Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Oct. 31st, 2023

[Chief Greg Desjarlais]

It would be creating another level of government. It's hard for us to accept and to understand when we're not given the respect that we deserve as the first peoples. I shared before that our 46 votes aren't enough at the AFN table. We get outvoted. I've seen treaty resolutions get trumped by the AFN charter, which is an arm of the government there, so....

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Would you say that this bill could be putting in place a Métis-level AFN, essentially? Is that your intuition on this?

[Chief Greg Desjarlais]

That would be my intuition, but I would ask the government that question.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

David, I think it was you who mentioned the AFN. Do you just want to elaborate a little on that?

[David Paul Achneepineskum]

No, I didn't mention it at all. It wasn't me.

The AFN is merely an administrative organization as far as we're concerned.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

I was just wondering what the temperature is like up in your part of the world. What is the general mode of heating your homes in your communities?

[David Paul Achneepineskum]

In the Treaty 9 territory, communities are remote. Primarily it's heating furnaces that we have. You can imagine that the price of hydro is very high. We don't use it for heating at all.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

I'm just wondering if you have a carbon tax exemption and if you would be interested in that up in your part of the world.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[A voice]

That's a great question.

[David Paul Achneepineskum]

No, we do not at all.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Are you negotiating with the federal government for a carbon tax exemption in your area?

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

We are fairly off topic from the intent of this meeting, which is to study Bill C-53.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

I saw an opportunity and I took the opportunity.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

There are 30 seconds left.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

All right.

Thank you very much for appearing here today, David and Greg.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

Thank you.

We'll stop there and go over to Mr. McLeod next.

Mr. McLeod, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you to our witnesses here today. I really appreciate that you've taken the time to come and talk to us.

This is a very difficult subject. I come from the Northwest Territories. We've had lots of discussions around Métis self-governance and Dene self-governance and, in some cases—

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

We have a point of order, Mr. McLeod. I'm going to stop the clock.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

The interpretation has stopped.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

Okay.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

The interpreter indicated that the witness's audio quality was too poor.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

I'm just checking with the interpreters to see if they are good.

Mr. McLeod, can you just give us a quick sound check? Give us a quick weather report from where you're at and we'll make sure we have the sound. Then I'll continue with the clock.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

You have four and a half minutes left. The clock is back running.