Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Further to that, once you address that financial component, then you will see how strong the division of authority is in Manitoba. When it comes to that financial contribution that is made off the backs of our children, you will see that this goes into the provincial coffers. The

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Ms. Morgan, would you like to go first?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We've actually done a lot of extensive work. We've developed our own legislation. We've done engagements with communities. We've created our own laws based on the five indigenous languages in Manitoba. We've done very comprehensive things. If this committee would rather do our br

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, with all due respect, Dan, I've heard constitutional experts tell me for 30 years that my section 35 rights were an empty box. Magically, within the last three years, I've been told that my constitutional section 35 rights are full. At the end of the day, we know the histor

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. To cut to the chase, how are you going to be able to do any of that work if there's no financial commitment to ensure that those things happen? It's not being done right now, and it's not magically going to happen tomorrow.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely, in order to do all these things.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I may, Dan, I'm a little surprised at your question as I had called you into my office specifically with former chief Jim Bear to discuss this issue almost two years ago. I'm surprised you haven't read the bringing our children home act, as you're from our province. If you f

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It won't happen. You also need to have a full appreciation of the history of precedent that has been set. The whole history of all the litigation that has happened and all of those other pieces will be incorporated into the ongoing operations of our system.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I apologize. I wasn't aware of your protocol here. I actually skipped over allowing my co-witness to speak, because I assumed that she would be given her own time, her own opportunity.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I appreciate that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Excellent. Thank you very much. I am Grand Chief Arlen Dumas from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. Thanks for the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. As our moderator said, Manitoba is ground zero for child welfare apprehensions. That validates statements made by

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. For instance, I can tell you that there have been eight personal care homes—we had to call them personal care homes—operating on reserve for the past 40 years looking after our elders. I bet you if you looked at the census, you'd find that the Province of Manitoba ha

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  You'll enhance my capacity. Again, by making a meaningful effort to build relationships. On the one hand, we have a quite a long history of working with our federal partners. We do audits. We do all the things we need to do to move forward. Then other envelopes of funding are ea

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Let's do multi-year programs. Let's make a plan. We have to be fiscally responsible and accountable. We know how things are going to go. Take right now for that matter. We already know our best practices in our region. We've shown how to do things responsibly. Let's make a multi-

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Right. It must be noted that a lot of these services were chronically, if not deliberately, underfunded. You need to address that. If you want to talk about doing things properly, then you need to have a discussion on the fact that things have been chronically underfunded for lit