Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty told hundreds of chiefs in Ottawa Wednesday she is committed to reforming First Nations status under the Indian Act — but she doesn’t agree with changes made by senators to a piece of legislation she once backed.
Speaking during the Assembly of First Nations’ three-day gathering, Gull-Masty said she’s in a unique position as a Cree woman administering a piece of legislation that gives the federal government control over the lives of First Nations peoples. She said she understands the concerns chiefs have with the law in its current form.
Bill S-2, introduced in the Senate with support from the Liberal government, was drafted to eliminate some gender inequities in the Indian Act and allow about 6,000 people to become eligible for First Nations status.
Some senators and Indigenous community leaders said the bill didn’t go far enough.
Senators changed the legislation last month to eliminate what is known as the “second-generation cutoff,” where status can’t be handed down after more than two generations where only one parent has status.
The amended opted instead for a one-parent rule that would allow First Nations status to be transferred to a child if one of their parents is enrolled.
Gull-Masty said she believes “a one-parent solution is one part of the process” of ending discrimination under the Indian Act.
“But it is not one that reflects the uniqueness of who we all are as First Nations here in Canada,” she added.
“I’m also here to express very clearly that I must do the work to offer you more than one solution. I’m here to work with you in community to define that pathway for you — to define and clearly to develop the tools that you need.”
Sen. Paul Prosper, who helped amend the legislation in the Senate’s Indigenous Peoples committee, told the assembled chiefs earlier in the day the witnesses his colleagues heard from as they studied the legislation were almost unanimous on the need to repeal the second-generation cutoff.
He said some politicians see changes to status eligibility as more of a financial concern than anything else, since per capita funding in First Nations would need to increase if more members are recognized by the federal government.
“There is a notion of justice that is deep within our hearts that we must fulfil, not for ourselves, but for our future generations, our communities and our nations,” he said. “Please write, lobby, speak to your local MPs, to the relevant ministers and let them know we will not take this anymore, that we need change and we need change now.”
In a separate media event, a group of Ontario chiefs said Wednesday the federal government should immediately reintroduce the clean drinking water legislation that failed to pass before the election was called last spring.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told the chiefs in Ottawa on Tuesday that new drinking water legislation would be introduced in the spring.
Anishinabek Nation Grand Chief Linda Debassige said delaying it until then is “not acceptable.”
“First Nations have waited too long,” she told a press conference on Parliament Hill.
Gull-Masty said last summer a new water bill would come this fall.
The last version of the clean water bill, C-61, passed second reading and cleared the committee stage in the House of Commons but was not debated at third reading before the 44th Parliament ended for the election. All bills not yet passed when an election is called die on the order paper.
C-61 would have affirmed the inherent right of First Nations to jurisdiction over water — including drinking water and wastewater — set minimum national standards for drinking water and wastewater services on First Nations, and provide funding to meet the minimum requirements set by a drinking water class action settlement reached in 2021.
Debassige, who said she was involved in the development of Bill C-61, added chiefs have heard the government is looking at removing certain protections that were in the former bill.
“We are hearing that the government is looking at removing source water protection out of the legislation. We’re hearing that there will be a removal as it relates to cisterns and wells … the regulations and standards there too,” Debassige said.
The federal government was reporting 38 active long term boil-water advisories on First Nations as of Oct. 15. Twenty-seven of those advisories are in Ontario; the boil water advisory in Neskantaga First Nation has been in place for 30 years.
Neskantaga Chief Gary Quisess said that while the provincial government looks to advance the Ring of Fire mining project on Neskantaga land, people in his community have been for decades using 1.5 litre bottles of water to drink, cook and bathe.
“That’s our homelands, and here we’re treated like Third World. I am in the Third World, and here projects are getting to be pushed upon us,” Quisess said.
“We don’t have to live like this. A lot of developments get benefit from our lands. And here we are suffering for water.”
Access to clean water is among the issues being discussed at the special chiefs assembly this week in Ottawa, along with child welfare reform and Canada’s new major projects push.
Carney promised Tuesday to meet with Coastal First Nations leaders after chiefs voted unanimously to press the government to uphold the B.C. oil tanker ban and withdraw an agreement with Alberta that clears a path for a new oil pipeline.
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