Finance committee  I think this goes to the heart of not only talking about UNDRIP but actually the whole colonial era under which Canada still operates. You need look no further for systemic racism than the Indian Act. It's one of the earliest pieces of Canadian legislation. It governs the majorit

Finance committee  It's very clear that the institutional framework we've developed through optional legislation absolutely works. It was proven by the example that MP Cathy McLeod just raised. The band was able to utilize the tools under the FMA to get development cost charges, put aside “x” amou

Finance committee  One of our advisory committee members is from the far north of Ontario in a fly-in community. They see the need for a national infrastructure institute to be able to work with them to do planning, have training and ultimately have the fiscal resources to manage such projects. One

Finance committee  Right now, because of COVID, the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs hasn't been able to keep up with the business of registering land transfers, particularly with band leases and what are called “locateee leases”. That's had a direct impact on the busin

Finance committee  Thank you very much. Honourable members, good afternoon. My name is Manny Jules, and I am the chief commissioner of the First Nations Tax Commission, one of three institutions created by the First Nations Fiscal Management Act, or FMA. I was also chief of the Tk'emlúps Indian Ba

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Clearly, from my perspective, we're not a high priority of the federal government. We estimate that of the programs that have been announced so far, on a per capita basis indigenous peoples are receiving about 50% of what other Canadians are getting. That imbalance has to be corr

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Can I just interject for a second here? One of the things we've uncovered, though, is that in a lot of our communities, because we're a loophole economy, the casinos are being shut down, which impacts the public health systems. A lot of our businesses are on the verge of bankrup

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One thing that happens with pandemics is that they fundamentally change society. We have to be able to think about what societal changes will happen as a result of COVID-19 and truly make this world a better place. In order to do that, we have to be able to take the steps necessa

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  And we will. History has demonstrated that. Even though as first nations we've lived through many pandemics, this is another one and we will face one in the future. If we're not ready, through having greater fiscal powers, we're going to be in the same situation. How I interpret

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What happens when you have tax jurisdiction.... You can see it clearly with the federal government's announcements on a daily basis. They can do that because they have the best credit rating in the country. That's why municipal governments are going to the federal government aski

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the things we need, fundamentally, at the ask, is jurisdiction. In order to pursue that jurisdiction, we need a legislative mandate from the federal government. In that way we would be able to begin to look after ourselves. That's the basic problem that we have in our comm

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. I talked about expanding the First Nations Fiscal Management Act to include the infrastructure institute. That's critically important because if we can't build stuff on our own, we're going to be completely dependent on somebody else. Right now, with the Department of Indian

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Part of the problem that I talked about earlier was the restrictions of the Indian Act on our being able to go to a local bank, as JP was talking about. One reason is section 89, which leaves us completely dependent on the federal government for housing. The Minister of Indian Af

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It deals with an ability to come on reserve and seize property. That restricts us from being able to be mortgaged. It restricts the ability of our small business owners to securitize, and their ability to get into business. That's a jurisdictional question. What has to happen is

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One interesting story that just happened within the last two weeks is that when my tribal council and health authority were trying to secure PPE for our communities, lo and behold, it was the provincial government that took our share. Part of the reason, of course, is that we don