House of Commons Debates

Oral questionMonday June 17, 2002

First Nations Governance Initiative

    Mr. Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the minister of Indian affairs what specific steps he will take to ensure that first nations leadership will participate in the committee hearings on Bill C-61 and not boycott them as they did the first round of consultations.

    The Penner inquiry was a joint committee. As a gesture of goodwill and to ensure the participation of those representatives, will he allow a representative of the Assembly of First Nations to sit as an extraparliamentary member of that committee so that at least first nations will have the assurance that their views will be valued and that they will participate in the committee hearings on Bill C-61?

Hon. Don Boudria (Minister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, this is a very serious issue. Some members have approached me as late as this morning about the budgets of this committee to ensure that there is adequate funding so that a parliamentary committee can review this issue in a very serious way.

    The House leaders of all parties are meeting tomorrow afternoon. If the hon. member has a suggestion about the actual structure of a committee, I am sure that his House leader and I will be glad to discuss this with other colleagues in order to cause the proper House order that we feel collectively is the appropriate way to proceed.