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 —

First Nations Finance Authority.

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 —

Sing a song.

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.

Wow.

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?

Yes, 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, Chief Bear, and thank you, Senator Sorensen.

Congratulations on everything you’ve accomplished. Much respect for your leadership and the leadership of your council for moving all of that forward in such an amazing way.

Thank you.

I want to make sure all the senators get a chance to ask questions. Senator Patterson is next. I want to acknowledge Senator Cotter, who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate. He’s here to ask a few questions as well.

Thank you. I really want to welcome you on National Indigenous Peoples Day. It’s so appropriate that we’re meeting today. I’ve been on this committee for 14 years now. I think I’m the senior member.

We will concede to that.

Yes, still kicking. We have this great history of studying and reporting on legislation to implement modern treaties. Our best moments are when we do this work. I want to assure you, we’ve always taken the position that after long years of negotiations and the clear ratification of your members, this has to be respected.

We have rare permission to sit while the Senate is in session today. I’m confident we’ll get this done before we rise for the summer with the goodwill of all parties in the Senate. We may rise as early as tomorrow, so it’s going to take some procedural gymnastics and a few abridging of the rules here and there to make sure we get it done, but I want to assure you that there’s a lot of goodwill your way.

I’d like to ask you one question. You talked about the great progress you’ve made in developing your economy. Your treaty has fiscal arrangement provisions. Section 25 says that the parties will work together to access efficient fiscal resources to meet the expenditure needs of this agreement as it evolves over time.

I’m wondering if you can give us an idea. Have those fiscal arrangements already been negotiated? How is that coming along? How will those arrangements help make sure that you have sufficient resources to implement this new agreement?

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

Bears are good, hey? Thank you.

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?

Thanks, chief.

Yes, the fiscal arrangements could be better. We’re getting there. We have the opportunity now as a self-governing First Nation to participate in what is called the fiscal collaboration process, so all 26 First Nations sitting around the table with the federal government and negotiating as equal partners in determining what the expenditure need is in different areas. We’ve seen progress in the area of basic — the governance, the cost of governance, and making sure it’s comparable with the territories and provinces and communities, and there’s work now on culture, language and infrastructure, but there are other areas that haven’t started, like economic development. It is a work-in-progress, but it is progressing, and it’s something that the committee may be interested in looking at in the future, finding out more about that.