Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Nov. 30th, 2023

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

The next round would be 15 minutes. How much time do you need?

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Can I have five minutes?

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

Madame Gill, do you have any further questions you want to ask?

[Marilène Gill, Bloc, Manicouagan, QC]

I would be prepared to move adjournment, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

Ms. Idlout has asked if she could do one round of questions for five minutes. There's agreement from those in the room. If we can stay five minutes, we will give Ms. Idlout the floor, and then we will adjourn at that point.

Okay, Ms. Idlout, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Thank you so much to the committee for giving me the extra time.

We've been hearing concerns from witnesses about the Métis Nation of Ontario, specifically around membership, as was being asked, and the six historic communities that were recognized by the provincial government in 2017. What sort of background research was done by this department to verify the historical accuracy of the six historic communities?

[Martin Reiher]

Indeed, the Province of Ontario has recognized seven communities in Ontario. The Government of Canada has not played any role in that regard, and this legislation does not specify specific communities that are being recognized in Ontario or elsewhere. Therefore, this is not.... We didn't need to look into this.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

I am curious. In your opinion, why do you think there have been so many concerns raised about the membership of the MNO? Are you satisfied with the checks and balances?

[Martin Reiher]

We know that the Métis Nation of Ontario has done a lot of work on its registry, and it recently actually removed a large number of members from the registry, pursuant to additional work. To this point, we are satisfied that all of these three organizations are doing thorough work to vet their memberships, and we are reassured that there will be verifiable.... They do have an obligation to have and keep objectively verifiable information of their memberships, and there will be third party independent audits.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

First nations have been sharing with us as well that they are greatly concerned that with regard to their status Indians, those registries are monitored quite heavily by Indian and Northern Affairs, whereas, when it comes to Métis membership, it sounds like you're taking a completely hands-off approach to it. Could you describe why there's such a disparity between these two different indigenous groups?

[Martin Reiher]

This government is definitely moving away from determining who the individual members of indigenous groups are, consistent with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous groups have the right to determine their own memberships.

It is not, at this point, an objective to follow what was done for the Indian registry. Rather, we are turning to a more.... I guess we are moving forward under the basis of the declaration, and we respect that self-governing first nations have the ability, when they enter into self-government agreements, to determine who their citizens are in exactly the same way as under the Indian Act.

Obviously, they also have the ability to take over membership, but I do recognize that the Indian registry still exists. In terms of registry, it is slightly different, but again, the standards that are applied to the creation of the Métis registry are stringent.

[Lori Idlout, NDP, Nunavut, NU]

Okay.

Understanding that these three Métis nations are considered to be authorized, what mechanisms will be used to make sure that other Métis, like the Métis Settlements General Council in Alberta, are not losing membership because of what's being determined as self-determining, if those Métis might end up moving to the MNA, for example?

[Martin Reiher]

I will ask Mr. Schintz to answer that question.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

It will have to be a brief response, as we are at the end of the five minutes. I will let you conclude with this response, and then we'll adjourn.

[Michael Schintz]

Briefly, I think there are two very important things. One is that I know there's ongoing dialogue between the MNA leadership and the Métis Settlements leadership, and that, of course, needs to continue.

I think another important pillar is that when the treaties are developed, and we do.... We have used the word “consultation” a lot, but what consultation really means is sitting down with groups whose rights might be adversely impacted. If that is the Métis Settlements, it's giving them an opportunity to dialogue with us about what aspects of that treaty might impact their rights. If accommodation needs to be made in that treaty, it's having that dialogue both with our treaty partners and with other indigenous governments.

[The Chair, Liberal, John Aldag]

Thank you.

That concludes our panel for today. I would like to thank the witnesses for being here for two hours, and probably beyond that with our delayed start today. Thank you for sharing your expertise.

Colleagues, we'll be back here on Tuesday. I wish everybody safe travels and a good weekend.

The meeting is adjourned.