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Results: 1 - 14 of 14
View Bill Morneau Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Before I begin, I'd like to once again thank the members of the committee for their continued work during this particularly challenging period for all of us.
The pandemic continues, obviously, to have serious economic impacts across Canada. For many Canadians, the pandemic has brought about unprecedented uncertainty: uncertainty about their jobs and their financial security and uncertainty about making ends meet.
Today marks three months since the Prime Minister announced the first elements of Canada's COVID-19 response plan. From the very beginning, we've maintained an unwavering commitment to supporting Canadian households and businesses. We've rolled out measures for workers and businesses across all sectors and for employers of all sizes. We've worked and are continuing to work closely with local, provincial, territorial and indigenous partners to minimize the health, economic and social impacts of COVID-19.
Now, three months into the crisis, there are some encouraging signs in Canada that the spread of the virus is slowing down. Many provinces and territories in Canada are beginning to cautiously reopen their economies, something that the finance ministers are telling me in my weekly calls is really beginning across the country, but we're not out of the woods yet. COVID-19 continues to pose significant risks to Canadians and, of course, to our economy.
That is why our government continues to take action to reduce the impact of COVID-19. Our goals remain the same: to protect Canadians, support Canadian workers and businesses, and support our communities to ensure that Canada is ready to bounce back when we emerge from this crisis.
I'd like to highlight some of the measures we've recently announced.
Earlier this month, the Prime Minister announced that funding for the federal gas tax fund has been brought forward this year. The gas tax fund is a permanent source of funding that is provided to the provinces and territories. The provinces and territories then disburse the money to municipalities to support various local priorities.
Usually, the federal government transfers the money in two instalments, one during the summer and the other a few months later. We know that this year the municipalities need the money now so that they can deal with the crisis caused by COVID-19.
In the next few weeks, $2.2 billion from the federal gas tax fund will go to Canadian municipalities: money that will help municipalities move forward with infrastructure projects that will improve quality of life, help restart local economies and create good jobs. We understand that more will be needed to help municipalities, as many are facing significant COVID-19-related financial pressures, but we know that this is an important first step. We'll keep working with provinces and territories in order to help support municipalities.
As the provinces and territories gradually get their economies back on track, our top priority remains protecting the health of Canadians. That is why we have begun negotiations with our provincial and territorial counterparts to ensure that any reopening takes place while protecting the health of Canadians and minimizing the risk of transmission of the virus.
In particular, we are working with the provinces and territories to ensure that all Canadians can have paid sick days. People need to be able to stay home if they have symptoms of COVID-19 without worrying about how they're going to pay their bills.
We also continue to ship equipment across the country, such as surgical masks and gloves, and provide support to the provinces and territories in testing for COVID-19.
As we continue our discussions with our provincial counterparts to make sure Canadians can get back to work safely, we'll also be focused on the following areas: testing and contact tracing; making sure there is personal protective equipment, so Canadians are safe on the job; support for child care; support for vulnerable people, like those in long-term care facilities; and support for cities and municipalities. We know we all need to work together.
Throughout the pandemic, one thing has been clear: we've all been touched by this crisis.
Last week, the Prime Minister announced that seniors eligible for old-age security in the guaranteed income supplement will receive their special one-time tax-free payment during the week of July 6. Seniors eligible for the OAS pension will receive a payment of $300. Those eligible for the GIS, who are the most vulnerable, will receive an additional $200.
The pandemic has also heightened and highlighted the additional challenges already facing indigenous peoples in our country. We're working with first nations, Inuit and Métis communities to address their specific needs. Since we last met, our government has announced additional funding to support indigenous peoples. This includes an additional $75 million in supports for organizations that provide services to indigenous people in urban centres and off reserve, and an additional $650 million to support communities on health care, income support and new shelters for women.
This builds on measures already announced to support the public health response in indigenous communities, as well as the support to indigenous businesses and aboriginal financial institutions.
The measures to help Canadians that were recently announced, and which I just mentioned, are in addition to the measures that were previously put in place. These are measures that we continue to improve. For example, we continue to improve the Canada emergency wage subsidy. Last month, we proposed that the program be extended to August 29.
In recent weeks, the government has also held consultations with representatives of business, labour, non-profit organizations and charities. We want to see what improvements can be made to the program. The Canada emergency wage subsidy has already helped more than 2.6 million Canadians keep or return to their jobs.
The key objectives of any potential changes to the Canada emergency wage subsidy would be to maximize employment to ensure that the program reflects the immediate needs of employers and to support the post-crisis economic recovery.
Overall, our government's swift and comprehensive actions through the COVID-19 economic response plan are providing more than $150 billion in direct support to Canadians. This, coupled with liquidity support of $85 billion through tax and duty deferrals, represents support equivalent to more than 10% of our GDP. This has put Canada at the forefront of our international peers in the robustness of our response. We've done this because we believe that, by investing in Canadians now, we stand well prepared for success in the economic recovery to come.
While there is reason to be optimistic, we must all continue to take precautions to control the spread of the virus. As provinces, territories, municipalities and businesses begin to gradually reopen, we'll stand ready to support them to make sure Canadians remain safe and supported. Our government will be there with Canadians every step of the way.
I would now be pleased to take questions from the members.
Christopher Sheppard-Buote
View Christopher Sheppard-Buote Profile
Christopher Sheppard-Buote
2020-05-19 17:42
Good morning, committee. My name is Christopher Sheppard-Buote. I'm the president of the National Association of Friendship Centres.
I want to recognize that I'm on Treaty 6. I'm joined by Jocelyn Formsma, the executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres. We represent over 100 local friendship centres and provincial and territorial associations in every province from coast to coast to coast, except Prince Edward Island.
Friendship centres are urban indigenous community hubs that provide a wide range of programs and services for every demographic of indigenous people, including prenatal, healthy baby, family, children's, youth, adult and seniors programming. We offer services in health, economic development, entrepreneurship and employment and training, housing and homelessness, head start and child care, violence prevention, education, languages, culture, justice, and sports and recreation.
Collectively, we are the largest and most comprehensive urban indigenous service delivery network in Canada. Last year, 93 centres served approximately 1.4 million first nations, Inuit, Métis and non-indigenous people across over 1,200 programs and services in 238 buildings, and employing over 2,700 people. We are proud to be a largely indigenous, women-led network.
What I need you to hear today is this: The federal government needs us to help navigate through the remainder of the COVID-19 response in urban indigenous communities. They will need us to help re-establish Canada's economy after COVID-19, and they need to effectively resource us to do so. The first friendship centres have been on the front lines of support for first nations, Inuit and Métis people for 70 years. COVID-19 is but one emergency that we are helping the communities we serve to navigate. The matters and conditions that we help our community members with every day will still be here, even after this pandemic ends.
Among the systemic barriers to doing this essential work are the distinctions-based approach to COVID-19 funding, which left many of the urban indigenous community members we serve unseen; the ongoing jurisdictional wrangling between federal and provincial governments; the chronic lack of resources, training and personal protective equipment; and not being engaged nationally on urban-specific approaches.
While we are appreciative of the funds we have been able to secure through the indigenous community support fund, we need you to know that this money was spent even before it hit the ground. The $15 million that was set aside for urban indigenous needs was never going to meet those needs. We must see a second wave of funding soon. Urban indigenous people cannot continue to be left behind.
Now is the time to leverage the friendship centre movement's expertise, networks and programs to support urban indigenous people and provide them with the support they need during this crisis and afterward. The NAFC continues to seek funds to ensure that urban indigenous communities are served in this time. Friendship centres should not be decimated because they answered the call when others could not or would not, because they spent and served without proper equipment, and because they put aside their regular fundraising activities or shut down their social enterprises. Our network is highly effective, agile and competent at sharing information and caring for each other.
Instead of looking at us as another handout asking for more, we encourage the federal government to look to us as an answer to the question of how to reach this priority population. Properly equipping and resourcing friendship centres now and including friendship centres in response and recovery strategies is but one way to care for and invest in the viability of urban indigenous communities and economies.
The NAFC has offered and continues to offer its perspective, expertise and knowledge of urban indigenous communities and community members to inform the federal government and guide effective remedies both now and post COVID-19. We look forward to being a part of the ongoing conversation and the continued investment in our work.
Thank you so much.
Christopher Sheppard-Buote
View Christopher Sheppard-Buote Profile
Christopher Sheppard-Buote
2020-05-19 18:06
Thank you, Mr. McLeod.
Jocelyn and I have previously stated in front of other parliamentary committees our frustration that the jurisdictional issues around health information and the current structure of case identification do not include urban indigenous people. There's a reason that the cases in La Loche, for example, outnumber the total declared indigenous cases. If you are not on reserve, you typically don't get the same disaggregated data, which you would need to create good policy.
I would also argue that even when we have good data, public policy has not matched what that data tells us. For example, the majority of indigenous people live off reserve, off Inuit-governed territory, off Métis homelands, but the financial contributions have never matched that number.
We've already reached out to try to gather as much data as we can with our partners—I'm sure Jocelyn can follow up with some specifics—but we also want to make sure that this data is communicated in a way that's appropriate and comes from indigenous ways of knowing. Indigenous people don't typically talk about mental health. When we hear that word, it's not something we're comfortable talking about, but if you ask people, “How are you? How are you managing during this time?”, they're much more willing to tell you that they're not doing that well.
Jocelyn has some more specifics on the health data and the work we're trying to do in that area, but I'll just be very clear: We don't know how many urban indigenous people have died from COVID-19, period.
Jocelyn Formsma
View Jocelyn Formsma Profile
Jocelyn Formsma
2020-05-19 18:09
I can jump in and add a bit on the data.
A lot of the indigenous data that's being collected is very rightfully being collected by indigenous entities, such as The First Nations Information Governance Centre, various Métis nations and Inuit-formed entities. What we're saying is that we don't currently have a similar entity that collects the data within an urban landscape.
Anecdotally, we know there have been hundreds of COVID cases in the indigenous population within, say, Toronto, but we do not have any way of formally recognizing those cases of illness or any of the deaths that have occurred. Furthermore, a lot of the community members who have had the virus and passed away from it are largely unseen by society in general, such as the unsheltered homeless. We've had numerous young people in care. It's not to say that they've had the virus, but as a population, unless you know who they are and where they are, it can be very difficult to do outreach.
As our president said, we've been there from the beginning. This is another emergency in a long line of emergencies that friendship centres have responded to. Whether it's flood, fires, extreme heat, extreme cold or previous pandemics, friendship centres have been there on the front line. We were there previously, dealing with violence prevention, trying to advocate for affordable housing and dealing with homelessness for those very.... I don't want to say “vulnerable”, but I'll say they're a population that has been pushed to the margins through systemic measures.
What we're calling for is to look to us as an answer. We know this community very well. We think indigenous people living within urban settings are going to be very key for Canada's economy, not just now, but going into the future. We'll need a workforce. We'll need their thinking, and we'll need their leadership. We'll need young people to have the skills and knowledge to engage with the workforce and lead through entrepreneurship. We need this population, and we need to ensure that the infrastructure is in place to support them to participate fully.
We certainly need the infrastructure. We need the physical space, safer spaces, for friendship centres. We need enhancements to our current programs. This will allow us to not just provide the status quo in the programs and services we currently provide, but also be a lot more innovative with those programs, as we have also had to move to a virtual type of service delivery. Quite frankly, there should also be a vast investment in child care, young children's development, early childhood development and young people.
I think those are the things we would be calling for as part of the recovery for and investment in friendship centres.
Robert Bertrand
View Robert Bertrand Profile
Robert Bertrand
2020-05-05 17:30
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, committee members and fellow witnesses.
My name is Robert Bertrand. I'm the national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, or CAP, as we like to call it.
I would like to extend my thanks for this invitation and to those who have worked to bring us here this afternoon.
Mr. Chair, we appreciate your invitation to appear.
We would also like to thank Peter Julian for his recent work in Parliament to ensure that the urban indigenous population is heard.
Since 1971, CAP has fought for the rights, interests and needs of off-reserve status and non-status Indians, Métis and southern Inuit people.
In 2016, in the CAP/Daniels decision, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that non-status and Métis people are Indians under the Constitution and that this is an area of federal responsibility. In 2018, CAP signed a renewed political accord with the Government of Canada to ensure our people are included in federal policy.
CAP is the national voice for our 10 provincial and territorial affiliates. They work with their respective provincial and territorial governments to advocate for their constituents. They are service providers in areas such as housing, education, employment and language, among others.
Our communities have been historically known as a forgotten people. This has not changed, even during the present pandemic. In the past, this term referred to the indigenous peoples excluded from the Indian Act, treaties and land claim agreements. Today, we also have to add to the list those who are excluded from the government's distinction-based approach.
In March, the government announced a $305-million support package for indigenous peoples dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Of this amount, $290 million was designated for distinction-based organizations, which represents about 500,000 indigenous people across Canada. Less than 5%, or $15 million, was designated for supporting off-reserve and urban indigenous populations, a group of over one million people.
Fifteen dollars per person is not enough for any meaningful support programs for one of the most marginalized groups in Canada. I don't need to reiterate the poverty and chronic health issues, the over-policing and the discrimination faced by our indigenous people.
CAP was told that it will only receive $250,000 after a competitive bureaucratic process that pitted off-reserve organizations against each other. This amount would be enough to provide those in need among our people with approximately three dollars. That is per capita.
We were encouraged to hear the government acknowledge that the initial $15 million for urban indigenous communities was insufficient. CAP said as much when the funding levels were announced back in March.
Despite the promise of more funding, we are left with a few pressing questions. First, how much more will be made available? Second, when is it going to reach our people, who have been waiting since mid-March? Finally, when will the government address the distinction-based approach that created this problem in the first place and include all the national indigenous organizations as equal?
Our people should have known about funding levels and timelines months ago. Implementing programs takes time, time that is wasted while people's health and lives are threatened.
The distinction-based model continues to be a problem and a barrier for our constituents with more recent announcements.
New funding is rolled out without representatives of urban indigenous peoples being consulted. Government has announced another $70 million in distinction-based indigenous student aid funding that our constituents will not be able to access. Also, $306 million in indigenous business support is flowing through groups that exclude most of our membership as well.
What CAP is asking is that all indigenous peoples be considered when creating public policy. We urge federal and provincial/territorial governments to engage CAP, our PTOs and our constituents to design programs, rather than restricting access to only a handful of organizations.
Mr. Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today, because consultation on issues that impact all indigenous people is something that CAP strives for in our work as a national indigenous organization. Mr. Chair, we will not be forgotten.
Meegwetch. Merci. Thank you very much.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to all our witnesses for being here today. We hope your families are safe and healthy.
I'm very pleased to see you here today, National Chief Bertrand. You've been long overdue in coming here. We have had indigenous leaders come forward to the finance committee, and they've also testified at the indigenous and northern affairs committee, concerned about the lack of supports for indigenous communities. Certainly we should have learned the lessons from the past, when indigenous communities received little more than body bags to deal with pandemics. We're facing a similar situation here.
You pointed out that, on average, indigenous peoples living in urban areas will have about 15 dollars' worth of funding. That contrasts vividly and starkly with the supports that have been given in liquidity for some of the country's most profitable and biggest banks, about $20 billion on average.
What is the price of our not providing supports for indigenous peoples who live in urban areas across the country? What should the government be doing to provide support for indigenous people living in those urban areas?
Robert Bertrand
View Robert Bertrand Profile
Robert Bertrand
2020-05-05 18:22
The amount of resources allocated off reserve for this pandemic was a slap in the face, excuse the expression. When we convened our PTOs to tell them that, across Canada, CAP had received only $250,000—if you divide that by 10 PTOs, it's $25,000 per PTO—some of the chiefs were so insulted. One of the presidents said to me, “The federal government is asking me to choose which child or which elder we are going to help, and to not help the other.”
All we are saying is that, whether they be off reserve or on reserve, let's get equal help for everyone because they all need the same help. Because of this funding—I forget what the expression is—the distinctions-based approach, some indigenous people are better taken care of than the rest who are off reserve. That should not be, Mr. Julian. We're all indigenous people. We're all Canadians. We should all get the same help from this government.
View Michael McLeod Profile
Lib. (NT)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all who took the time to present today.
I want to put my question to Robert Bertrand from CAP. I used to be a member of CAP way back when I was the president of our Métis council, so I certainly can share the concern that the Government of Canada needs to ensure that indigenous supports are inclusive of all indigenous populations.
Too often federal programs are inaccessible to many of the communities, especially in my riding. They don't seem to be able to access the money that is allocated to the NIOs, the national indigenous organizations. Money going to the AFN or Métis Nation does not come to the Northwest Territories, so I was very glad to see the indigenous community support fund flow to the Northwest Territories.
It's been a long time since I've seen so many people out on the land. We have people fishing, hunting, camping and tanning moose hides. They are opening up cabins that haven't been used for years. People are going back to their traditional family hunting areas. It's really good to see, and it's the first time we've been included.
Having said that, the money that went to Dene Nation in the Northwest Territories and the money that went to Inuvialuit flowed directly, and the Métis had to go a different route. They had to apply through the urban and off-reserve stream, and the money they got was certainly not on par with what the other indigenous governments got.
I want to ask if you could speak on the importance of an inclusive federal indigenous programming design and, specifically, if you think the urban, rural and northern streams are where these programs should be adopted. That's my first question.
Robert Bertrand
View Robert Bertrand Profile
Robert Bertrand
2020-05-05 18:36
Mr. McLeod, thank you so much for your question. I'm very happy to see that your people were able to participate in these programs.
By what you have just said, I think we have concrete evidence of why it's important that all groups be included. It is very maddening when you see certain groups benefit from the federal government's largesse, while other people do not. As I stated in my opening remarks, the distinctions-based approach used by the federal government benefits roughly half a million people, when we know according to the government's own statistics, its own numbers from StatsCan, that about a million and a half people are now living off reserve.
We're saying, what's good for the goose should also be good for the gander. There should be no distinction between indigenous people. Everybody should be considered equal, whether they're on reserve or off reserve, up north or down south. We know there are a lot of northern indigenous people who live down south. Everybody should be treated the same. That's why we are meeting with all these groups to try to get the government to change its mind.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you.
Thanks to all the witnesses today.
My last question will be to National Chief Bertrand.
You've raised very compelling arguments today about the level of support that is required to make sure that indigenous people across the country, urban or living on reserve, have the ability to withstand this pandemic.
Do you believe that you are being heard? Is there a sense that there is movement from the government to provide the supports that are needed?
Robert Bertrand
View Robert Bertrand Profile
Robert Bertrand
2020-05-05 18:57
Mr. Julian, I would like to thank you so much for your question.
To answer it as honestly as I could, I deeply feel that CAP is not listened to. We have talked to CIRNAC and we've talked to ISC. I don't know how many letters I've sent to the Prime Minister's office for a meeting with him, and the people answering his letters say that, unfortunately, he is too busy to meet with me.
It's very discouraging, the answers we are receiving, but I'm not usually the type of person who will take no for an answer. We will keep on knocking on doors. We will keep on trying to meet with all the concerned ministers, because indigenous constituents, our communities, rely on us. I can assure you, Mr. Julian, that we—me, the board of directors and all our reps—will not let these people down. We will continue knocking on doors. We will get what rightfully should be coming to our people, and we will not stop until we get the job done.
Thank you.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
My fourth and last question, and thank you for your patience, is this. There is $15 million that has been provided for indigenous people living off reserve, for all the costs linked to COVID-19. Do you believe that is even remotely enough, or are we repeating the errors of the past?
Thank you very much for responding to these questions.
Perry Bellegarde
View Perry Bellegarde Profile
Perry Bellegarde
2020-04-08 15:32
Thank you, Mr. Julian, for the questions.
To the first question regarding the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, I have been in contact with Jonathan Vance. He's targeting not only the 96 first nations communities but the Inuit communities as well. We had one case in Eabametoong First Nation in northern Ontario. Chief Harvey Yesno has made the request for support, in terms of hospitals, to get up there. It's a community of about 1,600. I would encourage the Canadian Forces to make sure they have their plans in place to deal with the 96 first nations territories when this COVID-19 does hit, and that they be ready to go into action on a moment's notice to get up there before things spread drastically.
We did say, on the second point about the doctors and nurses, there are no hospitals in the north. They have nursing stations and they're inadequately staffed already. With COVID-19 and the cases coming forward, there is going to be a surge or an increased demand for proper health care, for nurses and doctors to go up there. I would encourage all levels of government, federal and provincial, to start doing the emergency planning to make sure that need is addressed.
Regarding the CERB, the universal benefit for all, I think at some point that should be investigated further to look at the pros and cons of that, because there are a lot of people who are going to be falling through the cracks regarding the CERB that was talked about initially.
For the $15 million for the off-reserve people, the question was whether it is enough. Of course it's not enough. We have 50% of our people who reside in urban centres, in terms of access to proper health care, issues with rent, issues of food security, all of the above. That's something that has to be kept in mind going forward.
Since this is the finance committee, I would make this last comment regarding the long term, and again stress that once COVID-19 is finished and it mellows out again, everybody needs to get their heads around some sort of economic development advisory team to kick-start the economy with the involvement of first nations people. We have to start thinking about that down the road. Yes, we're dealing with COVID-19 and the immediate health care needs and crisis right now, but we have to start thinking long term as well about how to kick-start the economy in a way that benefits all Canadian people, including first nations, Métis and Inuit.
David Chartrand
View David Chartrand Profile
David Chartrand
2020-04-08 15:35
Thank you for the question, Mr. Julian. I'll keep it short.
Thank you for inquiring about the Métis. There are over 400,000 of us, so I was hoping somebody would ask a question about the Métis people.
Clearly we're not requiring or asking for the military right now. We're creating our own plans as we move forward. One of the things that should be specified very clearly is that we don't have nursing stations. We do not have clinics in any capacity in our villages. We have zero because we're still caught in this limbo between two jurisdictions in terms of who's responsible. As I said, we still pay billions in taxes but nobody seems to take heed of that and worry about us.
The matter you raised regarding the emergency benefits, it's a matter we should all look at again one more time.
On the $15 million, I'll follow what Perry Bellegarde said. Even in Manitoba right now, we've just decided on our own that for the $7 million we got, we're giving friendship centres half a million in Manitoba. We're also giving homeless shelters resources from our $7 million, on our own. We've opened our own pandemic emergency. We own three construction camps and we've now turned them into hospitalization for potential utilization for major pandemics, not just for us but for all Manitobans in the event they need it.
We also have isolation units we purchased from British Columbia that are coming in. Regarding mobility, we've also contacted the school divisions to see if we can use gymnasiums in the event it does go out of hand in our villages. We have big villages everywhere. We're connected right next door to reserves all across western Canada, but we do not have the same benefits, nor do we have any nurses or clinics.
We're on our own right now, and that's an unfortunate situation. As a Canadian, I feel very disappointed in our country right now on this. Why do the Métis have to stand for themselves always on their own? As I said, nobody hesitates to look for our taxes, both provincially and federally, when it comes to paying taxes.
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