Tina Keeper

[Aboriginal Affairs, September 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, it sure would be nice if that money would start flowing so that pregnant women, children at risk of suicide, and people who are at risk of diabetes or cancer could start to have some health benefits.

The Conservatives certainly cannot believe that refusing to help aboriginal people stop smoking is in the interests of Conservative voters.

Cancer, diabetes and health prevention is more cost effective than treatment and yet the minority Conservative government chooses to ignore the facts.

Why is the government condemning first nations and Inuit people in Canada to third world health conditions?

[Aboriginal Affairs, September 26th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, once again the meanspirited minority government has demonstrated a lack of concern and respect for Canada's aboriginal people.

It slashed the Kelowna accord and it has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars for first nations health programs affecting women and children. Yesterday, it cut $10.8 billion on the Inuit tobacco control strategy.

Why is the government condemning first nations and Inuit people to third world health conditions?

[The Environment, September 21st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, when will the government learn that it cannot pull the wool over the eyes of Canadians when it comes to the fight against global warming? It has the absolute gall to stand up in the House day after day and claim that it is working on a made in Canada plan for the environment. What have we seen? Nothing.

Newspaper reports told us that the government was all set to go and wanted to announce a new package this week. Now we hear that it might be October, right before a holiday long weekend no less.

When the government took office, consumer awareness was on the way up, homes across the country were being retrofitted, renewable energy sources were starting to come on line and Canada was hailed as a leader in the fight against global warming and was honoured to be asked to chair the Conference of Parties for the Kyoto Accord.

Now we have a minister who has devoted her career to killing Kyoto. Retrofitting has stopped, funding for renewable energy has been suspended and our European allies are calling for Canada to relinquish its spot as the chair for the conference.

This is unacceptable. Canadians deserve a government that will actually do something about global warming and not pretend it does not exist.

[Starred Questions, September 18th, 2006]

With regard to First Nations Inuit Health Branch tuberculosis funding and outbreaks of tuberculosis (TB) in Canada: (a) since the program’s inception in 1992 what has been the rate of TB in Canada; (b) what has been the rate in each province; (c) has the government assessed what reasons exist for different rates among the provinces and territories; (d) has the government undertaken or contracted for any audits, evaluation reports or analyses of its TB prevention and control activities, including the Tuberculosis Elimination Strategy (TES); (e) what have been the annual allocations and expenditures by the government for the TES since its inception; (f) what have been the annual expenditures and allocations for the TES in each province and territory; (g) what are the annual allocations and expenditures of the government on First Nations disease prevention and health promotion programs in the 2006-2007 main estimates and the budget tabled in May 2006; (h) has the government received any advice from the public service on whether it would be appropriate to provide further funding to prevent TB in First Nations; (i) has the government approved the allocation of any funds for community-wide screening at the Garden Hill First Nations community in Manitoba; (j) what is the number of active cases in the community as of May 15, 2006; (k) has the government approved the allocation of any funds for additional nursing staff to support directly observed therapy in the community; (l) has the government allocated funding for an independent investigation into what led the TB source case in the community to remain undetected for so long; (m) has the government allocated funding for a full time doctor for the community; (n) are there any increased funds to support programs to eradicate TB in Canada in the estimates tabled in April 2006 or the budget tabled in May 2006; (o) are there any funds allocated in the estimates tabled in April 2006 or the budget tabled in May 2006 to fund activities to prevent and treat TB in countries outside of Canada; and (p) when will appropriate and adequate funding and services be provided to prevent and treat TB on First Nations lands?

[Federal Opposition Parties, June 22nd, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, there is more proof that we have been an effective opposition. The Conservatives affirmed the Liberal commitment of $41.2 billion over 10 years to strengthen Canada's public health care system.

The Public Health Agency of Canada, created by the Liberals in 2003, will be established through Bill C-5.

The Liberals had an agreement with the Farmer Rail Car Coalition with regard to the hopper car fleet. Under the Conservative government it got nothing.

We effectively exposed the environment's lack of leadership at the UN Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Accord. We revealed that the U.S. had ceased to fund the Asia-Pacific partnership, the Conservatives' alternative to Kyoto. One-third of its funding is now gone.

We successfully amended the throne speech which illustrates how we can work cooperatively to ensure that the policies and actions of the government better reflect Canadian values.

The Liberals reached historic early learning and child care funding agreements with the provinces. The Conservatives terminated them.

[Petitions, June 21st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege today to present a petition with regard to child care. The petitioners from the province of Manitoba, the riding of Churchill, the town of Cranberry Portage, call upon the House of Commons to support an appropriate and adequate national child care program. The petitioners state that the national early learning and child care program and the agreements that were negotiated in good faith are imperative to support families, families with special needs children, child care staff and the country in general. They believe that the $1,200 allowance is not a child care measure.

[Aboriginal Affairs, June 21st, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, on June 15 the Minister of Indian Affairs claimed that the procurement strategy for aboriginal business continues to be government policy.

Perhaps he should speak to his colleague, the Minister of Health, whose communications director said that the health department would not respect this federal policy, in place since 1996.

Would the Minister of Health please clarify for us whether his department will respect the mandatory set aside program for aboriginal business?

[Business of Supply, June 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, the RCAP was a significant process and a significant report in Canada. In fact on the issue of suicide prevention, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples released a special report on suicide before it actually released the RCAP report because suicide was one of the most critical issues.

I am well aware of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. In fact, it was the Liberal government that moved forward on the RCAP report. The Liberals did not abandon it. They made it part of their government policy. They made it part of the framework in which they worked in collaboration with first nations. I am sure the member is familiar with the aboriginal action plan “Gathering Strength”. That policy framework was really important. In Manitoba it was through “Gathering Strength” that we initiated a self-government process.

I agree with the member that the RCAP report was significant, but I would add that it was the Liberal government which took that forward and worked in a non-partisan way to ensure that first nations and aboriginal peoples in Canada could benefit. It is my wish that the current government would do the same with the Kelowna accord.

[Business of Supply, June 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I know that the member is from my riding. He referred to his Métis heritage in his maiden speech.

The Kelowna accord was vocal in terms of the vision that the Métis nation had in moving forward in terms of education and housing issues. One of the critical areas in the Kelowna accord was building capacity. The round table process has been mentioned numerous times today. The first nations, Métis nation and Inuit participated in the round table process for over 18 months. They spoke to their vision of moving forward. One of the key areas was building capacity because that is a necessary component to self-government and self-determination. All of the cultural groups within the Kelowna accord process spoke to the self-government process and a self-government framework. For all of those cultural groups, building capacity was a key area in terms of moving forward in that process.

[Business of Supply, June 19th, 2006]

Mr. Speaker, I am especially proud to rise today to speak to the motion by the member for Winnipeg South Centre. It is a motion which reflects a commitment by the former Liberal government to continue the commitment to aboriginal people within our country. It is about the nations of people in our country whose nationhood and well-being was central through a process which spoke to a new partnership and a new vision and hope for aboriginal peoples including the first nations, the Inuit and Métis nations.

I am a Cree person. I am from the Norway House Cree Nation of the treaty 5 area in northern Manitoba. On my mother's side I am from the Muskrat Dam First Nation in northwestern Ontario. I am proud to say that I am descended from Chief Samson Beardy who was a signatory to the amendment to treaty 9. My paternal grandfather was Joe Keeper who represented Canada at the 1912 Olympics.

Many members may be wondering why I mention these bits of family history as it may not appear to pertain to what we are debating today. I do so because it is this personal history which is my testament to the strength, dignity and nationhood of who we are as first nations as one of the nations of aboriginal peoples in this country.

It is this knowledge which our elders carried. It is the knowledge of nationhood. This knowledge of nationhood is not a vague or academic concept, it is not a myth and it is not a cause. Nor is it nor should it ever be considered a political football.

We represent distinct nations, cultures and languages from coast to coast to coast, from the Maliseet of New Brunswick, the Inuit in Nunavut and the Haida of B.C. to the Métis nation of the Red River Valley in the heart of Canada. The relationship between aboriginal people and the Canadian government through most of our shared history has been one that has been inequitable, but our nationhood, our distinct identity, our livelihood and our history is of this land.

In Manitoba most of the first nations signed treaties in the numbered treaty process. Indeed their treaty rights have been entrenched in our Constitution, in section 35 respecting aboriginal and treaty rights. This relationship has not ensured that aboriginal peoples in Canada would benefit as Canadians do from the treaty relationship which was to share the land. What was entrenched in our Constitution for the Métis nation, the Inuit and the first nations in 1982 was a marker, a reference point of the basis of the relationship between aboriginal nations and Canada. It was a reference point of the effort by aboriginal people. It was a testament of the nationhood of aboriginal people. The relationship of aboriginal people is one of sharing in the wealth of this country, sharing the land of this country.

We all know that regardless of what has been entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, regardless of Supreme Court rulings to which the member for Churchill spoke, regardless of the goodwill of many Canadians, the well-being of aboriginal people has not improved over the last number of decades.

I would like to speak to this fact because that is what the Kelowna accord was all about. It defined in its process and in its goals a new relationship in which aboriginal people were working in partnership with Canada and the provincial and territorial leaders. It was historic. It was about equity and respect for all the nations involved.

This is the basis on which we need to move forward. It is the means in which we will meet the goals that we set in the Kelowna accord. It is through self-determination. It is the process which becomes the mechanism to achieve well-being.

In the past I worked in the area of suicide prevention in aboriginal people. There was a significant piece of research which looked at first nations youth in nearly 200 first nations over the period of a decade. It found that there is a direct correlation between the number of factors of self-determination within a community and a decrease in the level of suicide. Suicide is a health issue which has not been traditional to first nations people. In fact, first nations elders are the only population in North America in which suicide does not occur.

This is significant because it speaks to our nationhood. It speaks to who we were traditionally. It speaks to the strength and resiliency that have helped first nations, Métis and Inuit people overcome the difficulties of a colonial relationship. It is who we are traditionally and who we have been for thousands of years on this land.

The reclamation of wellness is what the Kelowna accord was about. It was about a vision of a new Canada. The Kelowna accord reflected a historic moment and marked a change in the nature of the relationship from the paternalistic approach of the past.

The Kelowna accord was a reflection not only of the Liberal government, but of the efforts of aboriginal leadership and aboriginal people. It was the culmination of efforts by aboriginal nations over many decades to represent the best interests of their own people and the then Liberal government to change its approach to working with first nations, the Métis nation and the Inuit to ensure that Canada represented itself in the way it has been perceived on the world stage, in which human rights, dignity and justice are upheld for all time.