Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill C-45, An Act to amend the First Nations Fiscal Management Act, to make consequential amendments to other Acts, and to make a clarification relating to another Act.

Rarely does a bill cross our chamber that has received unanimous support in the other place, yet Bill C-45 has done just that. Partisanship has been set aside in recognition of the good work of the organizations this bill purports to expand and in acknowledgement of the important work Canada must still do to reconcile itself with its colonial past.

This bill will expand the roles of the three First Nations Fiscal Management Act institutions: the First Nations Financial Management Board, or FMB; the First Nations Tax Commission, or FNTC; and the First Nations Finance Authority, or FNFA. It will also establish a fourth institution, the First Nations infrastructure institute, or the FNII.

The First Nations Fiscal Management Act — or FMA — institutions are Indigenous-led organizations that aim to provide the resources, administrative tools and guidance to instill confidence in First Nations’ financial management and reporting systems to support economic and community development. The actions of the organizations support economic reconciliation and create pride in Indigenous ownership, nation building and Indigenous individuals’ self-actualization.

We all recognize the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions; to be secure in the enjoyment of their own means of subsistence and development and to engage freely in all their traditional and other economic activities.

Economic reconciliation is an important pillar in overall reconciliation. It represents Canada’s efforts to reverse the archaic and paternalistic Indian Act and its consequences that effectively removed First Nations from the national economy. Indigenous peoples want to address their own issues with their own resources and to return a sense of self-sufficiency and honour that has been stripped away by the paternalistic, archaic and irreparably broken Indian Act.

Reconciliation must be centred on the future of Indigenous peoples, and I am glad we have Indigenous-led organizations like the FMA institutions to lead the way. The FMA is the most successful First-Nations-led example of implementing First Nations jurisdiction through optional legislation, as within 15 years it has grown to the voluntary participation of nearly 300 First Nations from across Canada.

The FMA was founded on four basic principles and objectives that continue to guide policies, standards and proposals for institutional, fiscal and legislative changes.

First, through the First Nation institutionally supported jurisdiction, the FMA provides a framework and process to establish, implement and protect First Nation optional jurisdictions. Jurisdictional space is created for First Nations to occupy with their own legislation supported and protected by the FMA institutions. The FMA institutions provide knowledge, efficiencies, capacity and advocacy that individual First Nations would have difficulty achieving on their own. In this way, the FMA supports effective and applied self-determination for interested First Nations.

Second, the FMA supports First Nation economic growth through a strong First Nation investment climate. This investment climate is characterized by lower costs of doing business; standards to support increased trade and provide certainty; access to long-term capital; sustainable business grade infrastructure; available information to support investment, financial management and administrative capacity; and quality local services at a fair price.

Third, the FMA establishes a revenue-based fiscal relationship like other governments in Canada. Key features include a connection between clear revenue powers and expenditure jurisdictions, incentives for economic development, First Nations institutionally supported systems for transparency, statistics and accountability, and transfers to ensure national service and infrastructure quality standards.

Last, the FMA is an optional process for First Nations. This creates an institutional incentive for motivation and improvement and respects the self-determination of each First Nation.

With respect to the bill, it does several important things. First and foremost, it establishes a fourth institution under the FMA, the First Nations infrastructure institute, or FNII.

First Nations face a staggering infrastructure gap of at least $349.2 billion. Inaction will only make the problem worse, and it’s clear that top-down, government-driven programs have failed to respond to the massive need. At the House committee, Mr. Allan Claxton, Development Board Chair of the FNII, had this to say:

The problems with the current first nation infrastructure systems are well known. Infrastructure on reserves takes too long to develop, costs to much to build and does not last long enough because it’s not built up to the proper standards. This contributes to a series of poor health, social and economic outcomes.

He also said, “High-quality public infrastructure is important for the health and sustainability of our communities.”

The FNII’s mission would be to provide the skills and processes necessary to ensure Indigenous groups can effectively and efficiently plan, procure, own and manage infrastructure on their lands. Through FNII’s team, optional capacity support services would be available to all Indigenous governments and entities, including best practices for maximizing economic benefits not just for First Nations but for regional economies as well.

Bill C-45 also expands the First Nations Tax Commission, the FNTC, to support First Nations that choose to increase their fiscal powers beyond real property taxation. It would also open FNTC to be able to offer services to self-governing First Nations, municipalities and other orders of government.

The legislation would continue expanding and modernizing the services of the FMB, the Financial Management Board, to meet the needs of First Nations and other Indigenous groups and entities. This would be an optional pathway for tribal councils, modern treaty nations and self-governing groups to build their administrative, financial and governance capacity through the risk-managed support of the FMB, as 342 First Nations — 348 expected by the end of the week — have chosen to do. This legislation is a key step to the FMB being able to support innovative projects of collaborative entities such as the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, which is comprised of nine First Nations.

Mr. Harold Calla, Executive Chair of the FMB, summed it up during his testimony thus:

These amendments build on the achievements of Canada’s most successful piece of indigenous-led legislation. A huge part of this success lies in the FMA’s optionality for first nations that choose, on an individual basis by band council resolution, to be scheduled to the act. There are no financial enticements to do so, just an individual nation’s desire to have good financial management that is recognized to meet international standards, to be able to borrow from the First Nations Finance Authority or to levy local revenues to fund first nations government services.

With the passage of these amendments, nations will be able to choose expert advice and support for building and maintaining infrastructure. The optionality of this legislation also provides evidence of its success. Nearly 350 first nations have chosen, one by one, to be scheduled to the FMA. That is over 60% of the first nations that are part of the Indian Act.

The bill will also establish a statistical function within the FNTC and FMB. The socio-economic gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians is a barrier to economic reconciliation. A lack of readily available data and statistics makes the problem worse: Decision makers, such as the chiefs and councils in First Nations governments, do not have access to the kind of information they need to understand the causes, solutions and complexity of the socio-economic gap — and close it. By providing economic and fiscal data, all levels of government will be better informed.

Bill C-45 also would provide First Nations with additional powers to ensure compliance with their local revenue and service laws, such as enabling First Nations to apply to courts of competent jurisdiction for court orders directing persons or entities to comply with their local revenue and services laws and to collect amounts owing to the First Nations under their local revenue laws. It would allow First Nations to use these provisions to enforce all their local revenue laws, not just laws in respect of taxes, charges or fees. First Nations would be empowered to enforce their laws respecting the provision of services, including using “stop work” and “do work” orders and the discontinuance of services.

Finally, changes are proposed that would enable First Nations scheduled to the First Nations FMA to also be signatories to the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management, the FNLM. 

Conservatives have long supported economic self-sufficiency and economic reconciliation as an essential off-ramp from the Indian Act. The 2021 Conservative election platform supported the creation of a First Nations infrastructure institute along the same lines as the one proposed in Bill C-45 and supported the expansion of FMA institutions’ mandates and powers to enhance the work they do in establishing accountability and transparency for First Nations.

Our 2019 Conservative election platform spoke to the importance of Indigenous communities accessing capital for economic development to reduce the socio-economic gap between their Indigenous and other Canadian communities.

As I mentioned earlier, Bill C-45 was passed in the House of Commons with all-party support. Amendments at committee were clarifying in nature and agreed to by the bill’s proponents. I know that the Senate will do its due diligence in scrutinizing Bill C-45, and I hope we will reach a similar conclusion.

It’s time for action, and it’s time to return a sense of self-sufficiency and honour to a people that have had it stripped away by the paternalistic, archaic and irreparably broken Indian Act. It’s time to restore to Indigenous people more control of their land, money and decision making.

Manny Jules, Chief Commissioner of the FNTC, in his closing testimony concluded with this comment:

Your support for these amendments demonstrates that my ancestors were right when they wrote in a letter to the prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in 1910, that by working together we can make each other “great and good.”

Thank you.

Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

(Motion agreed to and bill read second time.)