Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 26th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you, Mr. Lemire.

We will now proceed to the vote.

(Subamendment agreed to)

I turn the floor back over, this time to Ms. Idlout, who, I understand, wants to move a subamendment to that. I think we are going to be.... I don't know whether it's been circulated yet.

We can start a debate on that right now. The interpretation of that subamendment is just in process right now. There's a different amendment that's been circulated. It's not the one we just dealt with. We can start a debate on this right now if there's anybody who wants to weigh in on that, but the text of it is still going through translation. As soon as that's done, we can go to a vote on it.

Go ahead, Mr. Battiste.

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

I think we did a marvellous job over the past four or five days of trying to find consensus on a really difficult thing for a lot of folks. I think we have not only all parties giving thumbs-up on that but also stakeholders involved in the discussion. Any further amendment seeks to jeopardize some of the consensus that we've just arrived at. I'm hoping that whatever amendments might be circulated take into consideration what we just resolved with this motion that seeks to give us a pathway to get to unanimous consent in the House of Commons on this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Mr. Battiste.

Seeing no further debate, maybe we'll briefly suspend until the subamendment can be circulated.

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

Can we park it and go to the next one? We're so close. There are three clauses left.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

If we have unanimous consent to do that, we can return to clause 14.1, which is NDP-24.

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

We're on clause 27, are we not?

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

We could go to clause 27. We also skipped past clause 14.1 and NDP-24, but I think we wanted to resolve this question about protection zones before getting to that one. It may be better to go to, as you mentioned, clause 27 and NDP-60, and then return to this afterwards.

Ms. Atwin.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

I think that it's probably shortly forthcoming, and I'd rather just continue to deal with the issue at hand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

If we don't have unanimous consent, then we'll stay where we are. That will probably be a bit more straightforward. Let's suspend briefly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

I'm going to call this meeting back to order.

With that, I will turn the floor over to Ms. Idlout, who moved this subamendment, to speak to it, and then I'll pass it over to Mr. Battiste.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik, Iksivautaq.

I thank everyone for their patience in discussing this subamendment.

What I've proposed—and it's been emailed to all of you—is to remove “make best efforts to” from the first part of the sentence, as well as to replace the words, towards the end of the sentence, “guided by the principles”, to strengthen it so that it's more in line with implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to read as “consistent with articles of”.

Qujannamiik.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Ms. Idlout.

First, I see that Mr. Battiste has his hand up.

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

I concur. We think the amendments make it stronger, and we're supporting it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

I'm not seeing any further interventions, so I think we're ready for a vote. Shall the subamendment to CPC-5 carry?

(Subamendment agreed to)

Now we need to vote on CPC-5 as thrice subamended. Is there any debate on that before we get to a vote? Shall CPC-5 as subamended carry?

(Amendment agreed to on division [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Colleagues, we discussed going back to NDP-24, but there has been a further subamendment submitted that I understand is going through translation. In order to be more efficient with time, I would suggest....

I'm sorry; before that, first we need to vote on clause 21 as amended.

Shall clause 21 as amended carry?

(Clause 21 as amended agreed to on division [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(On clause 27)

As I was saying before, given that there is another subamendment to NDP-24 that's being translated right now, I would suggest that we come back to that later. In order to be efficient with time, let's move on to clause 27 and NDP-60. I just want to make sure that there isn't any disagreement on that.

I'm not seeing any, so let's move to clause 27. We stood this clause while we were debating NDP-60. I'll give members a few seconds to prepare themselves for that. Once we're ready, I'll turn the floor over to Ms. Idlout to speak to NDP-60.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Qujannamiik, Iksivautaq.

NDP-60 was an amendment that was provided to us by the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations. They saw fit to improve Bill C-61 under clause 27 by replacing lines 22 to 25 on page 15 with the following:

(3) The Minister’s funding allocation decisions under subsection (1) must be consistent with the principle that the funding for First Nations water services is to

Qujannamiik.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Ms. Idlout.

We're moving into debate. I see that Ms. Atwin has her hand up.

I'll turn the floor over to you.

[Jenica Atwin, Liberal, Fredericton, NB]

I'd like to move a subamendment, which has been submitted in both official languages. It puts back the consultation and co-operation piece. It will just read as follows:

The Minister’s consultations and cooperation with respect to the making of funding allocation decisions under subsection (1) must be consistent with the principle that the funding for First Nations water services is to

It's just marrying the two.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thank you very much, Ms. Atwin.

The subamendment has been moved. Is there any debate on the subamendment? I'm not seeing any debate.

(Subamendment agreed to on division)

(Amendment agreed to on division)

That takes us to new NDP-62. I just want to clarify the reference number. The reference number for new NDP-62 is 13372538.

With that, I'll turn the floor over to Ms. Idlout.

I'll let you take it from here.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

NDP-62 was provided to us as an amendment by File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribunal Council.

The amendment would be that Bill C-61, in clause 27, be amended by replacing line 33 on page 15 with the following:

(e) align with the use of up-to-date clean and sustainable tech-

Qujannamiik.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Thanks for that, Ms. Idlout.

Sorry, there's a bit of confusion here. The reference number for this is, in fact, 13377852.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

The wording is still the same?

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

Your wording is accurate. My conveying of the reference number was inaccurate.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Patrick Weiler]

With that, I'll open it up to debate on new NDP-62.

Mr. Battiste.

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

I'm reading the original document, and it says, “align technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of water services”. I don't see a difference.