Status of Women Committee on Sept. 22nd, 2022

[Lisa J. Smith]

I'd be happy to do that.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Okay, thank you.

For the remainder of my time, I'm not sure, Dr. Neckoway, if you would explain what possible solutions there would be to undo the damage caused by the hydro dams in these communities. Perhaps Mr. Brownlie or Dr. Neckoway wants to continue on that and give us some concrete solutions. I know that you mentioned bringing the water level back to the level it was at before, knowing that most likely they won't be removing the dams.

Do you have any other recommendations in that area?

[Ramona Neckoway]

Why don't I start this one? I think the reference to the regulating of the waters is—correct me if I'm wrong, Jarvis—with respect to the CRD licence, and some of the parameters that originally were built into that would stabilize the shorelines. Again, we're talking about pretty substantive waterways, rivers and tributaries in northern Manitoba. We have three pretty significant waterways in the north that have been dammed and diverted, if you will, to borrow from a colleague of ours. Just finding a way to operationalize the system so that isn't so severe.... We have times when water is really high. This summer, water is really low at our end of the hydro system. That's one thing you can do.

Start thinking about cultural revitalization. What is that going to look like? How are you going to help communities to access land and territory that is now unaccessible because there's simply too much debris. The water is moving and flowing dangerously too fast for anybody to be able to access it. How are you going to help us revitalize language and culture? How are programs going to be carried out at the community level, supported both by government and industry?

Again, as we stated in our opening statement, the land and the water were our communities.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Dr. Neckoway.

Now we're going to move to Madame Larouche. You can go ahead for five minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

We are still looking for solutions. It is unacceptable that in 2022, resource exploitation has such an impact on indigenous women and girls.

Ms. Smith, as you mentioned, the fact that Bill C‑15 recognizes the rights of indigenous peoples is the least we can do. Moreover, Canada's unwillingness to ratify this agreement has long tainted its international reputation. The way Canada treated its first nations tarnished its image abroad and was a dark cloud over us. Do you have anything concrete to add on this subject? You really emphasized that Bill C‑15 could help.

I'll invite you, Mr. Brownlie, Ms. Neckoway, and Ms. Kabloona to speak later on on something else. Before that, though, I'm going to let you talk about the importance of Canada's image internationally in relation to how it treats its first nations, as well as Bill C‑15, which we think is important.

[Lisa J. Smith]

Thank you. I did a lot of work on advocating for UNDRIP implementation, so I'm thrilled that Bill C-15 received royal assent. I'm going to focus on a key component of the bill, the alignment with policies and legislation. Ergo, everything that Canada does will have to align with the declaration. So often people forget that's minimal: That's the floor of human rights for indigenous peoples. This hasn't been done yet. Yes, the bill was passed, but once all our policies and our laws are truly aligned with Bill C-15, then our basic human rights as indigenous peoples will be upheld—“will be”. There's still work to be done.

It's encouraging that the government passed this bill, and that's the way we're going. I also think that a lot of this advocacy and getting on the same page is about communication. You may have touched on this earlier. I think there needs to be a focus on that, on awareness and educating. The people around this table are plugged in, but to truly educate and make Canadians aware, perhaps sometimes in plain language, will help this cause. We'll come together as a country, hopefully, and with the guidance of UNDRIP I think we're going to get somewhere. We're not there yet, but I'm encouraged that we will get there.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

We all believe in it, absolutely.

Ms. Smith, I was going to speak to the other witnesses, but time is running out. So I will ask my question and you can answer that or my other question. If Mr. Brownlie, Ms. Neckoway or Ms. Kabloona have anything to add, they are welcome to do so.

You mentioned boom towns and man camps in your opening remarks. I would like to come back briefly to the question of the responsibilities of companies that exploit resources on the territory and hire employees from far away, which leads to the appearance of these camps. Yet these companies also have a duty to put in place internal and external measures to counter acts of violence.

We have talked about many things. Among the concrete solutions, could there be a federal policy to frame and regulate resource companies in Canada, which would include ethics and harassment? Could such measures help curb this violence?

[Kilikvak Kabloona]

I know it's enticing to think about concrete solutions. I stand by a lot of the comments that were made earlier by all of the panellists here in terms of fully implementing UNDRIP.

I want to speak to our majority language in Nunavut. Nunavut is the only jurisdiction in Canada where the majority homogenous language of the population is not English or French. It's Inuktitut or Inuktut, yet this is very often the last language in which materials are prepared on any resource project. That results in a lot of people not knowing about the project through the environmental review process.

We want to see the Official Languages Act in Nunavut recognize that Inuktut is the majority language in Nunavut.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Ms. Kabloona.

Before I go to Leah, I just want to say that we are running out of time. This is our last witness. We're going to do committee business in the next meeting.

We'll go over to Leah for five minutes.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'd like to start out by thanking the committee for its grace in letting us go a little bit over. I really appreciate your respect.

I want to start by first asking questions of Madam Kabloona.

Before I do that, I do want to offer my condolences about the death of Savanna Pikuyak. It's a tragedy that is, unfortunately, a common one. It needs to end. My condolences go to the family and, of course, to the community.

You spoke a lot about violence against indigenous women. One thing that you pointed to was a failure of the government to allocate, even in the 2021 budget. In fact, I called for an emergency debate in the last session in response to the fact that in this current 2022 budget, there was zero allocated to address the ongoing genocide against murdered and missing indigenous women and girls. Like Madam Smith has indicated, I was very heartened to see Bill C-15 pass, but human rights are as only as good as our ability to respect and uphold those rights through action.

When you're negotiating impact and benefit agreements, is a part of the negotiations dedicated to ensuring that, in any project in communities, money is allocated to ensure the safety of indigenous women, girls and two-spirit...?

[Kilikvak Kabloona]

I think you're speaking about the Inuit impact and benefit agreements that Inuit organizations hold with the mining companies. They are all different. We have a standard mineral exploration agreement whereby Nunavut Tunngavik is the signatory with the mining company. Those are more specifically around the royalties and the general conditions the mining company will operate under.

The regional Inuit associations in Nunavut also have an Inuit impact and benefit agreement with the mining company, and those are all different. They have been evolving. I would say that all of the agreements have employment requirements, Inuit employment and training requirements. Generally, companies are not meeting those targets. They also have contracting requirements. Usually companies are not meeting those targets either.

More recently, there have been more advances. For example, the IIBA with Baffinland had day cares and funding for communities to do social initiatives that they identified as important. Unfortunately, that IIBA is not on an approved project, so the negotiation is likely ongoing.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm just trying to clarify. Companies will come in. You will negotiate mining contracts. People will agree on certain things. They are not living up to the agreements.

We've heard about Manitoba Hydro, and I think we are a living legend in terms of smashing down agreements and disrespecting indigenous peoples.

What are the consequences for mining companies that come in and fail to live up to legal agreements? What are the consequences?

[Kilikvak Kabloona]

We typically go back to the drawing board, and it's more time.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I'm just want to understand this. Mining companies come in. You make impact and benefit agreements. They don't live up to the agreement. You go back to the drawing board. While you're going back to the drawing board, are they still benefiting from the extractions that they are taking off your lands and territories, or does it halt until people respect their legal obligations?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Leah.

Ms. Kabloona, can you answer that quickly?

[Kilikvak Kabloona]

The projects have not been halted to this point, and I would note that all of the current mining projects are on land that had been grandfathered, so the lease had been agreed to by the federal government, so the companies have those leases.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Sonia Sidhu]

Thank you, Ms. Kabloona.

Thank you to all the witnesses.

With that, we will be meeting next week on Monday, September 26 to commence the study of the mental health of young women and girls. Also we will address at the next meeting the drafting instructions for the study.

This meeting is adjourned.