Gary Vidal

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, November 20th, 2023]

With regard to at-risk pay and performance bonuses for those classified as executive and above at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, and Indigenous Services Canada, since 2018, broken down by year and by type of job: (a) what specific criteria was used to determine if executives received (i) at-risk pay, (ii) performance bonuses, (iii) neither at-risk pay nor performance bonuses; and (b) what number and percentage of executives received (i) both at-risk pay and performance bonuses, (ii) at-risk pay only, (iii) neither at-risk pay nor performance bonuses?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, November 20th, 2023]

With regard to items and services funded by Indigenous Services Canada under Jordan’s Principle since 2016, broken down by funding stream: (a) what are the details of all funding provided, including, for each, the (i) date, (ii) amount, (iii) recipient, (iv) description of the items or services; and (b) what was the total amount spent per year under Jordan’s Principle?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, November 9th, 2023]

With regard to government funding for organizations representing the Métis people: what is the total amount of funding provided to each organization since 2013, broken down by year?

[Indian Act, October 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I know my hon. colleague from the NDP is very passionate about the issues she speaks of. I serve on the indigenous and northern affairs committee with her and I know that she is very serious about solving these issues.

She spent a fair amount of her time going to great lengths to explain the shortfalls of this bill. She talked about the second-generation cut-off and how much work has already been done on that.

As we have talked about today, since this bill was introduced, it has taken almost a year for us to actually get to debate on this. We have had a lot of time to initiate some of these changes.

With all those frustrations and concerns, has there been any attempt by her or her party to utilize these discussions to leverage their coalition agreement with the Liberals to actually include some of these indigenous issues in their agreement, to get some action?

[Indian Act, October 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the 2021-22 departmental results report for the Department of Indigenous Services Canada indicates that the department's ability to meet the target that it set for itself was only achieved at a level of 26%. In other words, of the goals the department set for itself, it was able to achieve only 26%.

My colleague has indicated that he is a member of a first nation, and this department is meant to provide services to first nations people across our country. Does he think that achieving 26% of the targets it set for itself indicates that the government is serious about its commitment to meeting the challenges faced by first nations people across our country?

[The Economy, October 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, after eight years of the current Liberal-NDP government, life is unaffordable. Families in northern Saskatchewan and across Canada are faced every day with austerity measures. There is less food, fewer activities for their kids, fewer trips to see grandma and grandpa and less money for rent or a mortgage at the end of every month. However, as families are forced to make cuts, the Liberal-NDP government spends.

There is something morally wrong when a government grows bigger and continuously throws money around while taxpayers themselves are forced into cutting for their own families. This is backwards. The solution is to have less for the government and more in the pockets of families: more healthy food, more activities for their kids and more trips and time to spend with family.

The Liberal-NDP government's inflationary deficits are driving up the cost of everything. Canadians are tired of it, and they want hope. After eight long years, the Prime Minister is simply not worth the cost.

[Indian Act, October 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I would simply say we need to get to a place where it is not taking 25, 30 or 40 years to solve some of the claims issues in our country. We need to speed up the process so we can settle these things and get out of the endless litigation.

[Indian Act, October 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, very simply, I agree.

[Indian Act, October 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, from a personal perspective, and on behalf of Conservatives, one of the things we would say in response is that we need to eliminate the “Ottawa knows best” approach and the control imposed over people across the country by this outdated and archaic Indian Act, but we need to do this much quicker.

We need to get to a place where first nation, Inuit and Métis people across the country all have the ability and the right to determine their own future, to true self-determination. That is the only path where we are going to get past all of the litigation, all of the lawsuits and all of the court cases and where we actually empower indigenous people across the country to control and dictate their own futures and their own destinies.

[Indian Act, October 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I understand he is saying that this is the only example of this happening to an entire band, but there are many, many examples of communities or very large groups of people being enfranchised involuntarily or “voluntarily”, or being coerced into it by very suspicious circumstances.

This legislation should address some of those situations by creating an equal opportunity for people to be re-registered to gain their status back and create an equalization between the descendants of what might be male lineage compared to female lineage to ensure the descendants of those two lines of descendants is brought to a place where they are treated equally.

We will look at this closer in committee to ensure those kinds of questions are answered and solutions are proposed.