QUESTION PERIOD — Aboriginal Peoples
Business of the Committee
June 8, 2022
Honourable senators, I’d like to ask the Chair of the Aboriginal Peoples Committee, Senator Francis, for a potential follow-up to Bill C-15, which follows a trend that the committee has employed in the past to ensure progress on the implementation of important bills where there was a promise to do things after the bill was passed.
Senator, next week marks the one-year anniversary of the passing of the UNDRIP bill, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, and its two-year action plan development timetable. There has not been a lot of public information as to progress achieved.
Is the committee considering convening a public meeting to get an on-the-record update from Minister Lametti, now that 50% of the statutory time has passed and the deadline is steadily approaching?
Thank you for the important question, Senator Tannas. The short answer is yes. The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples is committed to increasing transparency and accountability surrounding the federal implementation of past legislation, including An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which, as you noted, requires that an action plan be developed by June 2023. However, due to a limited number of meetings, this and other work has been deferred to the fall.
Please allow me to give you an overview of what we have done to date and what we hope to do next. This year, the Aboriginal Peoples Committee drew attention to the priorities and needs of Indigenous women and girls. We did so by reviewing the federal implementation of the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which was released three years ago last Friday, as well as An Act to amend the Indian Act in response to the Superior Court of Quebec decision in Descheneaux c. Canada, which claimed to remove all gender-based discrimination in the Indian Act relating to registration. We hope to table reports on these two important topics this month.
In the fall, the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples intends to review the federal implementation of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls with a targeted study. In addition, we will focus on An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, An Act respecting cannabis and to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, An Act respecting Indigenous languages and An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families.
In the fall, we will invite Minister Lametti, and others, to appear during public meetings to provide updates on each of these laws.
Honourable senators, allow me to thank the members of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, including Senators Christmas and Patterson, who are in steering, for their hard work over the past months.
I hope in September we will be able to meet twice a week to make serious progress towards our ambitious and urgent agenda. Thank you, Senator Tannas, again for the question.
