QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Indigenous Services—Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario
Indian Status Card Applications
November 24, 2022
Welcome, minister. On behalf of Senator Pat Duncan, I want to ask the following question:
You have an understanding of health care, and with your current responsibilities of Indigenous Services, your mandate letter includes a whole-of-government approach.
Status First Nations can be identified through provincial-territorial health care numbers. Why is assisting the renewal of status cards through Indigenous Services at such a bottleneck and causing such difficulty for First Nations? Why have we not seen quantifiable improvements after the millions you have spent to improve the system?
Thank you very much.
I agree. This is a complaint that I hear about. I would say it’s the bread and butter, in some ways, of front-line work for members of Parliament, because when someone cannot get the renewal of their status card, of course, it creates all sorts of challenges for them.
Our government, as you note, has invested more money to increase the efficiency of status card renewal. I have asked and directed the department to look at automated ways to do this. I think part of the challenge is that it is a very laborious process that requires increasing numbers of individuals. Of course, as we work to amend some of the systemic discrimination in the Indian Act — I know that a number of senators have worked extensively on this — that means even more people seeking status cards.
This is a direction I have given the department — to look at ways we can use some automated process. I’m no tech expert, but certainly some way to facilitate a faster process that allows for people to get the critical information they need.
