Thank you very much, senator, and thank you for the questions you asked this morning, too. It has been a busy day today, senators. I was at the committee for 40 minutes this morning. Now I have the pleasure to be here with you.

Those are extremely important questions. Honourable senators, this is an extremely important bill that was co-developed within Indigenous nations across the country following vast consultations for two years. With the Inuit, the First Nations, the Metis and representatives from other different groups, we came together with the basis of this bill, which has 12 principles and which recognizes, for the first time, Indigenous languages as a fundamental right based on section 35 of the Constitution. That is important.

The bill also recognizes the importance of advancing UNDRIP, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That is also in the bill, senator. It also mentions stable and long-term funding. Bills don’t normally do that, saying that you have to provide stable and long-term funding ties the hands of the government but that’s also in the bill.

Bill C-91 also creates the office of the commissioner of Indigenous languages. That office will be there to do research at the beginning and to explain to us the state of the different Indigenous languages. What should we do better? Is the funding enough? Is the funding necessary to achieve what we want to do in terms of Indigenous languages?

Honourable senators, those are the fundamental things that are in the bill. Can we improve it? If we can do so, we will. The door is always open to keep the discussion going and to improve it, but we must start now because languages are being lost everywhere. There is not a safe language in our country, honourable senators. They’re all threatened. They’re disappearing. We have to start acting and this bill allows us to start doing so right now.

With the greatest of respect, minister, you spoke about the co-development process and you mentioned the Inuit.

As you know, I’m very concerned that having entered into the co-development process in good faith, Inuit said that the government had failed to give any response to their thoughtful input into what should be in the bill. At one point in August 2018, they were insulted to be offered three pages of the bill in each of three days and asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. They walked away from the co-development table saying that the government had acted in bad faith.

My question to you is about the Inuit language, Inuktut, the healthiest Aboriginal language in Canada that is, nonetheless, eroding. What are you doing to ensure the thoughtful advice and concerns expressed to you and your officials by the Inuit are being reflected in the bill? They say the draft bill reflects none of their concerns.

Thank you, senator, for the question and for your hard work on this file. I noticed that this morning at the committee. Those are tough questions but very important ones. I’m here to answer them to the best of my capacity.

First, everyone was around the table when we did the consultation, including the Inuit, and that process lasted for about two years. There were about 50 different consultations; 20 were led by the government. There were online submissions and all kinds of possibilities for people to give their opinion and advice. This is what constitutes the basis of the bill.

When I say that 12 principles are underlined in this bill, the bill is built on those 12 principles, including the creation of an office of the commissioner. There will be stable and long-term funding. Language rights are finally recognized as fundamental rights, and we are advancing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Those are all things that everyone agreed upon, not only the government, the Metis and First Nations but also the Inuit.

However, the Inuit want to go further. I understand and respect that very much, senator. That’s why I have said from day one — and I said it again this morning — my door is open. It will always be open to keep discussing this, and we are discussing it. I was in Iqaluit two weeks ago and I had many meetings with President Kotierk, her team and different experts who are there. We had very good and very positive discussions about the bill, about next steps, where can we go and what we can do better.

We’re trying to advance together because we want this to happen for all of us, including for Inuit who have been fighting so hard to keep their language and their culture.

I appreciate your reference to principles, minister, but you can’t preserve and enhance an Indigenous language based on principles alone.

The Inuit were involved in the co-development process until they left the table. Following that unfortunate departure, the bill was drafted and presented and is now before the Senate, but you appointed a ministerial special representative to engage with the Inuit on this file, and I thank you for that. Your officials have talked about the possibility of developing a parallel bill which would reflect the unique and happy circumstances of Inuktut being a healthy language, although still struggling.

Your officials also talked to me, when I got a critic’s briefing, that there was the possibility of doing an agreement under the bill according to section 9.

The Inuit are going to lose any leverage to have their concerns reflected in this legislation if it passes without concessions being made to their unique concerns. My question is this: Are you willing to go back to the committee before it finally considers the bill with a report on the results of your ministerial special representative’s work and the discussions which you’ve said are ongoing, including with the Government of Nunavut, on measures that could be incorporated in an agreement under sections 9 and 10 and/or the possibility of a separate bill? Would you let us know what progress you’ve made before we have to make the decision on third reading on the bill?

Thank you, senator. We’ve been open and transparent from day one.

You’re referring to the month of August. At that moment, we had concluded, with all the national groups, what would be the basis of the bill. This is what I had explained before: the principles and the recognition of rights and all of that.

After that, we started conversations on going a step further. This is where we are now. With all due respect, I’m not sure exactly what you mean about walking away from the table, because we are discussing bilaterally with them on a regular basis. As mentioned, I was in Iqaluit two weeks ago. I met with President Kotierk and different representatives from the Inuit organizations in New York when I was at the United Nations to speak on this specific topic.

Every time I, my parliamentary secretary and my staff have the opportunity to keep discussing with them, we do it, because what they want to achieve is fundamental. I understand exactly why they want to go there and I’m with them. We have to make sure it’s possible and that we can deliver. I will never say yes to something I cannot deliver. Parts of what is discussed or requested depend on myself and other ministers from Justice, Indigenous Services and other people.

Before we are able to say yes to something, I have to make sure I can say yes to that. But do we want to go to the same place? Absolutely. How can we get there? That’s what we’re discussing now.

But right at the start, right now, when the bill passes, it also means we are putting in place funding mechanisms so the money flows to the different communities so we can start now by preparing teachers and writing books, dictionaries and doing concrete things so we can preserve and revitalize Indigenous languages, including Inuktut.