Evidence of meeting #60 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
8:55 a.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
That's not the money I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the $4 billion in infrastructure money for INAC and also the $225 million for housing. Can that flow to the north or is it on-reserve funding?
8:55 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
You are correct that in budget 2017 we received an allocation of $4 billion over 10 years, together with Health and Public Safety, in order to deal with infrastructure needs, including housing. It's also to include within that allocation, yet to be defined, an allocation for Inuit housing.
8:55 a.m.
Liberal
8:55 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Territorial housing is provided through the transfers between the federal government and the territories.
9 a.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
You might have to tell them that, because they're pointing at you guys funding us.
9 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Our commitment is to the Inuit land claim holders.
9 a.m.
Liberal
9 a.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the officials for coming today.
Ss a quick refresher, because I can't remember the numbers off the top of my head, out of the $10.8 billion, how much of it is transfers and how much is for the department?
9 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Out of the $10.8 billion, approximately $950 million is for vote 1. Vote 1 is to be used for about $300-odd million to deal with legal obligations that we have related to residential schools and legal obligations on contaminated sites. The actual amount for the operations of the department under vote 1 is $633 million. That's for salaries and operations.
9 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
That's out of that $10.8 billion.
9 a.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
If I am a band member of—I don't know, I'll throw out a name—Sinixt First Nation in British Columbia, and I want to see the contribution agreement between the Government of Canada and my chief and council, do I have full access to it and the details of the agreement?
9 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
That funding agreement.... We make the funding agreement. It's signed with chief and council, and we do hope that the funding agreement is made available to the community members. That is a document that I believe, in terms of that, we put...that's a public... That should be publicly accessible.
9 a.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
On the specific contribution agreements between the band and the Government of Canada, with regard to the itemization of what they're for, if I were a band member, could I get those details or would I have to go to the chief and council?
9 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I do hope that the governance and accountability between chief and council and their community members will permit that, obviously, to happen first. We want to respect the governance of a community in terms of that happening, and if not, they have recourse to INAC in order to make that request available.
9 a.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
I know there is the issue of audited statements, but I'm talking about the contribution agreements up front. There are significant new dollars, and there is new program funding. There is some with Ontario for youth.
Will that money go to individual bands or tribal councils? If so, is it done with an official Government of Canada announcement? For example, if you decide you're going to fund a lunch program, or in this case, youth employment, are there details so that if I am a band member I know that my band is receiving money for youth employment case management and how much my band is receiving?
Do we do press releases? Do we do announcements?
I guess that's the question at a band level.
9 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Chris, can I turn it over to you with regard to the question related to the youth employment strategy?
9 a.m.
Chris Rainer Director General, Education Branch, Education and Social Development Programs and Partnerships Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I'm not aware of any press releases we have ever done to announce each allocation to each first nation for the youth employment strategy you are referring to. These arrangements, as Paul was saying, were done through the band council in that case. Other programs have delegated that to the tribal council, especially for education delivery services.
9 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
It's proactive disclosure that we do on all grants and contributions, so the public knows.
9 a.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
That is at a generic level.
If the Government of Canada is contributing to the new horizons for seniors program or they're giving $25,000 to the Legion, those things are done via press release, and people in a community know that the Legion is getting $25,000 so it can fix its floors.
What I'm getting at is that a community could receive money for a hot lunch program and the lunch program not be provided, and it would have no idea that it was even getting money for a hot lunch program.
We have a level of transparency that is just not there for the people in communities, and I continue to be very concerned. If I had a child who was going to a school and I knew the government was funding a hot lunch program and my child wasn't getting a hot lunch, I could be holding my chief and council or whoever accountable, but if we do not ensure that information is provided in the same sense as it is for new horizons, or when my community knows it is getting $25,000 to fix floors, we have a real problem with regard to information that is going directly to first nations communities.
9:05 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I understand the question and the issue. I can tell you that we are improving our communications and our reporting processes, particularly in light of the investments from budget 2016-17. One example is that of the infrastructure space which all citizens will be able to access online—it's already on a link on an NRCan geomatics platform—whereby you can tell by community what projects are being invested in across the country. We're moving into the next stage of making it a little bit more interactive with a drill-down to see the description of it so that community members know what monies they are actually getting for the infrastructure enhancements from budget 2016 onwards.
9:05 a.m.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
That's really a small example, but we have $10 billion plus, and community members, it would appear, do not have the ability to easily access or understand what's coming into their communities and what is coming in [Inaudible—Editor]. That's a concern.
9:05 a.m.
Chief Finances, Results and Delivery Officer, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Thank you, Ms. McLeod, for the question.
As part of the new fiscal relationship that this government is committed to, one of the pillars of the negotiations or conversations we're having is actually defining that mutual accountability for first nations at the community level among the chief and council and members and all taxpayers for that money, so we are working on the issue you are raising.
