QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Indigenous Services—Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario
Devolution of Responsibility
November 24, 2022
I’d like to go back to my questions, minister, with respect to staff — 6,800 full-time employees. We heard about the status card bottleneck. We heard at committee a few days ago that it was taking up to two years to get a simple residential lease transferred.
Indigenous governments need to take up the jurisdiction. They want to take up their jurisdiction. You want them to have it. What is the plan? What does the “stop doing” list look like? How do you get your 6,800 people to back off and start planning an exit from the affairs of Indigenous people?
Thank you very much. The honourable senator is getting at the crux of something that I think is tricky but also important — namely, the transfer of self-determination and control which, ultimately, should result in reduced need from the department’s perspective to micromanage the lives and affairs of Indigenous peoples.
There are some communities on what was called the 10-year block funding approach. They have a commitment of funding for 10 years, an escalator of that funding, predictability and they are managing their own affairs. I will take note of going back to see if it has reduced the need from the department’s perspective to have “staff” working on those files. We want to be there for communities when they need support. However, increasingly communities are saying that they need to have those tools of self‑determination.
I will end on this point, honourable senators. My colleague and my predecessor, Minister Miller, received funding in Budget 2021 for the tools of capacity building for communities in both financial and governance capacity. This is exciting work because there are communities that want to do this and have need of some support to be able to have the tools to get there. I think that is transformational work.
