Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise here today, on traditional Algonquin territory, to respond to the question posed by the hon. member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith. We have followed through on our commitment as a government to launch a truly national, independent inquiry into the o

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, one thing the member is exactly right about is that the minister, myself, and the staff in INAC have spent the entire week meeting with first nations governments from all across the country on a variety of issues, day in and day out, that are important to them. We h

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I think the system does not protect the rights of a lot of indigenous members and business on reserve as well. That is why our government and everyone involved wants increased transparency and accountability, including first nations. We want to be able to achieve thi

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, my colleague knows, as all Canadians do, including indigenous Canadians, that there is no relationship more important to us than that with indigenous people in this country. That is why we recognize and we respect the rights of indigenous people, and their knowledge

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I think it is very clear that we have the utmost respect and our relationship with indigenous people is very important to us. That is why the Prime Minister is at the table with the three leaders of indigenous governments in this country today. That is why we continu

Indigenous Affairs  Madam Speaker, we are already making progress in solving the problem, and it is not an easy problem to solve. In the amounts that I quoted, what I omitted to say was that $4.6 billion of this program is carved out just for housing and infrastructure in first nations communities

Indigenous Affairs  Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise to respond to the question from my hon. colleague. I know that she, along with many of us in this House, realizes the gap in housing faced by indigenous communities. We also realize that it is absolutely unacceptable. Housing and infrastr

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I have to be clear. The member knows that that is wrong. All first nations governments and individuals have access to information. There is a process they have to go through. However, what the minister decided last winter is that she would not use her discretionary

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, there is a process whereby all members can access the information and transparency around our budgets. After any allegation of misuse of public funds, we take that very seriously as a government. We have also conducted forensic audits when we

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, the government welcomes the tribunal's ruling and we have been taking concrete steps to address this order. In fact, we have committed more than $635 million to address the child funding welfare gap in this country. We provided services to more than 900 kids since Ju

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I think it is quite obvious that on this side of the House we do not believe in a process that is top down. We believe in working with first nations and all indigenous people across the country. We see transparency, openness, and accountability as one of the hallmar

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, our government and first nations governments want more transparency. They want it increased, and they want more accountability. However, they do not want made-in-Ottawa solutions that are going to be forced upon them. What I would say to the member opposite is that

Pensions  Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak about the over 1,000 former employees of Wabush Mines in Labrador and Quebec who lost 20% to 24% of their hard-earned pension benefits. When Cliffs Natural Resources walked away from its iron ore operations in Wabush, it also walked away from its unfu

Northern Affairs  Mr. Speaker, my colleague would agree that northerners need to have a voice in transforming nutrition north. That is why we have been in consultations with more than 20 communities across the north. We will complete those consultations by November. We want to look at how we can

Indigenous Affairs  Mr. Speaker, I understand the points the member is making. However, the member must also understand that, as a government, we have made record investments in indigenous governments and communities in Canada. We are the first government to step up with massive housing investments.