Cathy McLeod

[Criminal Code, May 4th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am very troubled by this decision. This is one of the most important issues facing this Parliament.

Last week, I opened myself up and said I would have round tables day and night until every person in my riding has had the opportunity to come to a round table and talk to me about it. I may or may not get to speak to the input that they gave me except for some suggestions that I have.

Again, I know the committee. I was there two days ago. The committee is reflecting on this legislation as we speak. There is no excuse for the government to cut debate early this week.

[100 Mile House Wranglers, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to congratulate the 100 Mile House Wranglers on an outstanding season. The Wranglers are not only champions of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League and the British Columbia Junior B division, but the boys from 100 Mile House also lassoed the western Canada championship, the Keystone Cup.

The road to victory was hard fought, but not without a lot of support from back home. When they travelled to Esquimalt, Wranglers fans actually bought 40% of the tickets. The Wranglers then went on to defeat the Kimberley Dynamiters in five games to secure the crown in Regina.

In the words of one local reporter, “People as far away as Thunder Bay, Ont. and all through the West know these 22 lads, who have represented 100 Mile House so well with their respect and their community-mindedness, never gave up and they will work hard every minute of every game”.

Last week's parade and tailgate party was a fitting tribute to the Wranglers players and the organization. Well done, Wranglers. They are the champions of the west.

[Indigenous Affairs, April 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, in response to the Daniels decision, National Chief Dorey stated that the 600,000 Metis and non-status aboriginals should have access to the same resources available for decades to those with status. He also noted that the government always had pools of money set aside for unexpected events.

Any prudent government would have analyzed the full implications of this decision. Again, would the minister share with Canadians what the projected costs will be?

[There and Back Charity Run, April 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Edward Dostaler, also known as Fast Eddy, to Ottawa.

Fast Eddy is a constituent of mine from Kamloops, whose goal is to run across Canada and back, and to do this unaccompanied. His mission is to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer and Alzheimer's research.

He began his 22,000 km journey in Victoria last March. Six months later, he reached Cape Spear in Newfoundland. He is on his return trip back to Victoria.

I would like to encourage all members here to lend their support to Eddy as he passes through their constituencies.

I would like Eddy to remember that everyone back home in Kamloops admires his courage and determination and are extremely proud of his accomplishments.

[Indigenous Affairs, April 15th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, not only will there be significant costs from the decision, there will be increased complexity in the development of our natural resources.

Once again, any prudent government would have anticipated the implications of the decision. Will the minister explain how this will impact our critical natural resource development and the processes?

[Indigenous Affairs, April 15th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Daniels decision by the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that 600,000 Métis and non-status Indians are under federal jurisdiction.

This decision will create profound fiscal obligations, and any prudent government would have analyzed the full implications.

Will the minister share with Canadians what the projected costs of the decision will be?

[Indigenous Affairs, April 14th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, we do acknowledge that much has to be done, and there is going to have to be hard work in settling these long-standing indigenous land claims.

I want to hear from the government that as it goes about this process that it will consider the farmers, trappers, and ranchers who have been active on the land and who have lived side by side since the early days of Confederation.

Furthermore, this is going to have a very significant effect. This question was put forward to the National Chief Perry Bellegarde. He used a quote and said that we must have “peace in the valley”. I thought that was a very nice statement.

As the government does the work, it has to have a recognition in terms of third party owners. I would urge it to adopt a policy of “avoid, mitigate, compensate” when these settlements intersect in a way that creates undue hazards.

[Indigenous Affairs, April 14th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I am really thankful for the opportunity to talk about a question that I asked on March 8. I am going to read the question and the response, because it is critical for people to understand why I am so concerned with the response.

The question was as follows:

Mr. Speaker, a recent lawsuit by the SSN is looking to declare aboriginal title over private property. The Premier of British Columbia responded that government must defend with conviction the sanctity of private land and private land rights. Furthermore, she told the people of Kamloops she has their backs.

There was no such message from the federal government. Will the justice minister stand shoulder to shoulder with the premier of B.C. and defend private property ownership?

This is absolutely critical. I would ask members to listen very carefully to the response that I received from the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. She thanked me for the question, and then stated:

Our government is committed to developing a substantive nation-to-nation relationship with indigenous peoples in this country, sitting down and working jointly, based on recognition and moving forward in order to ensure that indigenous communities can have an improved quality of life, can settle, ultimately, the land question, and do it based on respect and based on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

I think members can understand why this answer was very concerning. The minister talked about the government's mandate, which the Liberals have been very clear about. They have said that they have a goal of settling long-standing land claim issues. That is an important goal, and we recognize that it is an important goal, but what she did not acknowledge is that as they go about that process, there will be an impact on people. It is really important to talk about that. I know that a tepid response was given to this particular lawsuit and that they will be responding to it, but it is important to recognize that this is going to have very far-reaching ramifications.

As well, the ruling in the Daniels case today is going to add an additional complexity to the job the government has ahead of it, but it is also going to have an impact on private property and sometimes small businesses. I can give a couple of examples: after the Tsilhqot'in decision, I received a very powerful letter from a man who is 70-some years old. He had a trap line and had invested a lot of money in his small business. Ranchers in northern British Columbia will be very significantly impacted due to a settlement of one of the treaties.

The bottom line is the government is going to have to be proactive and absolutely deal with the long-standing issues, but it will also have to deal with private property rights and local community small business owners.

[The Budget, April 13th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I found this whole budget debate very ironic when l reflect on both the budget debate and the campaign commitments that different parties made.

When we look at the Liberals, we see that their commitment was a very small deficit. They blew that out of the water. We were going to have a plan for a balanced budget. They blew that out of the water. They were going to help the middle class, but they cannot define it, and they use significantly misleading graphs to define what the middle class might be and what has happened.

However, I have to say that to me the NDP is the biggest puzzle. The NDP stood up during that campaign and said that it was going to have a balanced budget. We are now hearing that the NDP has the Leap Manifesto and would shut down the oil sands, but the NDP has a whole lot of ideas about how to spend money.

Has the hon. member committed to his party platform? How would the NDP pay for all these things that he has talked about that the community he represents would like to have?

[Situation in Indigenous Communities, April 12th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs for her very powerful speech, one of many we have heard tonight. I do acknowledge that the government has put significant resources into a long-term plan.

I want to focus my comments on the short term, so it is a two-part question.

We have heard about the needs of Attawapiskat, and we heard about La Loche. One of the things that concerned me was what I heard from the member of Parliament who represents La Loche, that services were flown in, but within two months those services were no longer there, and as we can imagine, the trauma impacting that community was significant.

In the short term, given all the speeches tonight, given the fact that she has a very important and critical role, what will my colleague be recommending to the minister and cabinet in terms of what we should do immediately, the next steps?