Notes for an Address by
The Honourable Jim Prentice, PC, QC, MP Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-status Indians
Assembly of First Nations 27th Annual General Assembly
Vancouver, British Columbia
July 13, 2006
Elders, chiefs, councillors. Grand Chief, congratulations on your recent election. Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, fellow parliamentarians and ladies and gentlemen, everyone who's in the room. Firstly, I'd like to acknowledge that I'm here today on the traditional territory of the Musqueam, the Squamish, the Tsleil-Waututh and the Coast Salish First Nation. And thank you for welcoming me here. I've always been treated very graciously in British Columbia. And I've been looking forward to today.
I thank you for this opportunity to address the 27th annual general assembly of the Assembly of First Nations. And before I start, I would like to not only congratulate Grand Chief Fontaine but also applaud him and Bill Wilson on their campaigns.
I congratulate National Chief Fontaine for his new mandate. And I look forward to strengthening my relationship with him and his officials so that we can continue to improve the lives of First Nations peoples.
As everyone knows, I have a close working relationship with the grand chief. He is a Canadian for whom I have enormous respect and whose counsel I very much value. We don't always agree on everything but we have known each other for many, many years and I think he does an incredible, marvelous job of representing First Nation peoples in this country.
The AFN is an important partner in Canada's efforts to make real and lasting progress on the issues that face First Nations peoples.
And through my months in office, first months in office - and we've been the government now for about six months, I've started to build a new working relationship with the AFN, with National Chief Fontaine and other Aboriginal leaders. And during the Special Chiefs Assembly in Gatineau last March I was able to get a closer look at the AFN's cooperative decision-making processes.
And it's been a personal honor to work with National Chief Fontaine and with many of you who are in the room here today as we have started a number of initiatives - in particular those relating to First Nations water and education and other issues which I will talk about.
And I very much look forward to working together with First Nations and with the Assembly of First Nations as we go forward.
Together, ladies and gentlemen, I believe we can create the conditions that are necessary to affect significant, long-term change in First Nation communities.
My vision, and I believe your vision, for First Nations involves prosperity and self-sufficiency. And to make stronger First Nations and improve quality of life, we must promote self-sufficiency because any community— whether Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal —that relies solely on government support is sure to struggle.
And to make progress, we must have the courage to change current structures and the perseverance to finish the job.
We must have the skill and the creativity and the confidence to design new laws, new initiatives and new approaches, and, ladies and gentlemen, we must ask tough questions. It's fair for you to ask those questions. It's fair for me as the minister to ask those questions.
And finally, we must form new partnerships and strengthen existing relationship and partnerships through mutual respect and trust.
Now before I share with you my vision of what that change looks like, in this speech, as I describe the pillars upon which I intend to proceed in consultation, I want to address two issues that have been in the news recently and which I know many of you are interested in: firstly, the United Nations Draft Declaration; and, secondly, the question of B.C. fisheries.
And I will deal with both of these issues head-on. I believe it is my duty as the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs to explain Canada's position on both issues.
Firstly, with respect to the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, our government supports the goal of a declaration on Aboriginal rights, but we believe that further discussion is required to create a more clearly-worded text.
And I wish to be clear that the text which is currently under discussion has never been approved by any government in this country. We would support a text that builds on the guidance of Canada's Constitution, Canada's Charter, and the decision of our Supreme Court.
The current text lacks clarity and precision. It fails to recognize Canada's current reality. I am well familiar with the text. I have spent a lot of time reviewing it, examining it from a legal perspective.
Canada will continue to support the human rights and the fundamental freedoms of all indigenous peoples, and we remain, we remain fully committed to working with other countries at the United Nations and elsewhere to recognize these rights.
And in this country, Aboriginal rights, along with relevant responsibilities and entitlements, are defined in our Constitution, our laws and in our legal precedents.
And while I acknowledge that Canada's approach and what we have achieved is not perfect, it is an approach that most countries can learn from.
Turning, ladies and gentlemen, to the issue of fisheries and, in particular, the question of the Fraser River and the fisheries of the Fraser River and I know that there's been discussion about that this morning.
I speak firstly as the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, as a minister of the crown. I speak also as someone who is a fisherman and a conservationist and I speak as someone who has been working along with the Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans on this issue for some time.
I understand the issue. I am aware of the sensitivity of it and I think that I have some understanding of how important an issue it is to First Nations here in British Columbia.
Now, first and foremost, this government is committed to conserve and protect the wild salmon stocks of the Fraser River. We believe that we, as Canadians, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike, have an obligation to conserve and to be stewards of this valuable resource, one of the most remarkable resources in the world, a resource which has been under assault in recent years.
And our obligation of conservation and stewardship is an obligation that transcends the rights of individual citizens in this country whether Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal and the Supreme Court of Canada has said exactly that in previous decisions. So I start with an obligation to conserve and to protect.
Over the past 15 years, the wild salmon stocks of the Fraser River have been decimated. No one is entirely sure of the reasons - we can speculate about that, we could discuss that. But government has an obligation to act and to not stand aside while this happens.
In the last election, this government, the Conservative Party campaigned on a very clear promise that a judicial inquiry would be convened.
This was part of the election platform that was put forward to the Canadian public in the last election and one of the promises that our government made.
The Prime Minister has indicated that further to that, we will convene a judicial inquiry and the purpose of that judicial inquiry will be to get to the bottom of what is the problem in the Fraser River.
And there are many reasons that have been put forward. There is the question of habitat loss, changes in the ocean, change in the ocean temperature, overfishing, illegal fishing, irresponsible fishing.
All of these are issues which have been put forward as plausible explanations and I don't think any of us in the room here today really know what the full explanation is.
The purpose of the judicial inquiry is to get to the bottom of that with a fair-minded and respected Canadian examining these issues and these questions, hearing evidence and speaking to Canadians.
As the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, I can tell you that this government respects the Aboriginal right to fish for food and ceremonial purposes. There is no issue about that.
This is a right that has been recognized in decisions such as Vanderpeet, Sparrow and other decisions. It is a decision that we understand and that we respect.
And the commitment to convene a judicial inquiry in no way trenches upon the right of Aboriginal people to fish for food and ceremonial purposes.
And I also wish to be clear - and I'll speak more about this later in my comments - this government respects treaties. In fact, the Conservative government -- Conservative governments in this country have a long record of signing treaties, respecting treaties and delivering on treaties whether they're specific or comprehensive.
We respect those treaties in which fish allocations have been negotiated and agreed upon. There is nothing in the nature of a judicial inquiry that in any way interferes with those situations.
Beyond that, ladies and gentlemen, we have the question of access to the fishery, access to a commercial fishery and we are not supportive of a racially-segregated fishery.
We are supportive of a policy of equality of access to the commercial fishery and I wish to be very clear that we are very supportive as well of policies implemented through my department and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans that allow for the development of economic opportunity fisheries for Aboriginal Canadians, for First Nation Canadians.
And we are committed to work together in consultation with the Assembly of First Nations, with the First Nations who have since time immemorial lived along this valuable river.
We are committed to work together on the economic fishery within a context of equality of access. That is a commitment that I make to you and that I will carry forward on.
I have been very involved on this file. I intend to carry forward and continue to be involved on this file and I hope that I can do so with the active engagement and the collaboration of all of the First Nations who are affected together with your representative organizations.
While those are two very important issues that I wanted to address coming in here today. Our purpose today really is to have a broader discussion of how we can move forward together to build a brighter future.
And today, what I would like to outline for you is a three-part plan I will be proceeding upon as Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.
This plan is based on the many discussions I have had with Aboriginal leaders and the lessons I have learned during my years as a member of the Standing Committee of the House of Commons on Aboriginal issues and in my time prior to that as the co-chair and commissioner of the Indian Claims Commission which was a position that I held for some 10 years.
And what I'd like to describe to you are the three pillars upon which I wish to proceed in collaboration, in consultation with the AFN over the course of this minority parliament and in the days beyond.
The first part of the plan is to take immediate action on quality-of-life issues such as poverty, drinking water, education, women, children and families and housing.
These actions if they are affected properly and in a consultative way and properly targeted, will quickly make a measurable difference in First Nations communities.
The second component is to restructure the legislative frameworks that support First Nations programs, services, governance.
In consultation, we will move beyond the Indian Act which is a compilation of pre-Confederation statutes. We will work towards arrangements developed in consultation which define a new future in this century.
And the third element which I intend to speak to today, the third pillar is to speed up the processes in place to settle claims.
Let me start with quality-of-life issues, our government to be fair has wasted no time in moving forward on the most basic of health and safety issues and ones that have been left unaddressed for far too long.
Within days of taking office, as Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, I moved on a safe drinking water program with First Nations communities.
And, ladies and gentlemen, I want to be very frank about the appalling situation that I inherited as the minister.
When I became the minister, one of the first things I said to the people in our department was tell me what you know about the standards of drinking water on First Nation communities across this country.
They came back to me. I instructed them to overlay all of the scientific data that they had. They came back to me, identified 21 communities where the community itself was at risk and beyond that another 193 communities where communities were living at high risk.
So I came into this job as the new minister seeking to protect Aboriginal people, First Nations people in this country and I have found that there are over 200 communities left by the former government where Canadian citizens, First Nation citizens do not have drinking water that accords with Canadian standards. And I have moved immediately, within 45 days of being the minister, to deal with that.
We are addressing problems where we can quickly make a measurable difference.
And, ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud that our first budget included more than $3.7 billion to support Aboriginal peoples over two years — more than in any previous budget.
And I think it's important that you be aware of the facts and not some of the rhetoric which has been published on this. This budget put forward by the Conservative government had $3.7 billion of additional money for Aboriginal programs and services.
The investments reflect the priorities identified in discussions with several groups, including the AFN.
As we roll out the details on these investments you will see that our approach is all about accountability, results and concrete action.
Decisions about each of these investments were informed through discussions with the appropriate partners, including the provinces, territories and Aboriginal groups.
In dealing with the second part of my plan, ladies and gentlemen, we intend to address the root cause of many problems we face: the archaic, tangled, and patronizing legislative framework that defines the vast majority of relations between government and Aboriginal peoples.
Does anyone in this room truly believe that we can get to where we want to go with the current version of the Indian Act and thousands and thousands of contribution agreements that I administer as the minister? I don't think so.
First Nations members on reserve are the only Canadians who lack a clear legal framework that sets out standards for areas such as education, water, housing, social services, and governance. This current system erodes public trust and alienates First Nations citizen.
And I'm convinced that we must have a modern framework developed in consultation, one that defines clear roles and responsibilities, and sets realistic norms and strict standards.
This framework must also provide specific penalties for non-compliance and provide citizens with ways to seek recourse.
And I would remind you, ladies and gentlemen, that Conservative governments prior to this Conservative government have always led in reform and changes that have benefited Aboriginal Canadians. RCAP, the British Columbia Treaty Commission, the Indian Specific Claims Commission, most of the comprehensive claim settlements in this country, even the right to vote - all were extended to Aboriginal Canadians by Conservative governments.
And you can compare that to what has happened in this country over the last 13 years, ladies and gentlemen.
Now to create this type of framework, we must get First Nations involved, for the framework, if it is going to succeed, it must have the enthusiastic support of the men and women with the most to gain.
Our government recognizes that getting this level of support requires more than consultation. It requires sincere and heartfelt collaboration and determined effort and I have provided the National Chief with my assurance that this is how we will go about this and this is exactly the approach we are taking with the expert panel on First Nations water.
We all know that women, children and families are the foundation of any community. With that in mind, we are taking concrete action that will improve the quality of life of Aboriginal women, children and families.
With the support of the AFN, and the Native Women's Association of Canada, we have launched an initiative on another important issue: matrimonial real property.
That initiative, which is set to begin later this summer, aims to support women, children and families—a key goal of this government and one that we look forward to working with the Assembly of First Nations on.
And I am pleased that Wendy Grant-John—a former AFN regional Vice-Chief—has agreed to lead this project.
This is a priority issue for First Nations, for First Nations women and we have heard from many who have experienced personal hardship and tragedy. Putting women, children and families first and foremost is important to our government, and that is why we are moving forward on this matter.
I have also spoken with the Minister of Justice and it is our intention in the days ahead to deal with Section 67 of the Human Rights Act which prevents First Nations citizens from advancing human rights complaints.
This is something which has been under review in this country for close to 30 years. It's time that a government, in consultation, acted.
And in the same spirit, I was honored last week to sign a tripartite agreement with British Columbia and the BC First Nations Education Steering Committee.
And this historic agreement will enable First Nations to assume meaningful control over on-reserve elementary and secondary schools in areas such as curriculum, educational standards and teacher certification.
And many of you will have been there last week when here in British Columbia I announced that. But what is most important is that children will receive a better quality education, and one with a strong cultural component - contributing to the diversity of our great country.
And what is also especially exciting about this tripartite agreement is that it offers a model that can be adapted for use in other regions in this country.
And I'm convinced that this agreement, along with a similar accord involving the Mi'kmaq Education Authority of Nova Scotia, represent the future of First Nations education across Canada.
These agreements reflect the unique conditions of those communities. And they demonstrate what good partners can achieve when they work together.
By establishing regional agreements with First Nations groups, provinces and territories, we can address a whole range of issues such as education, economic development and housing.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, accountability is a top priority for Canada's New Government. In recent years, Canadians have rightfully demanded greater accountability and transparency from the governments and agencies entrusted with public funds.
Citizens wish to have good value for their hard-earned tax dollars, and governments must do the best to meet these demands. Aboriginal governments are no exception.
For First Nations communities to become more self-sufficient, First Nations governments must be more accountable to their constituents.
Today, not all First Nations have the governance structures and the capacity needed to deliver this level of accountability and transparency. Many, many do. And we are committed to work together to ensure that everyone reaches that same level.
As well, I hope you will look at new ideas that will help to deliver housing more effectively and generate more own source revenue.
We have to build the capacity together of First Nations through improved structures, systems and regulations. And of course, we must do this together.
I'm well aware, as I became the new minister, of the auditor general's repeated reports about the years of inaction, what that has meant to First Nation communities, focused on useless reports and wasted time and money.
We will follow the recommendations of the auditor general's recommendations to reduce the administrative burdens on First Nations, to make the department which I head more accountable and ultimately to improve the life and quality of living on reserve.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, the third part of my plan which I wish to speak to involves completing comprehensive and specific claims, treaty land entitlements and additions to reserves. In this province, many claims agreements have yet to be signed. In other regions, disputes continue about old agreements.
Now I have said this before. It will be no secret to anyone in this room I have been one of the most outspoken critics in this country over the last 20 years of how the claims process isn't working.
And I wish to make it clear, ladies and gentlemen, that the situation I inherit as the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, there are over 776 specific claims inside the federal system. And that, over the course of the time since 1993, under the record of the previous government, the number of claims backlogged in the system more than doubled, increased from 369 claims to over 775 claims. That's the record of the previous administration. I intend to take steps to retool the process to deal with that.
Settlements are about justice, respect and reconciliation. Negotiated settlements are not only about coming to terms with the past, but also about building a better future.
Each settlement clears a path to strengthened governance, to new economic and social opportunities and, as you know, settlements can bring harmony between First Nations communities and their neighbors.
And settlements, of course, always provide valuable resources and access to resources, and that is a better way to go than courtrooms as a resolution by a negotiating table.
And last month, I was proud to participate in a signing of a Treaty Land Entitlement claim a settlement with Fort McKay First Nation. And Fort McKay owns and operates a steadily growing inventory of companies in northern Alberta.
They provide jobs and training opportunities for Aboriginal and they generate revenues that are reinvested in their community.
And under that settlement, Fort McKay acquired more than 23,000 acres of land—much of it in the oil sands area of northern Alberta and that settlement gives the First Nation access to the resources that it needs to meet the specific needs of its members.
I have also had the privilege since becoming the minister to participate in the signing of the Yale First Nation settlement agreement.
And I've also had the privilege to steer the residential school agreement through our government.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a $2.2 billion settlement that I think brings closure to a very difficult chapter in Canadian history and one that I know each and every person in this room supports in the resolution and I acknowledge the work of National Chief Fontaine in that respect.
So, ladies and gentlemen, these actions demonstrate that Canada's new government is intending to conclude practical, and effective arrangements and I'm convinced that the approach that I've described to be built upon these three pillars will foster self- sufficiency, accountability, and will bring a resolution to outstanding grievances that are very dated.
And these are the keys to prosperity.
The structural reforms will also help to meet the objectives and build on the goodwill and cooperative spirit established over the last 6 months with Aboriginal Canadians.
Our plan strives to provide Aboriginal peoples with the tools they need to take charge of their own affairs and become self-reliant. And it recognizes that no single solution will prove effective for all communities.
This government's policy on the Mackenzie Gas Project is based on similar criteria. And I intend in the days ahead to make further progress on this.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, despite the disturbingly low standard of living currently experienced by many Aboriginal peoples, there are success stories that inspire optimism and which we need to celebrate.
Approximately 25,000 First Nations and Inuit students are enrolled in post-secondary institutions and more than 4,500 graduate each year.
The number of successful businesses owned and operated by Aboriginal entrepreneurs continues to climb. And many of the largest projects underway in Canada are in part owned by Aboriginal people.
In closing, ladies and gentlemen, I ask the Assembly, I seek your support today to work with this government to firstly take action on quality-of-life issues such as water, housing, education, women, children and families.
Secondly, to establish the legislative and regulatory framework necessary to modernize the services, the governance and the negotiations in First Nations communities.
And, thirdly, to be supportive of the settlement of claims more expeditiously so that we can move forward with improved economic conditions.
Our shared challenge is really to move forward. Past the dependencies that once held back First Nations, past the Indian Act which has held First Nations back and with a new sprit of partnership that unites Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians alike, building a stronger Canada for all the peoples that share this great land.
And to accomplish these goals, we will need strong partners who are ready to set and meet realistic targets, to accept clear roles and responsibilities, and to be accountable for their actions.
And in collaboration we must work forward to achieve real results for First Nations communities.
I appreciate the AFN's work to ensure that all Canadians—Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike—can participate fully in the prosperity of this country, and to move forward.
I know that I will need the counsel not only of the National Chief and his executive but also the support of the men and women in this room.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for this opportunity to address you.
Let us work together and make Canada stronger than ever.
Merci.
Thank you.
Migwetch.
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