44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 19, 2024 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, today I rise to speak to Bill C-29, an act to provide for the establishment of a national council for reconciliation.
What does the word “reconciliation” mean? After nine years of the current government, what we have seen is that it has become a buzzword. Reconciliation is about walking shoulder to shoulder, listening, learning and being open to admitting that wrongs were done.
Bill C-29 is a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action 53 to 56. I will remind the House that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was founded by our former prime minister, Stephen Harper, in the former Conservative government. Throughout these conversations, there is always finger pointing that goes on, but I would hazard that there is enough blame to go around on all sides.
We have seen, in the last nine years, the government picking winners and losers, pitting first nations against first nations, first nations against non-first nations, Métis against Métis, and Métis against non-Métis. We have seen our Prime Minister thank indigenous protesters who were simply protesting the fact that the boil water advisories in their communities are ongoing. What did he do when he was at his fancy function? He thanked them for their donation. We have seen him cast away the first indigenous female Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould. She spoke truth to power and was cast aside.
We have seen the Prime Minister stand there with his hand on his heart, dabbing away a fake tear with a tissue, saying that this is his most important relationship. However, as we just heard, the government has launched its ninth budget without any mention of reconciliation for indigenous peoples, so members will have to pardon me if I seem a bit skeptical about what the government is planning with Bill C-29.
Over the time of my being elected, whether with my current file on mental health and suicide prevention or my previous files on transportation or fisheries, the government likes to say that it has consulted. However, is it truly consultation and engagement, or is it merely putting a checkmark in a box on a sheet that says what they had to do and complete? True engagement means sitting at the table and fully understanding all sides.
What has brought us to this point? In recent years, we heard about the horrors of the residential school program, but the world is just waking up to what some of us have been hearing for many years. The residential school program was designed to drive the Indian out of the children, and thousands upon thousands of first nations, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their homes and never returned.
Sitting with residential school survivors and listening to their stories is horrible. The start of the ground sonar search in my riding of Cariboo—Prince George was at the former St. Joseph's Mission Residential School in my hometown of Williams Lake. I am on record saying that I grew up just down the road from this school, yet I had no idea of the horrors that were going on at that school.
These were kids that I played with. I know many of them to this day. They are my friends and family. My family is first nations as well. Watching a residential school survivor come to the lands for a ceremony marking the start of the ground sonar search and watching them shake and become so emotional as those memories come flooding back is absolutely heartbreaking.
In nine years of the government, it has only fully implemented 11 of the 94 calls to action, and only eight of the 76 calls that are the federal government's responsibility. Why did it take four years for the Liberals to implement this after the Prime Minister made the announcement about it in 2018? Why are they still not bringing in or listening to all of the indigenous groups that want to be a part of this?
There is the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, an organization that represents over 800 status and non-status, off-reserve, urban indigenous peoples, and the Native Women's Association of Canada, an organization that represents women and children on and off reserve. At committee, our Conservative team, the Bloc and NDP members passed a motion to include these two national organizations. However, when the rubber hit the road, when it came time to make sure they were part of it, our NDP colleagues sided with their Liberal friends and voted to exclude the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, effectively silencing the voices of 800,000 off-reserve indigenous peoples. Why?
Reconciliation is about inclusion. Reconciliation is about recognizing economic prosperity, allowing indigenous individuals and communities to recognize their full potential. It is unbelievable that we are still debating this bill. The fact that this bill is still here, the fact that we are still in the process of debating it after having numerous amendments and speeches, speaks to the government's failure to meaningfully consult and advance this issue.
Now the Liberals are going to stand up and I guarantee that at one point we are going to hear that the bill has been blocked and there have been lots of dilatory motions from this side, but they have the majority. If the Liberals want to push something through, with their NDP colleagues they can push it through.
Our Conservative colleagues worked diligently at the committee to improve the bill. Is that not the message we always give? Just let it pass, let it get to committee and we will make it better there. However, again, we have heard that they blocked and left out two important groups.
The Liberals talk about consultation. Does Bill C-29 truly represent the work and consultation they have done? Does it truly represent all the indigenous people, or does it just simply reflect the views of those who are friends of the Liberal government?
We know that recently there are about 113 indigenous groups in Ontario that are taking the federal government to court over boil water advisories. The government talks a good game, but the truth is in its actions. As important as the bill is, it also highlights the failure of the Liberal government to listen to Canadians, to listen meaningfully and to consult with indigenous peoples.
This is, of course, not the first time we have spoken about the Liberals' inability to consult and listen. They always seem to go down the path of just ticking the boxes of the groups that are in agreement with them. They use that as their record of consultation, yet they have left a whole community of indigenous peoples out when it pertains to Bill C-29.
A concern we have is that, time and again, we see these bills that come forth, and they are not perfect, and then the consequences are faced afterwards. We will hear comments from the other side, saying that we should never let perfection get in the way of getting something done.
I have talked about winners and losers with the government. I have talked about my friend Chief Willie Sellars in Williams Lake. He is the chief of his community who, in all senses of the word, is leading by example. He is not waiting for the government to provide handouts. He has done everything to lead his nation and his community to economic prosperity.
Ellis Ross, a provincial MLA in British Columbia, walks the walk. I remember sitting at a presentation with him about 10 years ago, and he said that we do not need all these fancy words and we don't need to listen to an unelected group, the United Nations, with the calls to action. What we need, he said, is the government to get out of the way, to allow us to chart our own path forward.
Is this council going to be just another arm of the minister of the day? These are the questions we have. Will the government even listen to the national council? It has spent the last nine years over-promising and under-delivering on indigenous issues. How many communities still have the boil water advisories? It is unbelievable.
I remember the speeches we did in the House during one of the first emergency debates we had. It was on the suicide epidemic on Attawapiskat First Nation. It was heartbreaking for me to hear the stories we were hearing.
Sadly, I ask if things have gotten better for indigenous peoples in the last nine years under the current government. In 2015, the Prime Minister stood and promised that this was his most important relationship.
It is complex, I will give the Liberals that, but if this was truly the Prime Minister's most important relationship, why have they just announced so much spending in a budget in which we would spend more money servicing our debt than we do on health care? When the books were open, the safe was open, and they were throwing money at everything, yet there was not a mention of indigenous peoples or reconciliation. It is frustrating. What would be measured with this council? What gets measured, gets done.
Conservatives will be supporting this bill because we believe in the premise that we have to have everyone around the table. True reconciliation begins with understanding and, as I said earlier, listening with open hearts, open ears and open eyes. My concern with the government is that this is just here to placate. There is no real meaning or value behind doing this.
It is frustrating, as I already said earlier in my speech, that we are debating this today, when it could have been done previously. It has been nine years.
An hon. member: Oh, oh!
Mr. Todd Doherty: Madam Speaker, I am getting heckled from the other side, but the government has had nine years to get this done, and now, at the eleventh hour, with the last few shreds of power it has, it is putting this forward. It has taken forever for it to do this.
That being said, as I mentioned, Conservatives will be supporting this bill. We hope that some amendments we put forward will be agreed to. We hope that all indigenous peoples would be included at the table. The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and the Native Women's Association of Canada are two organizations that we feel should be included in this. They should have a say with at least one director at the table.
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- Apr/19/24 10:50:12 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the empathy from my hon. colleague, but the Conservatives have quite a history. If we talk about their history with reconciliation, I will start with former prime minister Stephen Harper, who said that MMIWG was not on his “radar”.
Tanya Kappo, an indigenous lawyer, wrote, “In a span of a week, the Conservative government confirmed their feelings of indifference, disregard and utter lack of respect for indigenous people.”
If we fast-forward to today, the member for Carleton, the current leader of the Conservative Party, actively fraternizes with residential school denialists. In fact, there is an article entitled “Poilievre delivers speech to a group criticized for residential school 'denialism'”, to which the former national chief of the AFN Archibald said in a media statement, “I condemn any association with denialist views and the deep hurt they cause our survivors and their families”. He has had to apologize in the past for minimizing and denying the impacts of residential schools when he was a minister.
The member wants to talk about nine years; I want to talk about before the last nine years. I am not saying the government is doing a good job, but it is pretty rich for the Conservatives, when their leader actively fraternizes with residential school denialists, to talk about how they care about indigenous people.
Will my hon. colleague acknowledge the level of denialism that his party—
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- Apr/19/24 10:52:56 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is disappointing to hear the comments from our colleague down the way.
I always say that those in glass houses should not throw rocks, and I would say that it was our former prime minister, Stephen Harper, who started the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
However, I have never seen a prime minister be more indignant on one hand, and stand here whenever the cameras are on to say that this is his most important relationship, but then absolutely turn away and shun our first indigenous female attorney general, a person who is a dear and close friend of mine. I have seen, over the last nine years, the damage the Prime Minister has done within indigenous communities, pitting indigenous community against indigenous community, and pitting indigenous community against non-indigenous community. I have seen the Prime Minister smirk and smile when hearing the plight of those in our gallery, or in our House, talking about their communities and the indigenous peoples within the communities they are a part of.
I will remind my colleague that this is the government that is in power. This is a government that made a tremendous amount of promises over the last nine years and has failed at every step. This is a Prime Minister who thanked indigenous protesters who were simply protesting the fact that they do not have potable water in their communities and have to boil—
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- Apr/19/24 11:33:37 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I choose to listen to the people in my riding who are paying 20¢ more a litre because of the NDP-Liberal carbon tax.
An inconvenient truth for the Liberals is that the only time that emissions went down in Canada was under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. In fact, if they want to listen to someone, they should listen to a fellow Liberal, the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, who, after losing a by-election, said the carbon tax is wrong.
Tens of millions of Canadians agree. These are the people we listen to. Why do the NDP-Liberals not?
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- Apr/19/24 11:41:24 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is a bit rich coming from the party opposite. Let us take a walk down memory lane.
When the Conservative Party of Canada was in government under Stephen Harper, let us see what the Conservatives did to veterans. They slashed the veterans affairs budget. They closed nine veterans affairs offices, and they cut the workforce by 1,000, individuals who provided direct services to veterans.
We will take no lessons from the Conservative Party of Canada.
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- Apr/19/24 12:05:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member opposite for her ongoing advocacy.
Since 2015, we have increased spending on indigenous priorities by 180%. That is right. That is the abysmal state in which we received this file in 2015 from the previous Harper Conservatives, who gave zero cares about the lives of indigenous people.
In fact, budget 2024 dedicates over $9.5 billion to indigenous priorities. A full 25% of the budget goes toward indigenous priorities in this country. We will continue on the path of reconciliation together.
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- Apr/19/24 12:10:49 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to stress that the decisions that the Speaker will have to make in the next few days need to include, as the Conservatives raised yesterday, the use of false titles.
We have the Conservatives repeatedly using, during question period, false titles. They talk in English about an NDP-Liberal government, and they talk in French about a Bloc-Liberal government. This is false, and it is misleading using false titles. It is something that was very much not permitted during the Harper government in the House of Commons and should not be permitted now.
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