QUESTION PERIOD — Indigenous Services
Indian Act
October 28, 2025
Welcome, minister.
While Bill S-2 is a small step forward to remedy one of the many inequities still contained in the Indian Act, our committee’s study has been loud and clear. We cannot wait any longer to address the second-generation cut-off. How can you justify passing Bill S-2 when it brings the Nicholas litigants into the very same discriminatory provisions effectively perpetuating a continued cycle of litigation for future generations, who will face the same inequities?
Thank you.
[Editor’s Note: The minister spoke in an Indigenous language.]
Thank you for asking the question.
It’s really a pleasure for me to be here today. I want to speak about Bill S-2. I want to ensure that the 3,500 individuals who are facing enfranchisement will have that barrier to enrollment lifted for them. I have been very committed to this process. I’ve asked my deputy minister to ensure that those individuals whom she has identified will be responded to with immediacy. That is really my first and primary concern for Bill S-2.
I know that there has been a lot of work done by the Senate on looking at the second-generation amendment. I just want to point to one of the items that you raised, which is litigation. It is my duty as minister to consult community. If I try to bypass that process, the question of litigation will be more extensive than is disclosed in this process — or identified in this process, I should say.
I’m a minister who is there to ensure that I work with the communities that I’m offering a service to. For me, first and foremost, respecting the duty to consult, also as a former Indigenous leader, is the criterion that I will uphold in my work.
Although your government’s intentions may be noble, its approach has been piecemeal and reactionary, acting only after the courts compel change. Between each round of litigation, we hear renewed promises to consult and collaborate, only for the cycle to repeat. Consulting has occurred for over 30 years. What will the consultation be about?
Thank you for that follow-up question.
I really want to ensure that the importance of the consultation process — in respect to free, prior and informed consent, or FPIC, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP — is clearly understood by the Senate in my response.
In 2023, we launched a process to ensure that a solution determined by the community is identified. It will come back to the ministry, where we will do a legal test for viability. We will go back to the community and consult on the outcomes of legal viability. That is what consultation is. “Consultation” means working with our partners so that they can define what the outcome is for their best interests.
