for addressing water and water management issues. The treaty relationship is being ignored in this law. This is unacceptable to us as treaty nations.
Treaty 6, Treaty 7 and Treaty 8 nations have inherent jurisdiction over water within their territories. We hold sacred, spiritual and cultural connections to water. The health and protection of water for the current and future generations are paramount to our well-being. Canada cannot continue to fail our peoples with this, but if the bill stays in its present form, it will. There is a slight reference in this bill to self-governing and modern-day treaty agreements, but not a single reference to our numbered treaties. We want to know why.
This goes to an issue that appears to be the elephant in the room: Canada, through this legislation, is continuing to deny our inherent and treaty rights to water. This is a fundamental flaw in the legislation as currently drafted. Canada is boastful about protection zones—concepts set out in this legislation. In theory, this can hopefully be an improvement over the status quo, but only—and I emphasize “only”—if you have a willing government partner. This is a bit of fantasyland thinking. There is nothing binding in this concept. It has no legal obligations and no teeth.
What happens if you don't have a willing government partner? First nations in the Alberta region have been left out of significant water planning initiatives in the province of Alberta, and Bill C-61 and the addition of protection zones provide no assurance of this changing. This is our current reality in Alberta, which, as you have been told by our colleague leaders from Treaty 7, continues to assert that it owns all water in what is called the province of Alberta. We are here today to remind parliamentarians that Alberta is an incorporated entity that has no sovereignty. In fact, it was created well after our treaties were made in 1876, 1877 and 1899. At no point in time did we cede or surrender our inherent rights and territories, and this includes over water.
What has happened over time has been a gradual and complete interference in our way of life. Successive governments in Canada, whether Liberal or Conservative, continue to disrespect and dishonour our treaty rights and make a mockery of our treaty relationship. We are asking you to reconsider this. If you don't, realize that you will be complicit in the continuation of the situation.
What is at stake here is the honour of the Crown. We expect, as Canada's own UN declaration action plan states, that it will give its good-faith dealings under the treaties.
With that, I will end and take questions.