Thank you, chair and committee members, for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-10.
[Witness spoke in Nuu-chah-nulth]
[English]
My name is John Jack. I am the elected chief councillor of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. We're located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. We're a proud signatory of the Maa-nulth final agreement, one of five nations that have signed. We're very close to celebrating 15 years of self-government, going back to April Fool's Day, 2011.
I want to acknowledge that this bill is the culmination of over 20 years of work and that we appreciate the time and attention afforded to it by this committee here and now. We support Bill C-10 as presented and without substantive amendment. It is a deliberate and non-partisan product of co-development between the federal government and modern treaty partners. This is across multiple government mandates and with multiple parties to address challenges within federal structures.
Constitutionally protected modern treaties establish a comprehensive and enduring framework for reconciliation. They are complex, whole-of-government agreements that create thousands of tasks and obligations that touch many departments and agencies. While we have advanced reconciliation generally together, federal implementation efforts have too often been uneven, inconsistent and poorly coordinated. It is not for the lack of goodwill, however. Rather, the levels of awareness, understanding and sustained follow-through can vary widely across the many institutions and across the many months and years it takes to do the work.
When issues arise, it's not always clear how to resolve them, save through the courts, but we believe that should be the last resort and not the first option. All that takes time and money. It takes it away, and it erodes confidence. The opportunity costs of such are just too high. Treaty implementation isn't just the responsibility of one department; it is for the whole of government.
With many obligations and decisions spread across that vast whole, problems can persist without clarity, context and understanding. A dedicated and specialized commissioner would provide continuous and impartial oversight that could help resolve or avoid problems before they become inflamed, regardless of who is in power.
Such a role is too specific and too intensive for a general approach. We respect the Office of the Auditor General, but its mandate is too broad to achieve the focused and sustained attention needed to oversee and evaluate modern treaty implementation across the whole of government. Success here requires credible and reliable reporting that can assess not just the spending but the consequences of policy decisions, administrative work, and the maintenance and upkeep of the relationships involved. Importantly, the bill does contemplate and require coordination with the OAG to avoid overlap, and we would welcome the engagement of the Auditor General when they have the time to do so.
Bill C-10 provides accountability tools appropriate for the work of modern treaty implementation. Rather than make decisions or carry them out, the core role of this officer of Parliament would be to provide impartial and independent information and evaluation through program reviews, performance audits and other reports. Federal bodies must respond in writing to preliminary findings of the commissioner, and those responses must be included in the final report. This means that Parliament, treaty partners and Canadians everywhere can see the findings, the recommendations and the government's response all in one place.
From our perspective, the work of a commissioner for modern treaty implementation would contribute significantly to the ability of every party to our treaties to spend time on the real work of making our peoples' lives better now and into the future. If we can spend less time concerned about the efficacy of our government-to-government relationships, then we can spend more time working together to address the very real social and economic challenges that our peoples face. Together we can deliver the results that modern treaties were meant to enable and ennoble.
In closing, we ask that Bill C-10 be passed swiftly and without major amendment.
On behalf of my nation and my fellow Maa-nulth treaty nations, thank you for this opportunity. I'd be happy to take any questions.
