Dec 5, 2018 – Ottawa ON

Good morning. Kwe. Aaniin. I want to start by acknowledging we are gathered here on the unceded Algonquin territory. I want to particularly give thanks to the Algonquin people for the privilege of gathering in this place. I want to acknowledge all the Elders who are here, the eagle feather, the eagle staff, the drum and of course in particular I want to acknowledge Elmer Courchene who I didn't know as well as many of you but he was with us at many meetings when I met particularly with the executive of the AFN.

I was the recipient of many wise words from him and his prayers. I want to acknowledge his family and we'll continue to ask you to help him on his journey and to support us as we deal with a time of grief for all of us. I am not very good at hiding my emotions so you'll forgive me if I'm not totally together this morning.

I want to thank all of the Elders who are helping us at this time of grief and acknowledge many dignitaries who are here, all chiefs and proxies. It's lovely to see so many of you. Thank you for making the journey to come here. I see Parliamentarians in the room. There are many of you who dedicate your lives to making this country a better place. I thank you for gathering at this important meeting today.

It's always a pleasure to be at the Special Chiefs Assembly. I'm going to focus on something that Regional Chief Hart talked about, the little ones. I wanted to focus my comments this morning on the issue of children and families. I'll spend time at the end talking about other infrastructure related issues like water and housing. Let's start with the children because as Regional Chief Hart said, that's where Elmer would have wanted us to focus.

It's something that all of us are very focused on. What are we doing for the children? Some of you know that last fall the National Chief and I made an announcement. We had a gathering on the steps of Parliament Hill. The National Chief and I were there with Cindy Blackstock talking about what's going on with children, your children in this country.

On that day I said we are experiencing a humanitarian crisis. Some people mocked me for saying that but I started to hear from chiefs. I started to hear from mothers and grandmothers and Elders. I believe even Elder Elmer acknowledged what I said on that, and he said you're right. This is a humanitarian crisis.

I have said this before and others have acknowledged that every single day in this country on our watch, while we are leaders, we know that someone is walking into the home of one of your people or walking into a hospital room where a young woman has given birth and they are taking that child away. The reasons they are taking that child away are almost always the most common reason is something they call neglect.

They call neglect, as if they are blaming that young mother or the father or family. What that neglect is, is the neglect of our society. It's our society who has placed that family in a position of poverty, of inadequate housing, sometimes health issues of the parents or of the child. That child is separated from their family. We all know this is a part of an ongoing legacy in this country, the legacy of colonialism, the legacy of domination and assimilation, and government policies like residential schools and the 60's scoop.

These children that are separated from you, from your community and your families, and the National Chief always says – and nobody has ever argued with him when he gives the statistic out – he says there are about 40,000 First Nations children in care across this country. We don't know the right number but that's approximately how many there are. They are the most vulnerable children in our country.

Our country needs to listen to the voices of those children but their voices are barely audible above all the noise that's going on in society, all the other things happening in the media. The voices of those children can barely be heard. I know you want to raise those voices today.

This problem is getting worse not better. There are more First Nations children in care now than there were children in residential schools at the height of that discriminatory policy. I don't know how many of you were alive in 1959, but in 1959 – I had my department do some analysis to look back: they said in 1959 the number of First Nations kids in care, if you looked at all of the kids in care, was only 1% First Nations. Then things started to change through the 1960's. By the end of the 60's there were 30% or 40% of the kids in care who were Indigenous, largely First Nations.

Now the number as best we can tell is about 52% across the country of the children in care are Indigenous. In some of your provinces – Manitoba notoriously has the worst statistics – 87%. Saskatchewan is not far behind, very high across this entire country. Studies show those children in care may live with anywhere on average from 3 to 13 different families over their childhood.

I don't need to tell you this. You know all this. You have experienced this crisis in very direct ways. I have heard from you. I have heard you talk about your own children having been taken, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews. I've heard your own experiences, many of you or your parents survivors of residential schools. Some of you have told me you were part of the 60's scoop.

Somehow and often at great cost and against all odds you got back home, and more than that, you became leaders of your communities. You have used that pain inflicted on you for a good purpose, to say you don't want that to happen to your children or the children of your community. You are leading, and I honour you who have turned your pain into power. I honour survival and I want to continue to learn from you.

Those children are on a dangerous path. We have to acknowledge the path they are on. We know where that leads. We know that more than half of people on the streets of our cities – Winnipeg did a study this year – more than half of the homeless people in Winnipeg were children who grew up in care. Of them the majority went out to the streets, were put out on the streets, within a month of aging out of care. That's the path these kids are on. They are those who will become amongst missing persons. They are those who end up entangled in the criminal justice system and incarceration. They are those who try to ease their pain through substance use that can become problematic and dangerous.

They become victims of human trafficking, of suicide and of homicide. Children raised in care are more likely to be poor as adults. They are part of an intergenerational cycle of disadvantage. If we, collectively, can find a way for those children not to be put on that path in the first place there will be enormous social benefits not just for those children and their families but for the whole country.

We announced last year at this meeting that we were going to host an emergency meeting. We did that and many of you joined us in January where we made commitments together, and the federal government made commitments to six points of action we're working on together. The Assembly of First Nations has taken this issue and played an incredible leadership role.

At your Special Chiefs Assembly where I joined you last May across the river, you passed a resolution and said there should be work on this in a number of ways including legislation. We have been working together on that very actively over the last number of months, in a spirit of co-development, because you are the ones who know what that legislation should say and how it should impact your communities.

My department has been working on this as well. We hosted 65 sessions across the country, more than 2,000 participants. Some of you were part of those sessions. We had Elders at our meetings. We listened to grandmothers, women's councils, youth. Particularly I raise up the youth who have been in care themselves, amazing young people who know better than any of us how the system has disadvantaged them and how we can change it.

I've gathered with you on the basis of treaty, met with treaty nations across the country. We've talked about what a treaty-based process should look like as we undertake the reformation of child and family services in this country. We've met as national organizations, regional organizations, sub-regional organizations, had amazing meeting with many of the self-governing First Nations, some of whom are doing extraordinary work on the issue of child and family services.

I've met with Ministers of provinces and territories to let them know the work we are doing. They have to be part of it. We've met with agencies and child welfare experts and have listened to some very good advice about the values that are essential, about your traditions – the wonderful traditions you've taught me about – your cultural practices. I've heard from the youth about their lived experiences and what it was like to live in up to 14 different foster homes.

We've listened to academic research – there are some great academics across the country. Your concerns – there are many common ones that are raised over and over again. All of this was fed into the process of the reference group you heard us talking about. Regional Chief Hart referred to it yesterday and others to advise the government on policy options.

We have collectively sensed a movement in the direction of going forward with federal legislation, and last Friday I joined the National Chief as we confirmed together there will be co-developed federal legislation. The Prime Minister announced yesterday it will be introduced in January. We will have to work together on this. We won't all think the same but there are many things on which we agree.

The provinces and territories may be anxious about this, but we will work with them because they all know how important this is. We will work with them on the implementation of this proposed legislation.

What will the legislation do? You've heard about it but I'll reiterate. There are two broad buckets of things it will do. One, is it will establish in federal law those principles you told us about, principles like the best interest of the child, the rights of the child and family, the importance of families being together.

If parents are not able to take care of their children we need to find ways to support aunties and uncles and Nokomis and Kokomis to be able to care for their grandchildren as so many of you have done. We will clarify the essential importance of cultural continuity. A child should never be torn away from their culture.

The principle of substantive equality, that I have heard from so many of you, and the principle of non-discrimination – that you can't discriminate against a child because its parents are poor or they don't have a house that's big enough. You find a way to fix those challenges. You don't take the child away.

The second big thing the legislation will do, and probably what I heard most loudly and clearly from you, is it will affirm the rights that are already yours, laid down in international law, in the Constitution and in treaties. The right to self-determination on child and family services – that it will open that space to exercise the jurisdiction that is rightfully yours. It will open that space to exercise the jurisdiction that is already rightfully yours.

This work has been guided by amazing bodies of work like the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which speaks at length on child and family services; the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child; the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and of course the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

I said last week that Canadians should not underestimate the importance of this piece of legislation. It doesn't get the same kind of fanfare and media coverage that other things have. This is really important work we're doing together. I don't think any of us are naïve. We don't think a piece of legislation will all by itself turn the tide on what's going on in this country but I believe that it can be a turning point.

I believe it can be a clarion call, a call across the nation to say, "No more!" No more scooping First Nations children from their families and communities, no more tearing apart your families, no more lost children who don't know their language, their culture, their heritage. I believe that legislation coupled with all the other work we are doing together on child and family services reform can draw a line in the sands of time.

I look forward to continuing the work with you together.

Let's move on to another topic briefly before we have some interaction. These are not unrelated. Infrastructure – I heard from you over and over again if we don't have infrastructure we can't keep our children. If we don't have houses they take our children away. We are working together on the enormous infrastructure gaps that exist, on issues like access to clean water.

The Prime Minister spoke about this yesterday – that there is progress being made with you under your leadership. We are on track with the Prime Minister's commitment that we need to make sure that all long term drinking water advisories for public systems on reserve are lifted by March 2021. We have made great progress together. 75 of those drinking water advisories have been lifted. There are 66 to go. We're more than halfway there.

We have expanded the scope. Some of you have received calls about this in your community and have thanked us for this, because we realize that our initial work didn't take into account all of the systems that needed to be addressed. We're monitoring more systems, trying to prevent at risk systems because we know those exist as well. At last count I'm told in the department that there are 364 projects – water and wastewater projects – either underway or completed across the country in 280 First Nations communities. That's about half of you have got water projects you've done or are underway. There are dozens of additional initiatives in areas like water operator training.

The National Chief and I are very cognizant of the work that needs to be done on the Safe Drinking Water Act. I want to acknowledge we are working on that together, working with you to decide the course of action about federal legislation to address the Safe Drinking Water Act. I look forward to further feedback and interaction on that. There is an AFN-led engagement series of sessions that are guiding us in this critical area.

I'll touch briefly on housing. We can't talk about children without talking about housing. I know this is a critical concern. I don't think I ever have a meeting with chiefs where housing isn't raised. It is deeply linked to health and education and child welfare.

There has been progress made. I'm happy to say we have over the last three years added 10,000 homes that are either built or have had major renovations. There are more than 4,000 others where the work is underway. There is progress. We are also making progress on the national housing strategy.

We have added money in budgets going back to 2016 and then again in 2017, most recently added $600 million over three years to support not only the building of houses but the co-development of that housing strategy. We are working with the Chiefs' Committee on Housing and Infrastructure to make sure there is an effective long-term approach that will close the gap.

I'm particularly looking forward to receiving the findings of the data collection group. There's a joint working group on data collection to get a better picture of how big the gaps are and where they exist.

Houses are linked to family reunification. I think about a visit in Dakota Plains in Manitoba when I went to see some of the homes built out of the Budget 2016 initiative. I remember a beautiful woman named Vanessa who told me that because of that home she had (and Dakota Plains isn't far from Winnipeg) but she said she didn't have a place for her kids to be with her. She had a grown son who was living on the streets in Winnipeg. She said because I got the home now my son came home. He had a place to be with me. That home was more than a building. It was a way to reunify a family.

There's more work to be done. I am eager to do work on Additions to Reserve. I love every day that I get to sign off on another addition to reserve. We are working to speed up that process including some of the legislative amendments currently making their way through the parliamentary process to speed up Additions to Reserve.

We have a long way to go together to close the gaps, whether it be in child and family services or water or infrastructure. It is never fast enough. I am impatient like you, but we have made important steps. I hope we have improved how government works together and what our nation-to-nation relationship looks like.

I think back on what Elder Elmer said to me at one of the AFN executive meetings. Like the National Chief said, he always had a way of saying hard things in the most kind and gentle way. I will never forget, because I wrote it down when he said it to me, he said one day, "Minister, we like your words but words do not feed a table." Words do not feed a table. I will never forget that.

Today I thank Elmer for giving me that advice and helping me to understand how every promise needs to be backed up by action and funding It needs to be backed up by that deep work that Minister Bennett is working on with you around affirming rights and implementing rights. More work to address the day to day realities. I assure you that as long as I have the privilege of serving in this role I will work every day to serve you in that capacity.

I mostly want to say I know it's you that are doing the hard work. I want to thank you for the amazing work you're doing on all of the areas that are priorities for our department. I think about child and family services, about the amazing work that Kupki Christian has done and I will never forget the ceremony we had together when we signed an MOU with the Secwepemc Nation. He made sure I was properly brushed off and led on my journey back to Ottawa.

I give a shout out to the work of places like the First Nations Family Advocate Office in Winnipeg that's bringing families back together, hundreds of children returned to their homes. I raise my hands to them.

I think about the work on education happening across this country, the fantastic signing ceremony we had in Maskwacis, Alberta. I wish you could all have been there. It was a beautiful ceremony when the Maskwacîs Education Agreement was signed making sure that education authority was going to go forward. I think about places like the beautiful Atikamekw Community of Wemotaci in Quebec when I got to hear from students themselves about what they wanted in education. I also salute the fantastic work of the Mi'kmaq Kina'matnewey – have I got that right? – the amazing education authority in Nova Scotia.

On health I think about Choose Life, the fantastic program designed by youth in Nishnawbe Aski Nation that is literally saving lives. I think about the work in Saskatchewan on health around the Know Your Status campaign where chiefs like the Chief Larry Ahenakew, who is doing incredible work leading his community and the whole province in their Know Your Status campaign.

The incredible infrastructure work happening with Wataynikaneyap Power Corporation in Northern Ontario where Pikangikum is about to get lit up, connected for the first time to clean hydroelectric power. I think about the work you're doing in housing and not just the same old, same old.

I'll never forget my visit to Skeetchestn BC when I got to see the roundhouses being built to restore the traditional housing and so much work being done to build the economic prosperity of your communities. I see from small projects like the amazing community food centre in Eel Ground First Nation that I got to visit, to bigger projects like the new hotel being built in Whitecap Dakota.

Everywhere I go you teach me and inspire me. At Indigenous Services Canada we are committed to listening to you, to learning from you, to supporting you, to working in partnership with you and always striving to be better, to serve you. Thank you.

Chi Miigwetch.