Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I have been meeting on a quarterly basis with Neskantaga to solve the current crisis that Neskantaga has been undergoing. Despite the renovation of their plant, the water is still not testing clean. We are working together to make sure that happens. In regard to th

First Nations Clean Water Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-61, An Act respecting water, source water, drinking water, wastewater and related infrastructure on First Nation lands. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Carbon Pricing  Mr. Speaker, if the Conservatives had wanted to make life easier for first nations people, they would not have voted against so many measures that first nations leaders need and are essential to running good communities, things like education, emergency management, water infrastr

Carbon Pricing  Mr. Speaker, last week, when the Conservatives had the chance to stand up for first nations people, they voted against the measures indigenous communities need every single day to deliver things like clean water, to deliver things like education and to make sure infrastructure is

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member opposite for his unwavering advocacy for the people of Attawapiskat. I have met extensively with chief and council and many members of Attawapiskat. Indeed, the department is working closely with the community to make sure they have the t

Indigenous Affairs  Madam Speaker, I spent last summer with first nations leaders in community after community evacuating people from the onslaught of incredible wildfires and floods that devastated community infrastructure and that put people out of their homes for months on end. That is the risk o

Indigenous Affairs  Madam Speaker, for a decade, the Conservative government kept people in poverty, refused to invest in infrastructure and refused to support education. Can colleagues believe it? When we were elected in 2015, we made sure there was parity for first nations education so kids could

Indigenous Affairs  Madam Speaker, since we took office in 2015, indigenous spending has increased by 168% in first nations communities. That is no small number. What underlies that number is the ongoing systemic discrimination of the previous Conservative government, which spent nothing in first n

Democratic Institutions  Madam Speaker, it is still clear that the Conservative Party and its members do not really understand how indigenous people are not indigenous Canadians but, in fact, indigenous people of their own nations. The idea of self-determination is something that this Conservative Party

Government Business No. 31—Proceedings on Bill C-50  moved: That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, Bill C-50, An Act respecting accountability, transparency and engagement to support the creation of sustainable jobs for workers and economic growth in a net-zero economy, shall be disposed of as f

Carbon Pricing  Mr. Speaker, this summer we saw a record wildfire season raging across the country. I, as Minister of Indigenous Services Canada, worked with first nation leaders all across the country as they did the most unimaginable to protect their communities, with evacuations, people displ

Carbon Pricing  Mr. Speaker, it is too bad that the former leader of the opposition did not listen to the Chiefs of Ontario for over a decade as the infrastructure gap grew and grew, as children suffered with discriminatory first nations child welfare, as education rates and levels were underfun

Carbon Pricing  Mr. Speaker, we have to ask ourselves how that infrastructure gap got so big, and it was a decade of neglect. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition, on the day of the apology from Prime Minister Harper, said that what people really needed to do was actually get to work and show w

Housing  Mr. Speaker, I share the member opposite's sense of urgency for closing the infrastructure gap in first nations. In 2015, we inherited a situation where no investments had been made in housing. Since 2016, 30,000 homes or renovations had been completed across the nation, with th

Carbon Pricing  Mr. Speaker, first of all, they are not “our first people”. They are first nations, which are independent first nations. This government for—