Evidence of meeting #130 for National Defence in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was know.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Davenport, Lib.
There was some trauma happening in your family and you just thought you needed to do something different, and that seemed to be something that appealed to you. You joined the navy. Is that right?
Indigenous Advocate, As an Individual
Maybe five, in total. However, most of us were scattered around. We didn't have an cohort established or consider that we needed to unify ourselves.
In my under six years of being enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces, I've maybe only seen four or five successful indigenous women.
Davenport, Lib.
Do you think it would have been helpful if there had been a way for you to identify other indigenous women within the armed forces, so you could form some sort of a network to support each other?
Davenport, Lib.
What would that look like? Do you think the Canadian Armed Forces should be offering that as a program?
What could that look like in providing that way of bringing people together?
Indigenous Advocate, As an Individual
I think a program is a suitable start. Maybe implementing a pilot project would be beneficial to a lot of indigenous young girls and women. I believe that would be a step in the right direction.
Davenport, Lib.
Okay. Thank you.
I'm very curious. I think there are a lot of amazing recommendations here. I think it would be helpful to have an indigenous woman go out to certain places to help with the recruiting of other indigenous women, because they're out there, to say that this is their experience.
I also love the recommendation, and I don't know, Mr. Lerat, if.... Sometimes I translate a recommendation to something even bigger.
I think one of the key things you talked about is this important need to be able to prepare those who want to join. In my own mind, I put it as almost like a preparatory program that includes cultural training. It could be one year or six months and people to understand what the forces are, what the navy is, what the life is like, whatever it is they might want to go into. I found that very helpful.
Mr. Lerat, this is following what Mr. Fisher was talking a little about. You mentioned there were 10 applicants for every one job. I want to understand this. Is it that there were only a limited number of jobs in Saskatchewan and people wanted to stay in the area, so there were 10 applicants for every job? Could you explain that comment?
Third Vice-Chief, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations
I was referring to recruitment into the forces and the processing.
I want to refer specifically to the area that I'm most involved in, the summer program for youth. The interest is there, but the positions are not filled, because of what I indicated before: the inconsistencies in meeting timelines.
I think we may look at doing things differently. Our thought-making and decisions are on a collective. We try to ensure a collective. We need to find a way of ensuring that a team goes out with our Bold Eagle youth development initiative coordinator, with the recruitment officers.
Richard Martel Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, CPC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to the witnesses for being here.
We know that the Canadian Rangers do an exceptional job and that we need them. We also know that many indigenous people are members of the Junior Canadian Rangers. Are there statistics on the number of Junior Rangers who then join the Canadian Rangers?
Third Vice-Chief, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations
I don't have any.
Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, CPC
Can you give me an idea of the mindset of the indigenous members of the Rangers?
Third Vice-Chief, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations
From what I can understand, we have the Ranger program in northern Saskatchewan primarily for search and rescue. At the same time, it also enhances and complements the services of the RCMP and conservation officers who are not there.
The Ranger programs are in northern Saskatchewan specifically. They could be expanded. I think we'd like to see them expanded because of the valuable work they do to keep our communities safe.
How that translates into the military.... I know that on some search and rescue missions or in some emergencies, such as the massive forest fires we experienced in Saskatchewan a couple of years back when the army came in and assisted, many of our Rangers were part and parcel of the effort and worked quite well.
Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, CPC
What do the indigenous Rangers think about Arctic sovereignty and to what extent do they feel a sense of affiliation to that mission?
Third Vice-Chief, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations
In a word, yes, absolutely. Part of the security of Canada is focused on that as well. I can't speak for the Innu in the far north, but I know the role they play in northern Saskatchewan, which is a little way from the far north. We're proud of them.
Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, CPC
I have one last question. How would you describe the collaboration between the regular forces and the indigenous Rangers? Can you give us an example of a successful collaboration between the two groups?
Third Vice-Chief, Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations
I think I just did with the forest fires and the coordination of the Rangers. I'm not telling you, and I haven't—and I wish I could tell you—that they are a unit. I can't do that because I have not witnessed specifically their coming together.
I can give you witnesses on the RCMP and Rangers coming together to jointly perform tasks for the community, whether it's out searching for missing hunters or assisting in community events. I could tell you instances of that, but I can't comment on the Armed Forces. I wish I could.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
We may have inadvertently focused on recruitment to the regular forces. I want to ask a little bit about reserves. It would seem to me that if there's an interest in serving, the reserves might be a good way for first nations to become involved with the Canadian military.
If you look at the list of communities where we have reserve units, they're not very northern and not very concentrated in places where there are first nations people in this country. Supposedly, reserves are supposed to create a presence across the country. It seems odd, when I look at the list, that they're so heavily focused in urban areas, really, and not in more rural and remote areas.
I wonder whether you have any thoughts about those two things: first, whether reserves would be a good option for a lot of first nations people; and second, about the availability of reserve postings throughout the country.
I'll start with Ms. Pope and come back to the room.
Indigenous Advocate, As an Individual
There was a previous discussion that brought forward the point that reserve units are in charge of their own mandate of bodies. I'm hoping that with that consideration the reserve units themselves could emphasize bringing in diversity by hiring indigenous people. I know, though, that we usually have to put the “X” in the box to meet the merit system requirement.
I wonder whether these reserve units could change their application process to require a basic literacy level, because most of the applicants can't do the advanced one. Through 2016, Statistics Canada proved that our people, or my nation, lacks the basic literacy level. There might be flexibility in the positions themselves to allow, rather than a petty officer second class or sergeant in a given position, more indigenous people to be in a local setting for them. That is something they might consider.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
Thank you.
I'll hand it over to the two gentlemen in the room, on the question of reserves.
