Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 14th, 2022

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

I take your point, and I do agree that we should add that. There are direct descendants who do suffer from intergenerational trauma, so I would be agreeable to adding “descendants”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

That would require a subamendment.

[Gary Vidal, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Does it have to be written? Can't we do it the same as...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

No. That was simple and straightforward. This has greater implications.

Are you preparing a subamendment? Okay. We'll therefore suspend.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Resuming the committee, we have a subamendment proposed by Mr. Vidal that you should have all received.

Is there any debate on the subamendment from Mr. Vidal to NDP-4?

It looks like we have agreement.

(Subamendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Is NDP-4 as amended by the subamendment and with the addition of the word "indigenous" carried?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

We now go to G-2, but just before I get into it, I have a comment.

Amendments G-2, BQ-2, and LIB-3 all seek to add representation of survivors of residential schools to the board of directors. When debating and voting on these amendments, members of the committee should bear that in mind in order to be coherent throughout the bill. We have to be coherent.

With that, I will ask Mr. Battiste if he wishes to move amendment G-2 and explain it.

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

No, Mr. Chair, I wish to withdraw it since it was already covered in the previous amendments.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Seeing no debate on that, amendment G-2 is withdrawn.

We'll now go to amendment LIB-2.1.

Mr. Weiler, would you care to move this amendment?

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I gladly move this amendment, reference 12050033.

This amendment will amend paragraph 12(c) to read:

of the Department of Indigenous Services Act, to reflect the diversity of arrangements that govern relationships between Indigenous communities and the Government of Canada;

Just to give some background of why I believe this is important, indigenous governments are not homogeneous right across the country. I believe it's important to have this in there so that there are considerations to include indigenous governments that will reflect the diversity that we have across the country, whether that's self-governing nations, whether that's historical treaty first nations, whether that's modern treaty or whether there's no treaty at all.

Because the key part of reconciliation is the process to move ahead on self-determination, I think it's very important that the council have that broad diversity of indigenous government representation on it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mr. Weiler.

Is there a wish to debate this amendment?

As I am not seeing any, shall amendment LIB-2.1 carry?

(Amendment agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

We are moving on to BQ‑2.

Would you like to move it, Mrs. Gill?

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Actually, Mr. Chair, I won't be moving that amendment since the reference to survivors was already covered by another amendment, which we adopted, NDP‑4, if I'm not mistaken.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mrs. Gill.

Ms. Gill is withdrawing BQ-2, stating that it really has been covered now by the amended NDP-4.

As I am not seeing any wish to debate or argue that, amendment BQ-2 is withdrawn.

That brings us to BQ‑3.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The purpose of the amendment is merely to include indigenous people whose second language is French. After checking, we realized that the bill, in its current form, did not give indigenous people whose second language was French the ability to participate on the board in French.

The amendment refers to indigenous people who speak French as a second language, but come to think of it, French could just as easily be their mother tongue. I think others agree with me on that. Although we want to support the revitalization of indigenous languages, the first language spoken in some communities is French. For that reason, I propose an amendment to my own amendment to also refer to those whose mother tongue is French. Someone else could move it as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mrs. Gill.

How would the new amendment be worded?

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

It's quite simple. I would add the words “mother tongue or”. It would read as follows:

(f) Indigenous persons whose mother tongue or second language is French.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mrs. Gill.

I'm going to check with the clerks.

We're going to take a quick break, to make sure we have the right translation in English.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

We'll resume.

The change that has been made to BQ-3 by the mover of BQ-3 is to add “mother tongue”, or “langue maternelle”.

Is there any wish to debate that?

Seeing none, shall BQ-3 with that small amendment carry?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Now we move on to BQ‑4.

Go ahead, Mrs. Gill.

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As was the case with BQ‑2, NDP amendment 4 has already added what BQ‑4 would have added, so I won't be moving it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mrs. Gill.

Amendment BQ-4, because it's been covered by NDP-4, is withdrawn.

We'll now go to CPC-9. Mr. Vidal, it's over to you.

[Gary Vidal, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move that the amendment identified by reference number 12004940 be considered by the committee.

The purpose in adding this proposed amendment to the representatives of the council would very simply be to address the very fundamental cause of many of the issues, that being poverty. In acknowledging that poverty needs to be reduced and that poverty is a root cause of many of the issues, we think it's very important that we include representation on a national council for reconciliation that includes economic reconciliation.

We heard in the committee testimony—in meetings 33, 34, 35 and 36—from a number of people, including Mr. Calla, Mr. Ross, Ms. Restoule, Mr. Jules, Mr. Bailey, Ms. Mbarki and Mr. Sellars, on how important economic reconciliation is going to be to the future relationship between indigenous peoples and non-indigenous peoples in our country. We think representation on this committee by somebody who brings that voice to the table is imperative.

That's the reason for moving this addition.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mr. Vidal.

Is there a wish to debate this?

Go ahead, Mr. Battiste.

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

We will be opposing this amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mr. Battiste.

Does anyone else want to debate the amendment?

The floor is yours, Mr. Schmale.

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

Thank you very much, Chair.

Unfortunately, I'm saddened to learn of the government's position on this amendment. I think, as pointed out by Gary Vidal, we have had numerous witnesses at numerous meetings talk about the need for economic reconciliation, about how it's an important part of the whole process. To leave something like this out when some people who had very strong voices and very good ideas when we were talking about the future in this bill.... Bill C-29 is about the future and how we move forward, so taking out that important piece, ignoring our expert witnesses who were advocating for such a voice on this committee, is disappointing. I hope the government reconsiders. I think not doing so is very short-sighted. Hopefully, this passes. It would be sad if it didn't.

Thanks.