CANADA VOLUME 135 S NUMBER 190 S 1st SESSION S 36th PARLIAMENT OFFICIAL REPORT (HANSARD) Friday, March 5, 1999 Speaker: The Honourable Gilbert Parent CONTENTS (Table of Contents appears at back of this issue.) All parliamentary publications are available on the ``Parliamentary Internet Parlementaire'' at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca 12481 HOUSE OF COMMONS Friday, March 5, 1999 The House met at 10 a.m. As I said, it is important from my point of view to put into context the importance of Bill C-49 and the contribution that it will _______________ make to ensuring a commitment which this government has to work with first nations to build self-reliance and to provide first Prayers nations the opportunity to have the social and economic control _______________ that they need to have to better their lives within the community and the lives of their community members. GOVERNMENT ORDERS Second, if I have the time I would like to explore some of the issues that have been raised in the last few days with respect to Bill D (1000 ) C-49. I anticipate that I will be able to do that. If not, I know my parliamentary secretary will speak to some of those issues. [English] First and foremost, let us consider the context in which Bill C-49 FIRST NATIONS LAND MANAGEMENT ACT finds itself. In this regard I would like to remind the House about Hon. Jane Stewart (Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern the fact that the primary relationship that I as minister of Indian Development, Lib.) moved that Bill C-49, an act providing for the affairs and the Government of Canada has with first nations is ratification and the bringing into effect of the framework agree- through the Indian Act. ment on first nation land management, be read the third time and passed. Over the course of the last couple of years, as I have appreciated She said: Mr. Speaker, may I request at the outset that you allow my role as minister of Indian affairs, I have found the Indian Act to me to share my time with the parliamentary secretary for Indian be paternalistic, or maternalistic in the sense that I am the minister affairs. currently. The way this legislation overlays first nations is quite extraordinary. I have the responsibility to tell first nations how to D (1005 ) develop their lands, what they can do with their reserve lands, these lands which have been set aside for them. I have to approve I am pleased to rise in debate at third and final reading of Bill whether there can be economic development, who can build where, C-49, the first nations land management act. what conservation opportunities can be implemented. I have been following this debate very carefully. As a result, there are a couple of things that I would like to talk about today. In the Indian Act I am the one who decides and approves the will of individual first nations. I am the one, in providing funds to first First, I would like to ensure that the House appreciates the nations, who says ‘‘Yes, you can have so much money for this context in which Bill C-49 finds itself. I want the House to particular undertaking. You can have so much money for that. You appreciate how significant— can have so much money for this’’. The minister of Indian affairs The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland): Order, please. I am has considerable and complete control over the activities that occur sorry that I must interrupt the hon. minister, however, on the first on first nations. 40 minute time slot we have to have consent to split the time. To me it is inappropriate. It is antiquated. It is not allowing the Is there consent that the time on the first 40 minute slot be split? communities to use the resources that are truly theirs for the benefit Some hon. members: Agreed. of the people in those communities. The Acting Speaker (Mr. McClelland): I apologize for the We have to ask: Why do we not change the Indian Act? I remind interruption. the House that my predecessor attempted to do that. He attempted Hon. Jane Stewart: Mr. Speaker, I appreciate and thank my to amend the Indian Act in a very substantive way. But first nations colleagues for their consent. resisted. They resisted it as a unilateral action made on the part of 12482 COMMONS DEBATES March 5, 1999 Government Orders the crown to interfere with the existing relationship, despite the Bill C-49 is a step in that direction, a step which allows us, at fact that they knew the Indian Act was so controlling. least for those 14 first nations, to start to break apart this paternalis- tic relationship, not in a holus-bolus, free wheeling way, but in a controlled way as outlined in the bill, which will take us a certain If we explore why that was the reaction, we come to understand degree and allow us the opportunity to test this. We have to review that first nations see the Indian Act really as their structural the bill after four years to see how progress is being made before relationship, which goes back to the fundamental issue of aborigi- we can extend it to other first nations which also want to be nal rights. All in this House appreciate, I know, that in section 35 of considered. It is a legitimate step that will help us make progress. our Constitution, the highest law of our land, aboriginal rights are To me this is fundamental in the commitment that I have to work identified and protected. These are rights that are not better than yours or mine as non-aboriginal people, but they are different and with first nations and to find ways and means of allowing them the fundamentally go back to our belief that the first people of this opportunity they need to really do what is most important, and that nation have rights that are theirs by virtue of the fact that they is to change the social reality of their demographics. predated us in this great country. It is the Indian Act that has created and sustained that cyclical For first nations they see that connection to those rights which, welfare relationship, that one way relationship that has kept quite frankly, we have resisted, over and over again over the course aboriginal people from engaging fully in the wealth, resources and of our relationship, in clarifying or at least somehow protecting strength that we know to be ours in Canada. I encourage and ask through the Indian Act, this paternalistic piece of legislation. hon. members to consider this bill in the context of that and to see that these are important first steps which will truly make a difference. D (1010 ) I want to speak to some of the specific issues that have been More and more on this side of the House we are explaining and raised over the course of the last few days. Let us look at the issue encouraging our support for aboriginal rights. We are seeing those of matrimonial property. Yes, we are talking about lands. Yes, aboriginal rights reconciled in a modern Canada through such women have to have an opportunity to have access to those lands things as the negotiation of the treaty in the Nisga’a lands in after a marital breakdown. I remind the House that Bill C-75 which northwestern British Columbia and in other undertakings. There is was presented previously in this parliament was the first nations an easing and an increasing interest and demand from first nations land management act. That bill did not pass. When I became to deal with the Indian Act and to find ways and means of allowing Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development women came first nations the authority they need to have as legitimate entities to to talk to me about the importance of including matrimonial make decisions in their communities on behalf of the people of property. I believed they were right. I would remind the House that their communities. there is nothing in the Indian Act which accommodates matrimo- nial property. Bill C-49 is one tool which allows us to take some small steps in this regard. Bill C-49 is a product of over 10 years of work. It has In Bill C-49 we have included the requirement that the land developed into a partnership among 14 first nations and the codes must include the opportunity and the reality in the provisions Government of Canada to explore, in one particular area of the for matrimonial property to implemented. This will happen in Indian Act, the aspect of land management, how we could restore consultation within the communities. The code has to be developed jurisdiction to first nations. Working together, those 14 first nations in consultation. It has to be ratified and verified before it can be and the Government of Canada have prepared legislation that will proclaimed. There is a system. allow me to relinquish the authorities that I have under the Indian Act to control the lands of those 14 first nations and to give it to them in a legitimate, organized and controlled fashion. It is called D Bill C-49 and it is tremendously important. (1015 ) In the context of Bill C-49, 14 first nations in the provinces of This gives the first opportunity for women at least in those 14 British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick will first nations to have access to legislation that will allow for have the authority to make decisions on how their land is devel- matrimonial property to be considered.