SoVote

Context: Bill C-53, An Act respecting the recognition of certain Métis governments (INAN) - Oct/31/23

Mr. Gary Vidal (Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, CPC)

04:21:33 p.m.
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Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank all of the witnesses for being here today as we consider this important piece of legislation and try to find our way to a good outcome. Ms. Playne, I'm going to start with you. Hopefully, I'll get to everybody a bit here throughout my time. You had an article in the Toronto Star just in the last couple of days. It's very similar to a lot of the points you made today in your presentation, so I'm not pulling anything out of here that's not what you probably just said as well. I think it's pretty common information that you shared. I'm going to quote from the article, which, again, reflects what you said. It states, “First Nations and Métis in Ontario are supposed to be walking this path to reconciliation together; yet each day, it feels more and more like a feeding frenzy. Some First Nations leaders are pitting us against one another.” That's one of the paragraphs in there. Today, in fairness, you clarified this. Part of my question was going to be about how it's not just first nations leaders, but other Métis leaders, other Métis organizations and the MMF. There have been letters written by the MN-S and the MNBC, which have challenged the MNO leadership on some of the membership stuff and some of that. I'm sure you're aware of all that. My question around all of this—the importance of this legislation and some of the controversy that's happening between different groups, especially in northern Ontario—is on consultation. Do you think there was enough consultation? You talked about misinformation. Was there the provision of enough accurate information to all of the parties involved in all of this to avoid some of the conflict, avoid some of the accusations and avoid some of the challenges that we're facing now? Was an adequate job done in creating the relationship and providing information to all of the parties that are now concerned about some of the things going on?

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Context: Bill C-53, An Act respecting the recognition of certain Métis governments (INAN) - Oct/31/23

Mr. Gary Vidal

04:24:39 p.m.
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Thank you. To drill down a bit further on that, do you think the government has done enough to educate people on this? This is a piece of legislation that—as we clarified on Thursday, I think, and the analysts clarified for me again today—if passed, provides that future treaties don't have to come back to Parliament but can be approved by an order in council. In lay terms, that means cabinet can just approve future treaties. In fairness, there's been a lot of talk about passing this quickly, like we've done with all the other pieces of self-government legislation in the past, but there's never been a piece of self-government legislation that has taken this approach. This is the first of its kind. For it to not have to come back to Parliament later is creating some concern for many people. In the context of that, do you think the government did enough to educate some of the first nations people you're dealing with in this conflict?

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Context: Bill C-53, An Act respecting the recognition of certain Métis governments (INAN) - Oct/31/23

Mr. Gary Vidal

04:26:33 p.m.
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Thank you for that. I'm going to move on. I don't have much time left. I'm going to move on to Ms. Stenlund. If you want Hayden to answer, that's fine. I'm going to ask you a question in relation to an article you actually put out, I believe, in the Hill Times just a few days ago. It's a bit similar to what I just asked Ms. Playne. You say, “Métis are only asking to be treated the same as other Indigenous Peoples who have seen their self-government legislation passed swiftly and respectfully.” In the Library of Parliament's legislative summary to us, it's very clear that this legislation is very different from any of the prior pieces of self-government legislation. When you asked for this to be passed quickly and swiftly, are you suggesting that parliamentarians, or this committee, should not execute our democratic responsibility to carefully consider the legislation? This is really significant regarding the future of the Government of Canada's relationship with the Métis people. Are you asking us not to do our due diligence in that respect?

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