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Nycole Turmel. Judy Foote. Louis Plamondon. Bruce Hyer. Elizabeth May. Division Private Members' Business. Bruce Stanton. Randy Kamp. The House met at 10 a. It is the most visited park in Canada, and it is crucial that the government examine this issue and bring in legislation to protect the park for all time. The first is from my constituents who ask that the government consider keeping Kingston as an EI processing hub under the EI modernization bill. The reason for this is that my constituents believe that, first, there is no representation of employment insurance processing for eastern Ontario east of Toronto, and, second, that because there is already a processing centre in Kingston, this is probably the most cost-effective place to put an EI processing centre.
If the jobs were moved elsewhere, there would have to be a lot of retraining and relocating, which would be an additional and unnecessary expense. The petitioners are concerned about the issues of electoral fraud that happened in the 41st federal general election. They are calling for a full investigation to find out who was behind this, to ensure there is sufficient resources for this investigation so that Canada's electoral system that was put at risk through the reports of widespread electoral fraud will be dealt with, and to ensure Canadians confidence in our democratic voting system can be reasserted.
The petitioners are pointing that out. I have five petitions to that effect. The first petition is signed by many residents of Thunder Bay and is on the issue of pay equity for working women. The petitioners are calling on the government to address this issue, which is long overdue. The petitioners from Quebec feel that it is important to take the step to provide more consumer choice and to promote competition in the domestic wireless market by unlocking network locks on their cellphones.
The House proceeded to the consideration of Bill C, An Act to enhance the financial accountability and transparency of First Nations , as reported with amendment from the committee. The Speaker :. Speaker, for the public watching, Bill C would:. This is from the legislative summary prepared for the House. I have proposed three amendments to the bill and I will speak specifically to those three amendments.
One of them would delete the short title because, as always, the titles are often misleading. When we are talking about financial accountability and transparency, one would expect that the government would provide resources so first nations would have the ability to do some of the things that are being requested of them, and that there would have been adequate consultation before this bill was put forward.
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The two sections of the bill that I propose deleting include clause Through the bill, an additional burden is being placed on first nations by allowing members of the general public to take a first nation to court if they do not feel that the information is published as required under the legislation. Nobody would argue that leadership in first nations should not be accountable to their own members but the bigger concern is having anybody being able to put this additional burden on first nations.
The third clause that I suggest we delete is the administrative measures clause. It would vest far too much power with the minister. We would see more power being vested in the minister, which is a dangerous trend that we see throughout the current government. I will touch on where this legislation came from and why we as New Democrats have some serious problems with it. In the legislative summary, it is pointed out that currently first nations communities have an estimated average of reports and that in some communities that goes up to reports that are required by the federal government. Any of us who have first nations communities in our ridings can attest to the fact that we have serious problems in many communities, whether it is housing, drinking water or education, and we continue to see these problems grow.
The government has not committed the resources, the attention or the building of the relationship to ensure some of these problems are dealt with. The reporting burden on first nations is not new information. In , the Auditor General issued a report dealing about the reporting, and that has gone on report after report. It is not just first nations and the Auditor General who are talking about the problems. The panel is of the view that mechanisms other than grants or contributions for the funding of essential services such as health, education and social assistance in reserve communities are needed That was the Conservatives' own panel and we have not seen the kind of action needed to deal with these reporting requirements.
The assistant auditor general appeared at committee with a prepared statement on October 29, He stated:.
At that time, we met with first nations and were told that they were willing to explore ways to ensure that the information needs of Parliament were met, and they stressed the importance of internal accountability. From their perspective, accountability is non-hierarchical and is based on shared objectives. They stated that the reporting framework was of limited value to them, was onerous, and did little to enhance accountability to the community.
That is a very important point because the bill is being sold as enhancing accountability in communities. If I have an opportunity, I am going to read a statement by the Canadian Bar Association about why simply posting numbers on a website does not necessarily enhance reporting accountability within communities. I am sure many people in the House could speak to the fact that we also need resources provided to communities so that community members actually have the knowledge to interpret the financial statements.
Financial statements, in and of themselves, do not speak to whether people are getting good results for their dollars. They are not talking about benchmarking the number of houses built, the number of children attending school or the number of people who now have access to clean drinking water.
A financial statement does not provide that information. People say that by putting numbers on a website, accountability is somehow miraculously going to occur. First nation leadership and community members would all agree that it is important to have accountability between chiefs and councils and their membership.
It was an amendment the NDP proposed, but of course, it was voted down. One of the proposals that the Assembly of First Nations made was that there should be an ombudsperson. The proposal stated:. Such institutions include an Ombudsperson's office, so that individuals have a trusted venue to pursue accountability concerns outside of either the local or federal governments. They would also include a First Nations Auditor General who could both provide ongoing advice to assist [First Nations] governments in providing accountability and, at the same time, improve accountability by exposing problems and recommending solutions.
First nation leadership across this country has been at the table consistently proposing solutions to the government and the government has failed to act on any of them. One of the big sticking points about this piece of legislation is the fact that there was not appropriate consultation. Article 19 states:. States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.
Once again there is a piece of legislation before the House that does not have that free, prior and informed consent. One would think, given that the government almost a year ago committed to a new relationship, that it would have that free, prior and informed consent before bringing legislation forward. We are seeing bill after bill being introduced in the House without that kind of consent. In fact, an official from the department yesterday talked about omnibus Bill C , clauses to in division 8, and said that it was fine for the government to go ahead without that free, prior and informed consent because, after all, they were just technical amendments.
That is simply not good enough in this day and age. If the government is committed to a new relationship, it should make sure that it goes beyond engagement and consults with first nation communities across this country and ensures that legislation is what first nations are asking for. One of the big issues is the refusal of the department to put ring fencing around project dollars, which is a basic accountability standard at any level, particularly in education, whether it is municipal or provincial.
Therefore, there are no standards of accountability. Does my hon. Jean Crowder :. What is interesting is that we hear the government continue to talk about accountability and transparency, yet the Parliamentary Budget Officer has to threaten to go to the courts in order to get the information that he requires to do his job. The member is correct that the government and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has not demonstrated accountability back to first nation communities.
Therefore, they make arbitrary decisions about where money will go and how it will be transferred without explaining how they are managing that money to first nations. There is not that accountability and transparency relationship from AANDC back to first nation communities, so often people are left proposing capital projects for schools or for water systems and then year after year these projects keep getting moved along the chain and people do not know why.
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If we want to talk about accountability and transparency, let us make sure that people understand what the money is for, how it will be spent and when the community can expect to receive it. To say that we have not done consultations is one thing, but to have members of first nation communities come to committee saying there is a problem is another.
Would the member like to comment on the fact that first nation members have to divulge their names to the chiefs and councillors and as a result are intimidated? Would she like to comment on the fact that this is a problem? The member pointed out quite rightly that there have been some challenges with band members getting access to financial information.
However, the member is also very well aware that the minister already has the power to provide that information to band members. In fact, the department could not give us an adequate summary of the scope of the problem. Once again, what we have is a smoke and mirrors bill that is talking about dealing with accountability and transparency. The government has not identified the scope of the problem. It has not identified other potential solutions. Instead, it is using a process that continues to violate the agreement around duty to consult.