Jane Philpott

[Indigenous Affairs, March 1st, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to answer this question and to talk about things like the housing investments that were made in our federal budget this week.

We have investments of $500 million for Métis housing, $400 million for Inuit housing, and $200 million every single year for first nations housing. We are working with our partners on developing a distinctions-based housing strategy to make sure that we address these gaps, get jobs for people, and get people homes to live in.

[Indigenous Affairs, February 15th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we are absolutely committed to ensuring that no first nations child goes without the care he or she needs. Since November 2015, we have been able to approve 33,000 new requests for children under Jordan's principle, with over 99% approval rate. Last week, I was pleased to announce that we now have a new 24-7 call centre, a Jordan's principle call centre, to make sure that families can easily access quality care and that no child goes without the care he or she needs.

[Indigenous Peoples and Canada's Justice System, February 14th, 2018]

Mr. Chair, I want to reassure the Minister of Justice that, like other members in this House, I am delighted that she is putting a priority on criminal justice reform. We will all support her in that.

I believe that the minister knows that one of the issues I have been concerned with is the severe overrepresentation of indigenous children in the foster care systems across the country. When we follow what happens after that, we can see that among missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, many were once in foster care, in very large numbers. When we look at the number of indigenous people in the criminal justice system and prisons, huge numbers of them were once children in foster care.

In light of how we are going to address the foster care system and the overrepresentation of indigenous peoples, the minister and the Prime Minister talked today about a recognition of rights and how when we recognize the rights of indigenous peoples, that will fundamentally change their lives.

I want to know how the minister thinks this recognition of rights framework will support our work to address the severe overrepresentation of indigenous children in care and how it might help us keep those children with their families.

[Indigenous Affairs, February 12th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I hope all members in the House will join me in celebrating the fact that today 11 long-term drinking water advisories were lifted in Tsal’alh First Nation. Some of these advisories had been in place for almost 14 years. I want to particularly thank Chief Crane and her leadership team for their fantastic work on this.

This brings the number of long-term drinking water advisories that have been lifted since 2015 to now 52. We will continue to work to make sure that all long-term drinking water advisories—

[Indigenous Affairs, February 9th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am very delighted to answer this question. In fact, it gives me an opportunity to talk about a new fiscal relationship, a fiscal relationship that is based on the recognition of rights, that has a relationship with first nations, Inuit, and Métis people that is respectful. In fact, we are doing work through the Assembly of First Nations and through other groups to make sure that our new policies will be respectful, will help to build capacity for first nations, and will have reporting that is done in a respectful way to the appropriate people.

[Indigenous Affairs, February 9th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to respond to this important question and to correct the record. There is no 2% cap. Let us be clear about that.

We have made investments in education in the order of $2.6 billion so far. We are currently reviewing all programs related to post-secondary education, along with our partners, first nations, Inuit, and Métis. We look forward to doing even more to advance opportunities for post-secondary education.

[Indigenous Affairs, February 1st, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his commitment to work with us on this extremely important issue. Our government is firmly committed to addressing the severe overrepresentation of indigenous children in child welfare in this country. To that end, we sent a letter today to 105 child and family services agencies in the country to instruct them that we are pleased to respond to all the costs related to prevention services for children, not only going forward but over the past two years.

I am also pleased to report that the tribunal noted that they were delighted to read of Canada's commitment and openness, and—

[Indigenous Affairs, December 12th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, 10 years ago today in this House, a motion was passed in honour of Jordan River Anderson, a first nations child who was denied access to care because of jurisdictional disputes. After almost a decade of inaction, we are making sure that no first nations child goes through what Jordan did. To this date, I am pleased to report that we have approved 29,000 requests for care, an approval rate of over 99%. We will make sure that every first nations child has access to the care they need.

[Indigenous Affairs, December 6th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, National Chief Bellegarde and I received a report which lays out recommendations for a new fiscal relationship. We are working with first nations on a number of proposals, including a permanent advisory committee to guide this new relationship, replacing the default prevention and management policy with a new proactive approach, and creating 10-year grants for at least 100 first nations communities.

These are steps toward a new fiscal relationship that is truly nation to nation, based on a recognition of rights and mutual respect.

[Indigenous Affairs, November 30th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, our government recognizes Jordan's principle, which affirms that all first nation children should get the care and services they need no matter where they live or when they need those services.

I am very pleased to report to the House that we have reached an agreement with the parties on two aspects of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal's ruling from May 2017, on which the government was seeking clarity. As a result, Canada will withdraw its application for a judicial review. Our goal is to move beyond legal proceedings and to work together in a collaborative way. There were 24,000 cases approved—