Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I want to return to the question of accountability. I think it's an important one, and it's probably the most critical question of our time in relation to how Canadians understand settler-indigenous relations.
When Canadians come together and expect their ministry to work, they pay taxes and they do everything right, but the system keeps failing them. It's failing not just indigenous people, but all Canadians. Many of them want to be allies with indigenous peoples, but the institutions they entrust to do this are failing.
I want to know exactly how to hold your ministry accountable in the continued violence against indigenous people like we're seeing here. Is it money? Is it the minister? Is it the department?
We hear from scholars oftentimes in committee about the structures of this place and how the structures of this place are inappropriate to be dealing with indigenous people. They put the onus on indigenous people. You want partnerships, rather than accountability. You want indigenous people to be in line, in a queue, rather than directly met through their treaty and non-treaty obligations. These are real, systemic problems.
Indigenous Services Canada is an old ministry. It's one that helped to administer, back when it was amalgamated with INAC, some of the most terrible and egregious systems in this country. Are Canadians expected to trust this system to deliver these results? No. They shouldn't have to be. That's why they should be listening to how we, as a government, can create structures that can be more accountable.
I am determined now. The fact is that we're going to continue to see, after many audits and three auditors general, the continued failures at ISC. I believe that there is a situation. It's not necessarily the people operating the system, but the system itself is broken. No matter who leads the department, it will continue to have these results.
My question is simple, and I'll return to it again. Who is responsible for these actions within the jurisdiction of the federal government, beyond platitudes of partnerships?
I want to know who is responsible.