THE STANDING SENATE COMMITTEE ON ABORIGINAL PEOPLES
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Wednesday, November 22, 2017
The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples is meeting today at 6:45 p.m., pursuant to Article 12-13 of the Rules of the Senate, to hold an organization meeting.
[Translation]
Mark Palmer, Clerk of the Committee: Honourable Senators, I see a quorum. Pursuant to the Order of the Senate of November 7, 2017, there is a vacancy in the chair.
[English]
As clerk of your committee, it is therefore my duty to preside over the election of the chair. I am ready to receive a motion to that effect.
Senator Patterson: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. I’d like to nominate Senator Lillian Dyck to be Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples.
Mr. Palmer: Are there any other nominations?
Senator Raine: I second her for chair.
Mr. Palmer: It is moved by the Honourable Senator Patterson that the Honourable Senator Dyck do take the chair of the committee.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Mr. Palmer: I declare the motion carried.
Senator Lillian Eva Dyck (Chair) in the chair.
The Chair: Thank you, senators.
Before we continue with the elections, I think we should take a moment to recognize the loss of our dear friend and colleague Senator Tobias Enverga, who sat around this table not that long ago. I’m not quite sure how many years he was on the committee, but he was definitely a stalwart member. We could always count on him to be here and to ask really good questions. Maybe we’ll just take a few seconds to think about him. Today I was very happy to see the roses in his chair. It was very moving. We’ll take a moment of silence.
[Moment of silence.]
The Chair: We now turn to election of the deputy chair.
Honourable senators, pursuant to the motion adopted by the Senate on November 7, 2017, I am ready to proceed to the election of a deputy chair. I am now ready to receive a nomination for a deputy chair.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: I nominate Senator Tannas.
The Chair: Thank you. Is there a seconder? Senator Pate.
It is moved by the Honourable Senator Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, seconded by the Honourable Senator Kim Pate, that the Honourable Senator Scott Tannas be deputy chair of this committee.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: I declare the motion carried. Congratulations.
You have copies of the next motion that the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be composed of the chair, the deputy chair and one other member of the committee to be designated after the usual consultation, and that the subcommittee be empowered to make decisions on behalf of the committee with respect to its agenda, to invite witnesses and to schedule hearings.
We need a mover.
It was moved by the Honourable Senator Scott Tannas. We don’t need a seconder for this.
Is it agreed that the motion be passed?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Thank you, senators. That’s it. We are done for the evening.
Senator Raine: Because we are all here, perhaps we have 10 or 15 minutes to discuss the study we’re doing. I’m having a bit of trouble, and I’d like some guidance on how to describe the study, where we’re at and where we’re going with it.
I think we’re all seized with its importance and we understand it, but it’s hard to explain it to other people. I am wondering if anybody has any good words.
The Chair: Next Tuesday we are actually to have a committee meeting to do just that.
Senator Raine: Will it be an in camera meeting?
The Chair: I guess it would be in camera. Steering has met several times to discuss phase 2 and the types of questions senators could ask. We will do that next Tuesday to get everybody up to the same speed.
Senator Raine: It’s how to describe it because it would be great to engage a greater interest in it.
The Chair: Yes. We will do that on Tuesday.
Senator Raine: We need poetic language.
Senator Patterson: If I may, Madam Chair, that’s a very good point.
Having participated in those steering discussions, we actually had several long meetings about the next phase. I think they were productive meetings. Will we be able to circulate, in advance, the results of our work?
The Chair: I believe so. The analysts will have done a summary. I don’t know when you can send it out. Perhaps you could get it out this week so people can look at it ahead of time, of course. That would be most helpful.
Senator Patterson: There are suggested questions that we’ve worked hard on for the public, the fact-finding trips that we’re going on, and quite a lot of thoughtful discussion about how we move forward. We’ve had almost 50 meetings on the easy part. I shouldn’t say that.
It has been very enlightening, but we mostly looked back in those meetings. How do we build on that to move forward?
The Chair: As we grapple with the unknown.
Senator Patterson: It’s a very timely question.
It’s funny; I was invited by the Rotary Club in my community to give a talk on the nation-to-nation relationship, which they amazingly heard we were studying. I was struggling with the very same questions about how to pitch what we’re doing to regular people who haven’t necessarily given it a lot of thought but who care. Maybe I’ll circulate my comments.
The Chair: Yes, that sounds like a good idea. You can lead us off in the discussion.
Senator Patterson: Unofficially. I think the Inuit have lessons to offer in some respects, so I drew on that, but you are right.
Senator Raine: It’s hard to describe, because we are not going out and saying this is what you should do. We want to send out a message on who we want to hear from, on what and on why.
Senator Tannas: That has been the challenge. I hope we will bring a plan that you can say if it’s not all the way there, it is a good way there, and we can have a discussion.
Will we extend the communications plan? They have come up with some pretty unique ideas to engage such a wide group. We hadn’t even thought of what those bright kids down there had thought of.
The Chair: We had thought that we would use the youth group as our first go-round to experiment and see if it works and tweak it as necessary.
It really is an experimental pilot. We’ll probably need to alter it as we go along. It’s something we’ve never done before, and I don’t think any other committee has done it either. It’s a learning experience for all of us.
Are there any other questions or comments?
Senator Patterson: Madam Chair, may I say it has been a privilege working with you. I’m pleased that the committee has been reconstituted with a solid continuum of committed members and yourself and Senator Tannas having been on the steering committee. I’m really happy that the reconstitution of our committee has not been disrupted.
I look forward to working with you and all of the members of the committee as we go forward on this very important study. It's really exciting but it's risky. I hope we will break new ground and influence the government, which is our ultimate objective.
I look forward to working with all of you. I’m glad to see almost everyone is back here again.
The Chair: For quite a few years our committee has had a good history of influencing government action. Thank you for that.
(The committee adjourned.)