Summary:
Legislation to create a National Council for Reconciliation was tabled in June 2022. The council has not yet released a report to which the prime minister could respond.
The Call to Action:
We call upon the Prime Minister of Canada to formally respond to the report of the National Council for Reconciliation by issuing an annual “State of Aboriginal Peoples” report, which would outline the government’s plans for advancing the cause of reconciliation.
Analysis:
On June 22, 2022, the federal government tabled Bill C-29, An Act to provide for the establishment of a national council for reconciliation, in the House of Commons.
The bill would establish an independent, non-partisan council that would report annually to Parliament on the state of reconciliation and make recommendations to all levels of government and Canadian society.
As the council has not released a report yet, the Prime Minister of Canada has not responded with a “State of Aboriginal Peoples” report.
Under the bill, the minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and the transitional committee would select most of the nine to 13 directors for the oversight body on four-year terms.
The three national Indigenous organizations — Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Métis National Council and the Assembly of First Nations — would also select a director each.
Two-thirds of the council must be Indigenous, under the proposed legislation.
In January 2022, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) announced the establishment of a transitional committee: Wilton Littlechild, Mitch Case, Edith Cloutier, Rosemary Cooper and Mike DeGagne.
The setting up of a transitional committee was one of the recommendations of a 2018 final report by a government-appointed interim board.
The 2019 federal budget pledged to provide $126.5 million in 2020–21 to establish the National Council for Reconciliation and endow it with initial operating capital.