Jim Prentice

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 26th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I ask the Prime Minister this simple question on behalf of all Canadians who have been sickened by the squalor of Kashechewan. The reality for these Canadian citizens is third world squalor, filth and poverty, sewage from their taps, their children with scabies, and a thousand women and children in medical care.

I have read the minister's so-called action plan from yesterday. He wants to continue the boil water advisory and initiate a study.

How bad does it have to get before the Prime Minister is prepared to intervene and take control of this department?

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 26th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, according to the Liberal Premier of Ontario, the Minister of Indian Affairs is missing in action throughout the crisis in Kashechewan.

Late yesterday, the minister meekly announced that the drinking water was now free of contamination. A few hours later, the Government of Ontario commenced an emergency evacuation of a thousand women and children for medical care. Where was this minister? Where was this government?

The Prime Minister of Canada is responsible for aboriginal Canadians. Why is he missing in action? When will he stand up and prevent our citizens from living in third world squalor?

[Health, October 25th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, it sounds as though no one is responsible at the department of unlimited spending and diminished expectations.

Yesterday the Prime Minister admitted that the living conditions at Kashechewan were abhorrent. They are so abhorrent that his action plan is to have a meeting sometime with the minister. That is it, a meeting. The government spends $2.5 billion, 12 years pass, and it offers a meeting.

Canadians have served in the Third World providing water purification units. Why have we abandoned aboriginal Canadians?

[Health, October 25th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians have been horrified by Kashechewan. They are appalled that this government could spend $2.5 billion and yet fail to provide aboriginal Canadians with safe drinking water.

The focus now is Gull Bay, Ontario, where the department three years ago spent $5 million on a new water treatment plant, designed by an out of town consultant, and paid for by the out of town government. The plant does not work. It will never work because the minister's department forgot to secure the necessary provincial approvals to operate it.

When will the Prime Minister take action and provide our first nations with safe drinking water?

[Aboriginal Communities, October 24th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, over the past two years, the Liberal government has been spending heavily on the department responsible for aboriginal affairs.

What good did that do? Aboriginal Canadians continue to endure the same problems: safe drinking water is not ensured, the residential school issue has yet to be settled, and the supply of housing remains clearly insufficient.

The Liberal government promised to act on these issues. Two years and billions of dollars later, nothing has changed.

Canadians are paying for these inefficient programs. They should know where this money is going. More importantly, aboriginal Canadians deserve better.

[Aboriginal Affairs, October 19th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Kashechewan people declared a state of emergency and asked the government to evacuate the entire community because their drinking water is contaminated with deadly e-coli.

This did not happen in a third world country. This happened in Ontario and it happened to aboriginal Canadians.

In just a moment the minister is going to tell us yet again that he is working on it. The truth is that after $2 billion and 12 years, aboriginal Canadians are still drinking contaminated water.

If the minister will not accept personal responsibility, will he tell the House who is accountable for--

[Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, October 18th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I have the contract; it is not a personnel matter. Everyone knows that the minister is trying to gag his consultants. He does not want Canadians to find out that every social indicator shows that the quality of life of aboriginals is deteriorating. He does not want them to know that he and the Prime Minister are responsible for this mess.

Is that not why the minister is stifling his consultants?

[Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, October 18th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Minister of Indian Affairs told Canadians that his gag order contract with Totem Hill Inc. protected sensitive personal information.

I have the contract. It is not a contract about sensitive personnel information. The contract relates to the audit and management structures of the department. It relates to whether or not his department is meeting its constitutional, legal and treaty obligations to aboriginal Canadians. It relates to how DIAND measures the health of aboriginal communities and their quality of life. This is not a personnel matter.

Why did the minister mislead the House?

[Criminal Code, October 17th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, in the time since May of 2004, this government has managed to produce only 368 ADR decisions in total. The program has been running for two years and has spent more than $100 million, with only $17 million going to the claimants and a grand total of 368 cases. This system was designed, in the hearts and minds of the government, to accommodate 18,000 cases. It is not working. Everyone knows that. It is the government that will not admit it.

More to the point, why is this government not explaining to Canadians today what is happening with the negotiations that are under way? The reports in the newspapers say that the government is preparing to table a proposition of approximately $4 billion. No one has said where that money is going to come from.

Why will the government not tell us today what is going on in its process, where it intends to take this matter, how it will be accountable to aboriginal Canadians, and how it will be financing all of this?

[Criminal Code, October 17th, 2005]

Madam Speaker, the purpose of the proceedings at present is to make inquiries of the Government of Canada with respect to the residential schools matter and in particular the progress which the government has made in the time since May when an agreement, in a tentative way, was struck with the Assembly of First Nations.

It also worth noting that this matter was in fact before the House of Commons by way of a motion of the House some time ago. At that time, which was mid-April, the following resolution was adopted by the House: “That the government take all of the actions recommended” by the Indian affairs committee and by the House of Commons “on an urgent basis, with consideration for the frailty and short life expectancy” of the residential school survivors, pointing out that the residential school survivors are dying at the rate of approximately 5 per day, or approximately 1,000 Canadians per year.

In addition, at that time the House of Commons accepted the following recommendation of the committee:

That the Government engage in court-supervised negotiations with former students to achieve a court-approved, court-enforced settlement for compensation that relieves the Government of its liability for those former students who are able to establish a cause of action and a lawful entitlement to compensation.

It was also recommended that the existing ADR process be amended or, more properly speaking, brought to a close, and, quite significantly, that the Government of Canada undertake an initiative to ensure that the former students have the opportunity at some sort of “truth and reconciliation process” to speak to all Canadians about this matter.

In the time since, it has been very difficult for Canadians to ascertain what has been happening. The government announced in May of this year that a full settlement had been arrived at with the Assembly of First Nations. At that time, former Justice Iacobucci of the Supreme Court of Canada was appointed as the Government of Canada's lawyer.

Since that time, further court cases have been filed, giving proof, really, to what the committee had recommended and what the committee had forewarned the government about. At the present time there are class action lawsuits commenced by some 13,000 individuals. In addition, the Assembly of First Nations commenced a $12 billion class action against the Government of Canada. Over the course of this past summer, three claims were filed on behalf of Inuit Canadians, on behalf of Métis Canadians and, as I recall, on behalf of Canadians in Ontario, Saskatchewan, the Yukon in particular, and Alberta. There is a wide-ranging array of court cases that have been undertaken.

Regrettably, the government seems not to have moved forward on the truth and reconciliation process but appears to be mired down in discussions and not proceeding on that process even though aboriginal Canadians who are former students are dying even as we speak.

Moreover, the ADR process continues to be remarkable in its inefficiency and wastefulness, even by the standards of this arrogant and worn-out Liberal government. Since May of 2004 there have been 368 ADR decisions issued. Of the $100 million that has been spent on administration, only $17 million went to settlements; that is less than 17¢ on the dollar making its way to the victims.

Today I ask for a response from the Deputy Prime Minister explaining this dire situation.