I'll start at the beginning, because you're right: We're playing catch-up. In fact, in 2011, at the end of her mandate as Auditor General of Canada, Sheila Fraser summed up her impression of the government's actions, after 10 years of audits and related recommendations on first nations issues, with the word “unacceptable”.
Prevention and mitigation were never funded for first nations by the then Conservative government, but you're right: It was Liberal governments in the past as well. That has changed. In fact, our government has invested $259 million in new funding on mitigation and prevention efforts. This is all new. This is a new space, and it's an important space.
It should be embarrassing to all of us that we haven't done a better job as a treaty partner, as a partner in many other ways, with first nations indigenous people over decades of commitments. We should all be embarrassed by that, and we can all do better.
It means that when there is proposed new spending on not just this particular file but on reducing climate change, on climate adaptation and on things like innovation and infrastructure, how will we pay for the infrastructure gap, not just in first nations, but across this country? Tough times are coming, folks, and things are changing. I think we all see that in our own lives, so there are big questions ahead of every government in the world, really, but certainly our government, and that's what we're speaking about today in terms of that pivot.
You're right. Can we continue through the public safety approach that we currently have as climate disasters get bigger and bigger? Who do we need to have at the table? What kinds of partnerships do we need to have and can we learn something from first nations people, who have far vaster experience in this land than we do?
That's the challenge, colleagues. It is to change the way we think about this from a begrudging duty to an opportunity, and I look forward to taking that opportunity with first nations partners across this country.
Thank you.