Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think I'll just blow by the stupid slogans and begin by answering the question in a sincere way, which is what I would hope we would all do around this table, because these are serious issues and sincere concerns. Let me just back up and say that Indigenous Services Canada doe

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would love to do that. Are you ready to listen?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  All right. That's great.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The indigenous business directory is a directory that Indigenous Services Canada maintains to provide to other departments of Canada a list of businesses that have been verified as either—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, I think that—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To understand the indigenous business directory, you have to understand what it's for. The indigenous business directory is to provide assurances to other departments, including Public Services and Procurement Canada, that the people on that list are indigenous. That is the sole

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much. As I've said publicly and repeatedly, this government is not cutting services and is not reducing any spending initiatives that would impact service delivery to indigenous communities. The reductions you see in our departmental plan are related to internal o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the question. I'll first say that no one should justify anyone living in those conditions. As I said in my media response yesterday at the press conference, I seriously hope that Canadians have the same fervour for housing as they have had for water. I ce

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are two things. One, from what I see every single day, I would say that I'm not sure that saying it's a passive response as a department is accurate. I would say that the department works with the physical resources it has. In fact, it's been very ambitious about getting a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it's important to understand that for those communities that have a deep state of distress, those chiefs are some of the hardest-working people I've ever met. They are literally—literally—putting out fires. They are answering calls at all times, day

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  To be clear, it's not an application base. I was really personally insistent on that, as the minister. An application base usually gives preferences to communities that have good grant writers and the ability to apply for grants. In fact, the Auditor General spoke about this in

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The Minister of Finance and I work on that issue every day. I have met with Chief Lance Haymond recently. For example, you raised the issue of mortgages and how we can actually finance mortgages in first nations. I think the Minister of Finance is very interested in that idea.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What we need all parties to do is pull together and insist that we spend more money to close that gap. I look forward to doing that work with you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, and I will, for some of the details. Let me just start with the $2-billion health equity fund. I'm really glad you raised this point. This is an innovative new support for first nations across the country—indigenous people, quite frankly—who have oftentimes faced ex

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think I've responded to this question before, certainly in the media. In fact, that's a misrepresentation of what the letter says. What the letter says is that the chiefs would like a larger rebate from the carbon tax. In fact, should that not be possible.... Obviously, they