Evidence of meeting #5 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was businesses.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Marc Garneau
I'm sorry, Ms. Idlout. Your six minutes are up. Thank you very much.
We will now proceed to the second round, but before I do so I will remind everybody in the room that if you're sitting beside somebody you should be two metres from them, and if you are not speaking, you should be wearing your mask.
We'll now proceed with the second round. The first speaker will be Mr. Vidal.
Mr. Vidal, you have five minutes.
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the ministers and all their support staff for being here with us on a Friday afternoon. I get the sacrifice of that.
I want to follow up a little bit on the conversation with Minister Hajdu.
In your opening comments, you talked about communities needing a strong economic foundation in order to grow and prosper. You talked about advancing self-determination through strong economic growth. Yet in the Speech from the Throne, and in the mandate letters of both yourself and Minister Miller, the only reference to anything on the concept of economic growth, or supporting indigenous people from an economic perspective, was the reference to the aboriginal entrepreneurship program. I've had several conversations with national indigenous organizations, and, frankly, they were quite concerned about this.
In my vast knowledge of two and half years around the Hill—that's a joke, by the way—one of the things I learned is that if things aren't in the mandate letters, if they're not in the Speech from the Throne, then you start to question the level of priorities.
I'm just curious. Economic reconciliation was really left out of all of those documents. How much of a priority is this, really, for the government?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
I'll start, and maybe Mr. Vandal can add.
First of all, yes, it's Friday afternoon, but I think we're all used to working them now, especially in this time of Zoom. It's nice to see you as well. And two years is a long time around this place, by the way, it's dog years.
Even though I obviously hear your point about the specificity of economic development in my mandate or in another indigenous portfolio mandate, what I will draw your attention to is that this mandate of economic development and indigenous self-determination is actually in all of our mandates. It's in the preamble of all of the mandates. It's also in the Minister of Public Services and Procurement's mandate, for example. We were just talking about procurement targets. It's in the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities' mandate. It's in the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion's mandate. The focus on indigenous self-determination, equity and the economic development that comes from that is actually woven into all of the mandates of the government. The government believes this is a whole-of-government approach.
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
Sorry, my time is so limited. I don't want to be rude.
Let's go to the procurement target for a second. That target was in the mandate letters of the Minister of Indigenous Services in the past, and it's not in your target. The only place that shows up in the mandate letters is in the letter of the Minister of Public Services and Procurement.
We're talking about the things that are going on now, and this plan. It sounds exciting, to be honest with you. That 5% target is not a new target; it's been around for some time. What are we currently achieving? What is the actual percentage of procurement that is being achieved at this point?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
I'll turn to Minister Vandal in one moment, because he may want to add something, but I'll say again that a 5% target is an ambitious target, and it is a reportable target, as the deputy minister pointed out. There will be a measurement available for all Canadians to read, in terms of how the government is reaching that target with indigenous people.
Conservative
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
If you'll be brief, please. I have another really important question I want to get to.
Where are we at on the 5% target?
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Every minister is committed to the procurement process. I'm a member of the indigenous caucus with Mr. McLeod and Vance Badawey, and we've been pushing the administration for a long time. I know that we have significant improvements to make, but our government is committed. Every minister has reconciliation, and in reconciliation, I believe, is economic—
Conservative
Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK
I'm sorry, Minister. I don't mean to cut you off, but you're obviously not going to answer my question, and I want to get my last one in.
We heard from the members of the First Nations Financial Management Board about the concept of monetization and how that is a tool that could be used very significantly to increase investments in the very lacking infrastructure in first nations and other indigenous communities. That, along with the concept of the first nations infrastructure institute, is a concept that's been around for a couple of years as well, yet we don't seem to be making the progress of using the leveraging of those own-source revenues.
Can you tell me if there's a specific plan to actually utilize monetization and the first nations infrastructure institute to close the infrastructure gap?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Let me say that of the meetings I've been able to have in these first few months of being the minister, the first nations management board was one of the most impressive in terms of the work they're doing with first nations communities to stimulate economic development.
Yes, I directed my deputy—I know that she was on this beat before I was—to be really aggressive in supporting the work of the first nations management board and accelerating the work.
Perhaps, Deputy Minister Fox, you could speak a little bit about that.
Liberal
Deputy Minister, Department of Indigenous Services
Just on the monetization question, for instance, our first nations and Inuit health branch now has the authorities and program terms and conditions that would allow individual first nations to monetize long-term transfer payments with financial institutions. That includes with the first nations financial authority.
That's part of how we're trying to make changes on the monetization front.
Liberal
February 11th, 2022 / 1:50 p.m.
Liberal
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our ministers and their team members for joining us today.
I'll start with you, Minister Vandal. You mentioned the need for high-quality education. For someone who has a background as a teacher, that certainly spoke right to my heart. It's something that I feel has been a bit lacking in our conversations around barriers to economic development.
I would love it if you could speak a little bit more about the aboriginal youth strategy that you were a part of, and maybe more broadly about the necessity of high-quality education for indigenous youth.
Thank you.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
We all know it's a universal principle that the key to a better life is a better education. Unfortunately, for indigenous nations and peoples, because of the effects of colonization and the government policy of beating the Indian out of the person, there have been horrendous effects that have affected education attainment.
As Minister of Northern Affairs, I know our government is committed. First, we've invested tens of millions of dollars through budgets in the past few years. There's been $13 million over five years for the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning and $26 million over five years for a new science building at the Yukon University.
As important as that, about a year ago, we launched an independent task force on improving post-secondary education in the north, which was part of budget 2019. We have representations from all territories in the north, including the Arctic, northern Manitoba and, I believe, northern Ontario. Their goal and their mandate is to do consultations, talk to the public service, talk to the educators and really give our government some recommendations on what we need to do to improve post-secondary education outcomes in the north. However, it's hard to separate post-secondary from elementary education, because if you don't have a good base, then you're not going to have a good post-secondary system, so it's all connected. In order to have a good base, you need to make sure society is delivering good social determinants of health.
One thing that's apparent is the use of technology. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we need to connect the country. We have a very ambitious universal broadband fund. We want to get 100% of Canada connected by 2030, I believe. That connectivity is so important for education, but also for health, for long-distance health care, which could be very valuable, and for commerce and business. That's something that we're depending on now.
You asked about the aboriginal youth strategy in Winnipeg. That was quite a few years ago. The main idea was that the city of Winnipeg's workforce was aging. We had an aging workforce on this side, and on the other side we had young indigenous people, the fastest-growing population in the city of Winnipeg. We needed to connect the two through mentorships, training programs and co-operative working arrangements, including education systems. I'm a bit out of the loop now as to where that is, but at the time, it was something that landed positively. It's something that our country needs to be doing.
Liberal
Liberal
Jenica Atwin Liberal Fredericton, NB
I'll take the opportunity again to thank you for the information that you shared with us today.
You mentioned specifically exports for pre-packaged bannock, so I'll give a shout-out to a local entrepreneur here from New Brunswick. Her business is called Jenna's Nut-Free Dessertery. She also provides pre-packaged bannock from New Brunswick. She's a Wolastoqey woman, so I wanted to give her a nice shout-out as well.
Thank you so much for your time today.
Liberal
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister Hajdu said that COVID‑19 has obviously affected indigenous businesses. Does she know whether they were affected differently from non‑indigenous businesses and, if so, how?
Does she plan to conduct a differentiated analysis to determine how to further assist indigenous businesses in times of crisis such as the current one?
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Thank you very much.
I think the real difference for indigenous businesses is that oftentimes they have a much more fragile financial footprint. That's why our department invested almost $900 million—correct me if I'm wrong, Deputy Fox—to support indigenous businesses through COVID-19.
Just like every other business, we knew that the more businesses that could be supported through a variety of different public health measures, the more they would come out strong at the end, and sustain that economic footprint in communities and regions that really struggle to get those footprints in place to begin with.
For example, one area in which I can say that indigenous people were maybe overrepresented or, at least, were very significantly impacted was the tourism sector. Many indigenous communities have a strong tourism aspect to their economic development. Of course, tourism was significantly impacted through COVID-19.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
Minister Hajdu, do you think that a differentiated analysis would be appropriate?
You said that their economic footprint was more fragile. However, I don't think that we would be here if it weren't.
We may need to look for things further down the road to see where we can strategically and persistently support indigenous communities and their entrepreneurship.
Liberal
Patty Hajdu Liberal Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Absolutely, I think the more we understand the effects of COVID-19 on businesses and on communities the better, because we'll want to be able to learn from these experiences and to be able to be even more adaptive should we see a similar public health threat in the future.
It also gives us a really good insight into the different strengths and capacities of communities to be able to adjust and adapt, because there are many success stories of indigenous communities and businesses, just like non-indigenous businesses, that pivoted quickly, adapted very quickly and were able to continue operating in a difficult situation.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Marc Garneau
Thank you, Ms. Gill. Your time is up.
Ms. Idlout, you have two and a half minutes.