Madam Speaker, I would just like to give a round of applause to my colleague, the member for Edmonton West Edmonton Mall, as he often says, for an excellent speech.
I am thankful to participate in this debate because this is what Parliament is all about. It is about debating these very important issues. I am very proud to come here, not only as a representative of Sturgeon River—Parkland but also as a representative of a number of indigenous communities, including the Enoch Cree Nation and the Alexander First Nation, as well as the area that was traditionally occupied by members of the Michel Band. Sadly and unfortunately, in the 1950s, the Michel Band was enfranchised under some suspicious circumstances; to this day, people are still fighting to get the recognition they deserve.
My region, which is in Treaty 6 territory, has been a region of significant settlement for indigenous and Métis peoples. I am very proud not only to be a representative of Sturgeon River—Parkland but also to represent these peoples.
I am rising to speak today on the issue of indigenous procurement programs. For those of my constituents who are watching, I want to provide a bit of background on what we are talking about today. We know that, over the time period of Canada being a country, and even before, indigenous peoples were disadvantaged in many ways by policies that were carried out by the government, racism and a number of other things. I could talk about those things at length, but I am going to focus on indigenous procurement.
We know that these issues have really disenfranchised first nations, indigenous and Métis people, as well as others, from participating in the economy. The ability to participate in the economy is the ability to free oneself to really take charge of one's own life financially. When programs are set up, such as an indigenous procurement program, it is a recognition by government that marginalization has taken place. This needs to be addressed by a special program, with the hope that marginalized communities and entrepreneurs from these communities will have the opportunity to bid on government contracts. They will then be able to build their capacities to provide the services that the government is contracting for, and this will provide economic opportunity for people in their nations across Canada.
What has happened is a symptom of a government that has let its hand get off the wheel of governing and has really taken a laid-back approach to accountability and transparency. What should be a good program to increase capacity and support indigenous peoples with developing their economic capacity has been taken advantage of by unscrupulous actors who are exploiting a weakness in government. They are exploiting a lack of accountability and transparency to access these programs.
We are talking about potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in funds that have been misappropriated. We know that there is this recent phenomenon of pretendians. I am sure it has been a long-lasting phenomenon. Here, people who have no indigenous heritage and no status with any indigenous community claim indigenous heritage through the government's indigenous procurement program. They are trying to give themselves a leg up when seeking out government contracts. We have seen this pretendianism manifest itself in many ways, but this is a very specific example of how it can be financially beneficial.
The member for Timmins—James Bay asked if this was the ultimate grift. This is an example of grift, where we see people taking advantage of a program that is meant to empower marginalized people, and the people who are doing this are very empowered in the first place.
A case in point example is when we are talking about the Minister of Employment and his business partner, Stephen Anderson. I do not think anyone in the House would argue that these are marginalized people. These are people who are at the pinnacle of political and economic power in this country. The Minister of Employment was a Rhodes Scholar. He is a very privileged person, yet he and his business partner are checking the box, claiming their indigenous heritage, in order to benefit from a government program. This program is meant to build capacity and support people in marginalized indigenous communities so that they can empower themselves, build their businesses and be successful.
I pray that some day in the future, hopefully sooner rather than later, we will live in a country where there is no need for programs like this because indigenous people will be on an equal footing with all other people in terms of their success and their capacity to build their own businesses and to succeed in the marketplace. I know there are many great indigenous companies that are already succeeding. There are indigenous companies in my riding that are participating, particularly in the oil and gas sector in my province, and are succeeding massively.
There was a recent agreement made under the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, which was set up under a Conservative government in Alberta, where we saw indigenous communities such as Enoch Cree Nation in my constituency partner on a new power plant project, the Cascade power plant just outside of Edson, Alberta. This power plant was built on time, on schedule and on budget and is now providing power for the people of Alberta, including many of these first nations communities, and first nations have a tangible ownership stake in this company. That is to show just how successful indigenous people can be when these programs are built correctly and yet, under the current Liberal government, we have seen transparency and accountability really go by the wayside.
There have been research findings revealed by Global News and first nations universities that have uncovered fraudulent schemes where consultants are paying indigenous people to front companies so that they can apply for this program. We are seeing shell company operators who have been abusing loopholes for years while Indigenous Services Canada is just standing by. We had witnesses who came to the government operations committee who said very clearly that this is harming indigenous peoples because it is not only taking away financial economic opportunities that indigenous people should be given priority to access, but it is also undermining the very programs themselves. When people see that this fraudulent activity is taking place, it undermines the public support for these very important programs. Therefore, we need to ensure that these programs are targeted. We need to ensure that officials are doing the background checks necessary so that the people these programs have been designed to help are being helped. That is when we will see Canadians continue to firmly support these programs.
Talking again about the Minister of Employment, a colleague of mine during question period today made a very interesting point, which is that when the first indigenous justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, stood up to government corruption, she was removed from cabinet and yet, we have another Liberal minister who pretended to be indigenous to try to get government contracts when he was in the private sector and he is still standing on the front bench. It speaks volumes that we have a Prime Minister who allows this to happen under his leadership. Leadership comes from the top down, and when people in the Liberal Party see what their Prime Minister is getting away with, I guess they just take it as an example of what they think that they will be allowed to get away with themselves.
I just want to say that I am incredibly proud to represent so many wonderful indigenous, first nations and Métis peoples in my region. I have been speaking to leaders in the community and they are absolutely furious that these programs have been exploited by bad actors in order to enrich themselves while indigenous business owners who are very deserving have been left out, either from a lack of information or a lack of funding. These funds are going to companies that do not have the right to access these funds. It is really a slap in the face to reconciliation for the government not to take action immediately to solve these issues.
I would like to move a subamendment. I move:
That the amendment be amended, in paragraph (c), by adding the following: “(iii) given priority to this study, subject only to its order of referencing Bill C-61, An Act respecting water, source water, drinking water, wastewater and related infrastructure on First Nation lands; and (iv) have the first priority for the use of House resources for committee meetings, subject to any special orders previously adopted, for the studies referred to in subparagraph (iii)”.