Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and congratulations on your election. I wasn't here previously. I was a bit late, but congratulations. I'm excited to work with you and have already seen great work. Thanks so much.
I want to begin with grounding this work with where I come from and my experience. I have experienced what food poverty looks like in Canada. I know exactly what that feels like. I was raised in a Métis community called the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement, in Treaty 6 territory in Alberta, where few of the witnesses are actually coming from. I also represent a district called Edmonton Griesbach, which has one of the highest child poverty rates in Canada.
This is a serious issue for committee members, not just in my life, my experience, but also in my community right now. This is a serious issue. Children are currently going without, particularly indigenous people.
What I have seen in this report is a lot of great work, particularly by the experts and officials who are present from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. I'm impressed by the level of consultation that the government has been able to do through these ministries. What I'm most concerned about is the report from Crown-Indigenous Relations.
I had the experience over the last six years of my life to be the national director for the Métis Settlements. What I have seen over the last six years is a rapid decline in supports for those communities in northern Alberta. I have also seen in the last six years a rapid decline for indigenous people's perspectives in this place. It's the main reason I wanted to be elected, so I can bring this perspective to this House. This accountability is lacking tremendously in the government.
There are huge discrepancies, and I want to point to some of them that were mentioned even today. What I noticed is that in paragraph 12.31, the Auditor General's report states:
Beginning in March 2020, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada organized daily conference calls with, at times, as many as 750 stakeholders across the food system to discuss the status of the crisis and emerging concerns.
Canadians are getting access to these kinds of discussions, but let me read from the section just below that on how indigenous people are being treated.
I heard the deputy minister make mention that he consulted his ministry. I spoke to every treaty group in Alberta who has worked with him previously, and they said they did not have one phone call from this ministry. The Auditor General reports on this. It's a true fact, not just from me and my experience, or that of the treaty groups in Alberta, or the Métis groups, but the Auditor General found it in this report. In paragraph 12.32, it says:
Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada did not conduct consultations with stakeholders to identify specific needs and priorities of northern and remote communities in response to the pandemic, or on how best to use the $25 million that the Nutrition North Canada subsidy program received.
That's an embarrassment. These are people in my family who are suffering because this government won't even talk to us. I'm sorry if I'm emotional about this, but you have to understand that my family is dying because of this: children, 15 years old; a boy aged seven went to his house and hung himself. These are real families who are suffering from lack of consultation by this government, and I'm sick of hearing how they have consulted when the auditors themselves said that's not the case, that it's not true.
We have some serious work to do, my friends. I believe that this committee is united on the fact that indigenous people need to have a better place in this country. I know that every single member here is dedicated to that, but our ministry isn't. It's not supported. We need to have answers. We need to have an investigation as to why this continues to take place.
It breaks my heart to have to bring this up today, in the 21st century, and that this is a reality we're facing right now. There's no excuse for why we can't consult.
I want to end my point on the mention by the deputy minister, Mr. Quan-Watson, of how the price of carrots went down. If you talk to the indigenous people, they are not interested in those kinds of carrots; they are interested in regaining their traditional food practices. They don't want to have a snowmobile in the north; they need their dogs back. We want to re-engage in the activities that have kept us on this land for thousands of years. That's what food security looks like in the north, making sure we have that support, traditional access to our land, traditional access to our foods. We can feed ourselves.
I ranched for a long time in my life. I was happy to hear questions from my colleague on Cargill.
Thank you very much for that. My family was affected by that too.
Please, we have to stop coming to these committees and saying we have done something, when as a matter of fact it's not true.
Someone's lying here—either the deputy minister, who said he consulted everyone, or the Auditor General.
My first question, Mr. Hayes, is about paragraph 12.32. Can you confirm that this is the truth?