Thank you, Mr. Chair.
G-7 is as follows. I move that Bill C-61, in clause 27, be amended by replacing lines 7 to 10 on page 16 with the following:
(5) The Minister must complete the framework referred to in subsection (1) no later than the first anniversary of the day on which this section comes into force or the last day of any longer period requested by the Minister or First Nations governing bodies.
This offers the option of extending conversations between first nations and the Government of Canada if the prescribed timelines do not allow for the true co-development of the funding framework. This language still acknowledges the importance of setting that timeline to co-develop the funding framework but creates more flexibility for partners, which is something we heard directly from committee witnesses.
It's important to have this option available. The Government of Canada delayed introducing this bill because of the deadline set as part of the 2022 settlement agreement. There were still pieces that needed to be worked through with first nations partners.
On the day of introduction, former regional chief Glen Hare had this to say about the importance of having this flexibility:
I guess a number of us were ready to move forward on this. I hear your question but we also weren’t ready a couple of times either and we asked for an extension from the government and we got it. I’ve got to rely on our legal people too. I’m not up on our rightsholders too. They wanted some things in this document. I was disappointed a few months ago when it got delayed a second time but now we’re here today and I want to believe we can do something positive now. It’s with the support of the people, not Glen, not the Minister. But they asked for a delay and we got it and we did a lot of good work since then.
Really, it's just building in that flexibility, if they requested that time frame, so that we would be able to grant that.