Kwe, unusakut, tansi, good afternoon, everyone.
Before I begin, I'd like to acknowledge that we're on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin and Anishinabe peoples.
I'd like to thank the committee and the chair for inviting me to appear before you today.
Our government is committed to supporting and investing in the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination, and righting historic wrongs. Improving relationships in meaningful and culturally appropriate ways takes time and a strong partnership.
The PBO report being considered today references large increases in spending by CIRNAC. This is the result of historic investments that our government has made to advance reconciliation, support self-determination, address historical wrongs and create meaningful partnerships to renew relationships with indigenous peoples.
It is important to be ambitious, and when we fall short, to recognize that shortcoming.
Most of you on this committee are already familiar with some of the major initiatives in investments that the government has made on this file. For example, in March, the Federal Court approved the Gottfriedson band class action settlement agreement. Through this settlement, Canada will transfer $2.9 billion into an indigenous-led trust to support the revival and protection of indigenous languages and cultures, the protection and promotion of heritage, and wellness for indigenous communities and their members. This is the first time that Canada is compensating bands for the loss of language and culture as a result of the residential school system.
Unfortunately, if we were to rely solely on the PBO report on this settlement, this would be construed and characterized as a resistance to change, despite it being a groundbreaking agreement.
Perhaps the deputy ministers can speak about some of the challenges we had in reacting to this report on the comparison that the PBO made between planned and actual expenditures. These departments, for the most part, are funded through supplementary estimates, and we think that being aware of this point could have benefited the committee if it had been properly reflected in the PBO report.
With regard to ending the national crisis on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and gender-diverse people, the Government of Canada has taken various steps to respond to the national action plan and implement the federal pathway. Notably, budget 2023 will invest an additional $125 million over six years, with $20 million ongoing to address the national inquiry's calls for justice. This builds on the $2.2 billion provided in budget 2021 and includes new funding for improved oversight and accountability.
I know that this committee has started a “land back” study. Canada's relationship with indigenous peoples started with land, and this relationship is broken because of land.
The tip of the iceberg of this debate is additions to reserves, or ATRs. ATRs are an important aspect of some of the indicators being studied in this PBO report. It's important to note that since 2015, more than 440 ATRs have been completed, with over 265,000 acres of land to reserves being added. This past fiscal year alone, 39 ATRs were completed, and many more remain in the queue, yet we have fallen short on this indicator. This is an important thing for the committee to consider, because if you read the report, you wouldn't have seen that activity. That is important to recognize when you go over the reports that this committee has asked the PBO to produce.
When we talk about qualitative indicators, we need to talk about the quality of those indicators. Unfortunately, again, while this is a failing, it is something that, had it been explained in the report, would have been of benefit to you in questioning us today.
Importantly, on another note, from a historical perspective, from 1973 to March 23, 2023, a total of 660 specific claims were resolved, for close to $12.5 billion in compensation. Over the past five years alone, we've settled an average of 39 claims per year. That is up from an average of 15 claims per year over the past five previous years.
In fiscal 2022-23, we had a record year, with 56 claims resolved for $3.5 billion in compensation. Again, this is another aspect of the qualitative indicators that is missing in the details of the report. That would be important to consider. These record settlements are changing lives in communities. It's important to be ambitious not only when setting the indicators but when implementing them.
I will conclude on this point: I think that some responsibility is mine when it comes to the two years that covered the COVID pandemic. Let's be honest: A number of these indicators had to be paused during this period while we focused on something very basic to indigenous peoples: their lives and their safety.
There is no indicator in this report that measures the success of the COVID response of this government. If you compare mortality rates—and sadly, unfortunately, you do have to sometimes compare mortality rates in indigenous communities in Canada versus those in the U.S.—this may be the first world pandemic in which indigenous communities were at or even surpassed non-indigenous communities in how they responded. That was thanks to the work they did. That's measured nowhere in this report, but it is something that is important to realize. Again, we are a country, and things do arise that periodic indicators will not encapsulate.
I'm not at this committee to level any undue criticism. As we review these indicators, I think it's important to look at them, question our department on where we are not meeting those indicators, look at the quality of those indicators and continue to be ambitious, as a country and as a government, about meeting them.
What I put to you today is a humble suggestion that perhaps future reports that scrutinize these departments could focus on the quality of those indicators to get more depth so that this committee can better hold people sitting here like me to account.
Chair, I thank you for the ability to speak for five minutes. I'm ready for questions or the next presentation. Thank you.