44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 1, 2023
- 03:30:50 p.m.
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Good afternoon. I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to the 61st meeting of the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. We recognize that we meet on the unceded territory of the Algonquin and Anishinabe peoples.
Our meeting today will be in a hybrid format, according to the order adopted in the House on Thursday, June 23, 2022. Members may be present in person or on Zoom. The proceedings will then be published on the House of Commons website. Just as a note, the webcast will show the person who is speaking and not the entire committee.
For those participating remotely, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.
You may speak in the official language of your choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting in French, English and Inuktitut. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of floor, English or French audio. Please select your language now. If interpretation is lost, please inform me immediately and we will ensure that interpretation is properly restored before resuming the proceedings.
For members participating in person, proceed as you would normally do when the whole committee is meeting. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference screen, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. For those in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer. Please address all comments through the chair. When speaking, please speak slowly—not like I'm doing right now—and clearly, and when you're not speaking your mike should be on mute.
With regard to a speaking list, the committee clerk and I will do the best we can to maintain a consolidated order of speaking for all members, whether they are participating remotely or in person.
We now move on to the committee. With the motion adopted by the committee on April 19, 2023, the committee is now commencing its study of the subject matter of Bill C-45, an act to amend the First Nations Fiscal Management Act.
Today we welcome our witnesses. We have Harold Calla and Grant Christoff, executive chair and general counsel respectively, from the First Nations Financial Management Board. We have Allan Claxton and Jason Calla, development board chair and technical team, from First Nations Infrastructure Institute. We have Manny Jules and Marie Potvin, commissioner and legal counsel respectively, from the First Nations Tax Commission; and Ernie Daniels, president and CEO of the First Nations Finance Authority.
Thank you everyone for being here today. We look forward to your testimony.
Since we have Harold and Grant up first, we will start with them.
Please, you have five minutes.
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- 03:39:24 p.m.
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Thank you very much, Mr. Calla, for that testimony.
Next up we'll go to the First Nations Infrastructure Institute, Allan Claxton and Jason Calla.
You have five minutes, please.
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- 03:43:32 p.m.
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Thank you very much for your presentation.
Next up we can go to Marie Potvin and Manny Jules.
You have five minutes.
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- 03:49:14 p.m.
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Thank you very much for that presentation.
We now go to Ernie Daniels, president and CEO of the First Nations Finance Authority, for five minutes.
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- 03:52:01 p.m.
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Thank you very much for your testimony today.
We begin now with a round of questioning, starting with a six-minute round.
With the Conservative Party, we have Gary Vidal, who gets six minutes.
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- 03:58:43 p.m.
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Thank you very much, Mr. Daniels and Mr. Vidal. That was six minutes.
We go next to the Liberal Party and Michael McLeod for six minutes.
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- 03:59:42 p.m.
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Thank you. It's seven minutes for you.
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- 04:06:21 p.m.
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Thank you very much, Mr. Daniels and Mr. McLeod, for your questions and your answers.
We go next to the Bloc Québécois and Madam Gill for six minutes, please.
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- 04:13:38 p.m.
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I'm going to have to stop you there, Mr. Daniels.
I'm sorry, Madam Gill. I appreciate the questions, but we have run a bit over time.
Certainly, Ernie, you're in the hot seat today.
Next up is Lori Idlout from the NDP for six minutes.
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- 04:21:30 p.m.
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Thank you very much, Chair. It's good to have you back.
I appreciate the testimony we're hearing from everyone today and their words about this piece of legislation.
I'd like to pick up on something and maybe direct this question to Harold Calla, or I can open it to the field as well.
Ernie Daniels was talking earlier about the ability to use monetization to finance and build a whole bunch of infrastructure. It could be a whole range, including houses, for example, which we all know are deeply important to every community, indigenous and non-indigenous, at the moment.
In addition to the housing piece of this puzzle, what about the economic reconciliation that has to be included in this conversation in order to set the stage for that growth to maintain and grow that housing and also the community? How important is economic reconciliation?
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- 04:23:58 p.m.
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That way, you can see the ability to move away from program funding and start to build an economy, which is done on the local level and outwards from there.
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- 04:24:17 p.m.
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Thank you very much.
Mr. Jules, taksis is one of the first things you brought up to me when we met not too long ago: taxes. Give me your thoughts on that. Perhaps you can tell us about the significance of this being in the legislation.
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- 04:26:45 p.m.
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I gave myself an extra minute.
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- 05:14:14 p.m.
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Thank you very much, Mr. Vidal. Again, I appreciate the opportunity to jump in on this discussion.
Mr. Jules, just to finish up where we left off the last time, we were talking about taksis. We were talking about the benefits the communities themselves could have when they have the ability to raise revenue. We're talking about keeping taxes low while we do that, of course.
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Mr. Jamie Schmale: I would love to hear that.
I want to go on to how to get projects done quickly, how to do that. There have been discussions throughout this two-hour period about that. You can do that by allowing communities to make decisions that are best for them based on the circumstances they're dealing with on the ground.
I'm open to whoever wants to talk about this. What would be the benefits that you would have when decisions were not made in boardrooms or in office towers here in Ottawa about communities where people may or may not have been? How we can get more velocity in those tax dollars to get projects actually built and done for the requirements of those on the ground, rather than trying to discuss what gets approved and what doesn't here in Ottawa?
Basically, I just want someone to elaborate on getting things done quickly rather than getting program funding. Who wants to talk about that?
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