Mr. Speaker, the previous minister of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans made commitments to the lead negotiators of the five Nuu-chah-nulth nations that operate the T'aaq-wiihak fishery. At a face-to-face meeting in Campbell River on March 13, 2018, he made commitments to accelerate the reconciliation of the five nations of the Nuu-chah-nulth that have been in a longstanding battle for their fishing rights. It has been dragging on and on through litigation and prolonged negotiation since 2009.
The government initiated a rights recognition and reconciliation process with the five nations in June 2017, which has yet to produce any results. The five nations negotiated a term sheet with senior government representatives from Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which was concluded in September 2017. It was promised that the term sheet would become the substance of a memorandum to cabinet that has yet to make it to the cabinet committee, despite repeated commitments by the government that cabinet would deal with this memorandum to cabinet in the fall of 2017, and then the spring of 2018. Now it is the fall of 2018. Specifically, the fisheries minister was to champion with the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs the memorandum to cabinet that must be presented to it this fall. The memorandum to cabinet will lead to the implementation of the nations' rights-based fisheries, and tangibly demonstrate that the government is serious about reconciliation with first nations in Canada.
The five nations wrote to the new minister of the DFO on August 29, requesting a meeting as soon as possible, and there has still be no response. They just want to confirm the commitments made by the previous minister.
The nations met concurrently with the previous minister, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and the Minister of Justice on June 27, 2016, in Ottawa. The five nations have met twice with the Prime Minister on this issue, and yet, despite these high-level meetings and the promises of government action, there has been no substantive process of recognition of the nations' fishing rights by the government, even though two B.C. Supreme Court decisions and several appeals have all instructed the government to work with the five nations to establish a new fisheries regime that recognizes and respects their priority rights.
When will the government start taking substantive action, demonstrating a real understanding and respect for first nations' rights, and specifically the commercial fishing rights of these five Nuu-chah-nulth nations, rather than just more talk and rhetoric by it about respecting first nations' rights and the importance of the relationship with indigenous people? With these five nations, the government can back up its empty promises so far with real action by approving the reconciliation agreement that these five Nuu-chah-nulth nations crafted with senior government staff from Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs and DFO. That is all they are asking for.