Summary:
Legislation to create the National Council for Reconciliation was tabled in June 2022. Governments have not yet provided data or annual reports to the council regarding the progress of reconciliation.
The Call to Action:
We call upon all levels of government to provide annual reports or any current data requested by the National Council for Reconciliation so that it can report on the progress towards reconciliation. The reports or data would include, but not be limited to:
i) The number of Aboriginal Children — including Métis and Inuit children — in care, compared with non-Aboriginal children, the reasons for apprehension and the total spending on preventative and care services by child-welfare agencies.
ii) Comparative funding for the education of First Nations children on and off reserves.
iii) The educational and income attainments of Aboriginal peoples in Canada compared with non-Aboriginal people.
iv) Progress on closing the gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in a number of health indicators such as; infant mortality, maternal health, suicide, mental health, addictions, life expectancy, birth rates, infant and child health issues, chronic diseases, illness and injury incidence, and the availability of appropriate health services.
v) Progress on eliminating the over-representation of Aboriginal children in youth custody over the next decade.
vi) Progress on reducing the rate of victim criminalization of Aboriginal people, including data related to homicide and family violence victimization and other crimes.
vii) Progress on reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the justice and correctional systems.
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.
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 transitional committee members: Wilton Littlechild, Mitch Case, Edith Cloutier, Rosemary Cooper and Mike DeGagne.
The setting up of a transitional committee was one of the recommendations of the final report by the interim board. In December 2017, then-CIRNAC Minister Carolyn Bennett appointed an interim board of directors tasked with developing the National Council for Reconciliation. Wilton Littlechild (a former commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) was chair of the interim board.
In June 2018, the Interim Board presented its final report to Bennett in which it laid out its proposed model for the National Council for Reconciliation. It called for an initial five years of funding and the creation of a National Reconciliation Endowment Fund in the amount of $1 billion to provide ongoing operational funds.
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.