Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My comments might go over, so I think I might just jump quickly to the recommendations that the AFN has with respect to this bill.
[Witness spoke in Cree and provided the following text:]
Wahcheeyay misiway. RoseAnne Archibald nitishinikahsoon. Taykwa Tagmou ishinakataow kawocheean.
[Witness provided the following translation:]
Greetings, everyone. My name is RoseAnne Archibald and the place I come from is called Taykwa Tagmou.
[English]
I am happy to be here today to speak to the committee. I'm just trying to find my notes, if you could give me just a moment.
As I said, I'm here to share the AFN perspective on Bill C-29. I'll be providing a summary of AFN's perspective on the legacy of those former residential institutions. I don't call them schools anymore. They were institutions of assimilation and genocide where thousands of our children died.
I'll speak to the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to actions 53 to 56. I'll share with you some of AFN's concerns with Bill C-29.
I'm just going to jump ahead to that, Mr. Chair, because I feel like I might run out of time in terms of the amendments that we have to the bill, and the suggestions.
In terms of the nominations, clause 8 of the proposed act sets out that the first board of directors will be chosen by the minister “in collaboration with the transition committee”.
Clause 9 states that the board will have “a minimum of nine” directors and that the AFN, the ITK and the Métis National Council will each nominate one board director. Presumably, the minister would then have the discretion to appoint the remaining six to nine members of the first board of directors. Essentially, the minister has the authority to nominate and appoint two-thirds of the NCR's first board of directors.
Clause 11 requires that at least two-thirds of the directors must be indigenous, but no distinction is made between first nations, Inuit and Métis people.
Given the history of these institutions on our people, it's really of primary importance that the NCR board of directors be truly independent of government and also be reflective of the overwhelming impact that these institutions had on first nations people, so it's very concerning that under Bill C-29, the minister is given the broad discretion to appoint the majority of—