[Indigenous language spoken]

I want to say to the senator, thank you for chairing this meeting. I thank the Senate for allowing us to be here and represent our First Nation, the Wapaha Ska Dakota Oyate, to speak to this important bill.

When you look at the history — I believe that you are very familiar with it, Senator Arnot, regarding the War of 1812 and how our ancestors fought alongside the British and French, and helped to make this beautiful multicultural nation called Canada. Sadly, though, there were many promises made to our people, but none of those promises were honoured.

When they were signing treaties in Saskatchewan, Treaties 4 and 6, our chiefs, Chief Wapaha Ska also known as Chief Whitecap, who was present at Treaty 4 and Treaty 6 signings, and wasn’t allowed to enter into a treaty; yet, our Nakota brothers and sisters were allowed to adhere to a treaty.

You are familiar with the history; I know that you are. You are a former treaty commissioner from Saskatchewan. But it has been a long journey, and as far as self-government goes, Whitecap First Nation has been, over time, had our own election code, our own First Nation land management code and our own membership code. We eliminated about 35% of the Indian Act already. There are some sections that our nation wanted to keep, such as sections 87 and 91. Those are kept. That was the wish of our people. Our original votes came out for ratification with the self-government agreement — that was before the self-government treaty — and 92% and 62% showed up to vote.

Then, when we looked at changing it to a self-government treaty, that was when we talked about the acknowledgment of the Whitecap Dakota people as Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Of course, the inherent right to self-government is something given to us by the Creator — and making sure it is protected by the Constitution.

We got 100% vote in that regard. Of course, my councillors are here as well and Mr. Long. I want to thank them for the work that they have done. I want to thank the Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, or CIRNAC, team as well for the negotiations and receiving unanimous consent from the House of Commons.

Today is National Indigenous Peoples Day, and, hopefully, this will be passed today. That is what we’re looking forward to, senator. Those are my comments. Thank you.

For Whitecap, it has been a journey. Again, I should also acknowledge our people back home.

I remember when I was first elected I was asked by members to come and run for our nation. That was back in 1991. We did not even have a dollar in our bank account. We had an overdraft. We had a stack of payables. There were not a lot of policies.

One of the first things we had to do was to get our financial house in order. That was about ascertaining the size of our deficit, creating a financial management plan, approaching a financial institution for debt consolidation and sticking to the plan. Once we got through that and got our financial house in order, then it was a right to an economy. Every nation should have a right to an economy.

We went on that journey. First, we built infrastructure. We built a new school and a new health centre. We started off with a small business, a store. From there, we were looking at how the Indian Act was slowing down the speed of business. It was slowing down the speed of business because in order for us to have economic development, like the golf course, we have to designate the lands for that purpose. We have to do a land surrender vote. The minister has to give approval. It is a long process. You cannot move at the speed of business.

That is when we started to look at our other options. One of the other options was the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management, which is a nation-to-nation agreement, government-to-government. It enabled our nation to eliminate 25% of the Indian Act and self-govern our lands and create our own land code. That had to be approved by our people, and we had 87% in favour back in those days. It has made a world of difference, moving at the speed of business.

Even when they were going to bring the casino into Saskatoon, there was a plebiscite. Whitecap was “Plan B” but because we had our land code in place, we could move at the speed of business and give the Saskatoon Tribal Council a lease for the casino building, and then the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority manages it for us.

From there, we have just developed the hotel and the convention centre. We’re going to work on a thermal spa as the next project; a virtual health hub with Dr. Ivar Mendez, a world leader in regard to remote health care. He is working with us as well.

It is important to have jobs because now Whitecap Dakota First Nation is seen as a regional employer. We have 700 jobs in our community. We have 500 people commuting from Saskatoon daily to come and work within our nation. Everybody benefits. We work with everyone.

There are many partnerships with the provincial government; that is the other thing. We work with all the surrounding jurisdictions. Even when we had to build a highway to Whitecap, we knew that the province would not build a highway just to a casino, so we talked about it as a council and with my team. We said, “Let’s build a tourism corridor that goes from Saskatoon to Lake Diefenbaker.” Then we got everybody on board — the City of Saskatoon, four rural municipalities, two towns and Whitecap — and it was very difficult for the provincial government to say no. Because how many times do you see RMs, towns, First Nations and the largest urban centre in Saskatchewan working together?

Out of those five phases, we actually managed three of the five phases for the province.

We were talking about Indigenous rights and the economy, and how important it is when it comes to nation building. We have to have an economy, and as Indigenous people, we have a right, like any other Canadian citizen, to have employment and job opportunities.

When we went down the pathway of getting out of the Indian Act, I think I was going to start talking about our land code. With our land code, we went through the whole process of land-use planning, zoning, development standards — everything any other jurisdiction would do. Of course, the membership had to pass that law. They did.

Every home in Whitecap actually has a civic street address, because we legally surveyed every household, all of our streets. For emergency response purposes, whether it be any kind of emergency, you don’t have to describe how to get to the house; you can actually get to the homes. That was very important to our people.

We also introduced a real property tax as well in our nation. Originally, we had to go through an Indian Act bylaw, and then once we went through the First Nation finance —

Yes. Then we created an actual real property tax law. The province hasn’t objected to that. I noticed with some of the other self-governance agreements, the provincial government has tax jurisdiction on reserve. In Saskatchewan, they’ve been very supportive. We have a good partnership with the provincial government.

So we do have a real property tax law. We do our assessments, and we have competitive mill rates to make sure we can have businesses that want to invest into our nation.

If members want to, say, build a home in the nation, they can get a 99-year leasehold interest. You talked about being in the national parks; we’re very familiar with —

It’s the same thing with businesses: There are 49-year commercial leases, no interest — financial institutions. Because they’re all legally surveyed and registered, so they recognize the leasehold instrument, and they can get mortgages as well.

That’s very important as far as creating an economy.

That also led to other challenges. One of the things that has never been addressed is the service population. There’s not just Whitecap members who live in Whitecap. Our members marry Métis people and non-Indigenous people, and those individuals are always overlooked. In regard to health care, we have a provincial primary health care clinic in the nation, where the province actually pays for some of those services, such as an additional nurse practitioner. It enhances the services of the nation, but it also recognizes that the non-Indigenous people who are residing on our lands and living in our nation are part of our community. That’s very important.

The other thing we did is established our early learning centre. We strongly believe in education and children learning to read, literacy at an early age. There is retention. They stay in school and they finish school. We built a brand-new, 56-seat early learning centre, and it was the first time in the province’s history that they actually invested on reserve in an early learning centre. We used the provincial child care regulations so the province could put some money into capital and operating dollars. That’s also very important because we really want to make sure that our families have not just employment opportunities but that there’s good child care. When the federal government talks about $10-a-day daycare, we already have that in Whitecap.

Through our own-source revenues, we invest money back into the early learning centre and make sure that our people, when they have employment, that there’s a place their children can go to daycare. It’s more than just a daycare; it’s about language and culture. That’s very important to us.

With regard to our education system, we partner with the City of Saskatoon. It took them 125 years to finally recognize Chief Whitecap as one of the founding fathers of the city, so there is now a statue in downtown Saskatoon of Chief Whitecap and John Lake. They recognized John Lake in the past, but they never recognized Chief Whitecap for his contribution in picking out the actual site of the city of Saskatoon. Now there’s a statue in downtown Saskatoon twice the size of life.

Which prince was it who came? Was it Prince Edward?

During the War of 1812, we were doing the bicentennial in 2012, so we created a monument in downtown Saskatoon.

I remember coming to Ottawa and talking about this bicentennial. They were saying, why are you having a bicentennial in Saskatoon when all the battles happened in Eastern Canada? We said, we know; our ancestors are from Eastern Canada, the Dakota, and they fought with the French and the British and helped make this country. We created a monument in downtown Saskatoon and told a story about the role that our ancestors played in helping to build this beautiful multicultural nation called Canada.

I was actually in Kelowna, and I got a call from the Privy Council. They said Prince Edward is going to come to Saskatoon. We sped up the process of the monument, and it was unveiled downtown. I remember him distinctly recognizing the Saskatoon area as Dakota lands. He was very clear about that.

Lots of work goes into community building, but it’s also about, I would say, making sure that our members are informed and they give leadership a mandate. We don’t just go and do things. We always make sure we speak with our people and our elders.

We actually have monthly elders lunches. During COVID, we had to buy our elders iPads so they could connect with their grandkids and do Zoom meetings, and we delivered lunches to them. It’s really important for us to always consult with our people — with our elders and our youth — even the times we go sit down with the kindergarten children. I remember one time we were there and they were telling us about the playground. I told the councillors, well, we’re going to have to put in a new playground. It will probably cost us about $100,000. It’s important to speak to even the young ones and get involved at the schools. We were in the school just recently talking with the kids.

All those things are very important for building community. We have paved roads and street lighting. All our homes now meet National Building Code standards, but there are more needs. We still have a waiting list for housing, just like every First Nation across the country. There’s a waiting list for homes. We have that same problem right now. Even with infrastructure, they always talk about addressing the gaps.

Thank you.

First of all, Senator Patterson, I want to commend you on your tie with the bear.

Great tie. As far as the fiscal arrangements, the negotiations are there, as far as I know. The effective date is supposed to be on September 1, but I’d say there’s still a lack of resources, in my own opinion, as far as dollars towards language and culture. There’s really not a discussion on the economic side of things.

As far as the Community Opportunity Readiness Program, they have a cap on it. It’s meant to be 25% of an economic development project, but they cap it out. It was capped at $3 million, and now it’s even worse than that. I think it’s down to $1 million. It’s those challenges. If you look at Indigenous rights and economy and at the non-Indigenous corporations, they’ve had an advantage over us. Some of the businesses are over 200 years old, 150 years old, 100 years old. If you look at Indigenous development corporations, like the Whitecap Development Corporation, we’re all in our first generation. We’re all 25 to 30 years old.

Those are some of the challenges. Also, the infrastructure gaps are still there as far as making sure that our nations have resources so we can invest into our communities and address those infrastructure gaps as well. The agreements can be better, but as far as for now, this is — we have finalized the negotiation. Murray, you want to say a couple words?

I think the biggest part of this, now that it’s a self-government treaty, is the recognition of our ancestors, my members today, the future generations that we are, Aboriginal peoples of Canada, and that should never have been taken away from us.

Identity is big, but also the fact that we will govern.

We’ve made provisions with the province in regard to the fact that right now, right across the country, First Nations — the RCMP will not enforce any of our bylaws or any of our self-government laws because nobody is going to prosecute them. So, in Saskatchewan, we’ve managed to negotiate a deal with the province, and they’ve amended their legislation, the Summary Offences Procedures Act, and now they’ll recognize our laws as well. It’s important to have our laws recognized because we have over a million tourists coming into our nation, and with that being said, some of them will be non-First Nations and some will be First Nations, but we have to make sure that we have the ability to actually prosecute those laws as well and enforce them. That’s another thing — it’s a first in Canada, as far as a provincial government actually working with a nation, to look at prosecuting and enforcing our laws.

We’ve always said, “If we’re going to be getting involved in self-government, then why do we want to have toothless laws?” We have to make sure our laws can be prosecuted and enforced.

We also have the Community Safety Officers, also referred to as CSOs, now. We have two under a Community Tripartite Agreement, or CTA. We have two RCMP officers living in the nation, but we’ve also now added five community safety officers, and community safety is very important to our elders, and so we have got this pilot project right now with Canada and Saskatchewan. Like I said, besides giving us the five community safety officers, they’ve also now amended legislation in Saskatchewan to make sure that our laws can be prosecuted and enforced. Again, it was something that was driven by our elders in regard to community safety. So now we have CSOs driving around.

Now with self-government coming, September 1, we can create any laws, and they can actually be enforced.

I think there’s a lot of interest. We’ve gotten calls from other First Nations in the country that have seen the self-government treaty. They think it’s the right direction to go. I know in Saskatchewan that Muskeg Lake has now started a table here in Ottawa, and I think Councillor Eagle and Councillor Royal, you were at the meeting there where I think the Saskatoon Tribal Council — they’re all very interested in proceeding with a similar treaty. The other part of this would be for the Saskatoon Tribal Council — all seven of our First Nations all have land codes, and the pilot project with the community safety officers is a pilot project with Whitecap and Muskoday First Nation in Saskatchewan, and every one of our nations in the Saskatoon Tribal Council are all interested in having community safety officers as well. With all the training they get, they have about 80% of the responsibilities of an RCMP officer.

All the training is done provincially, and then they have to get certified. They can’t carry firearms or anything, but it’s all about keeping the peace, so that’s their role in the community. The positive thing is that the community can mandate what the safety issues are in our nation, and that’s very important, because a lot of times, sadly, with the RCMP — and I’m not taking a shot at the RCMP at all, but a lot of times they’re regional and they have limited human resources and they have a large region to cover, so they’re not available at all times in the nation. Every morning we get a report from our CSOs, an email letting us know what is going on in the nation. That’s really important.

As far as the process with other First Nations, we’re hoping that this is just the pilot and that it’s going to be open to other First Nations right across the country, and hopefully we’ll have other provinces that are prepared to look at what Saskatchewan did in regard to the enforcement and prosecution of local First Nation laws.

For the Whitecap Dakota First Nation, once we went down the pathway and developed the Land Code in our nation, we were willing to share that with other First Nations. You can also create a land code that is very restrictive and could be worse than the Indian Act. You have to be mindful of the laws you put in place. You have to want to be able to move at the speed of business. You want to make sure that any of the laws that we create allow that to happen.

One of the things that we had to explain to business as well is that if you are in the city of Saskatoon, and the University of Saskatchewan and Preston Crossing, all of those businesses are on leasehold interest lands because the University of Saskatchewan cannot relinquish its ownership of the lands. When you explain it in that regard, it is very similar to the business. Then making sure that they understand there is also infrastructure, but in order to invest in infrastructure, you also need to have development levies where other jurisdictions have development levies if there is a new area of their jurisdiction, or municipality or city where they are going to build. They would have levies on the businesses to pay for a certain part of the infrastructure, so making sure that those are in place as well.

All of those mechanisms are in place. That has led to the limited success that we have today. We have done this without being a signatory to a treaty or having the same land base. That is the other big concern. Our treaty brothers and sisters got 128 acres per person, and as Dakota, we only received 16 acres per person. There is a big difference in the land quantum.

Part of this self-government treaty as well talks about a future reconciliation treaty that would deal with that as well down the road.

We will work it out with our community for sure as far as having a community celebration. We have to get this work done first. Hopefully, you will move this forward for us tomorrow and then we can take some good news home to our people. It would be great, especially in the month of June with National Indigenous Peoples Day and moving this forward. Absolutely, we will work with the community on it, a community celebration and ceremony.

For myself and the council, after our community ratified the vote October 7 with 92% in favour, we came to see Minister Marc Miller on October 17. I reminded him back in 2018, that Minister Bennett came to Saskatchewan and signed an MOU in regard to creating a Whitecap Dakota Treaty, finally recognizing our ancestors for the role they played in building this nation.

The other thing to be mindful of, many First Nations had land on both sides of the border. After the War of 1812, you have the Treaty of Ghent and 1818 is when they created the 49th parallel. This recognition as Aboriginal peoples of Canada is really important for our people and our members back home. As I said, it should never have been taken away from us to begin with. We had lands on both sides of the border. There was a map used in a Supreme Court case, the Arrowsmith map that shows territories on both sides of the border that the Dakota had occupied. Sadly, it was never recognized.

Growing up the Whitecap in the Saskatoon area, a lot of times we were treated as second-class First Nations, lesser of a First Nation because you guys are not treaty. But if we didn’t help to make Canada a nation, they would not be able to sign any treaties. That is something that is really important to remember. Canada is 1867, right? The War of 1812 is back then. We helped make Canada a nation but they left us out.

The word “Dakota” actually means ally. We were talking about when our nation had no resources, we spoke about how we have to work with everybody in the area, with the cities, towns. It does not matter who is in power provincially, federally, we all need to work together and that is the only way that we will advance as far as the nation itself to give an opportunity for the people.

For example, before Brad Wall was even a premier, he used to come and visit and we would have talks. We became really good friends. He is still a good friend to this day. I believe that he made a couple of call-outs for us to the opposition. And Senator Cotter, you are sponsoring. Senator, you won the arm wrestle obviously.