Jaime Battiste, a Mi’kmaw MP and member of the Indigenous caucus, says they’ve been dealing with prices around affordability and large areas of poverty for ‘decades, not just years.’Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
The cost of living will be top of mind for Liberal members of Parliament as they prepare to head back to the House of Commons next week, but for their Indigenous caucus, affordability is a long-standing issue.
The Indigenous caucus met on Thursday, kicking off the federal Liberal’s three-day winter retreat during which they are strategizing about their priorities for the upcoming sitting.
As Canadians continue to deal with decades-high inflation along with rising food and fuel costs, Liberal caucus chair Brenda Shanahan said her party’s No. 1 priority is affordability.
But affordability is not often discussed at the Indigenous caucus table, said Jaime Battiste, a Mi’kmaw MP and member of the Indigenous caucus. Instead, they focus on closing the gap between living on and off reserve.
“If you look at (the) situation on reserves, we’ve been dealing with prices around affordability and large areas of poverty for decades, not just years,” said Battiste.
“(We’re) usually talking about things everyday Canadians take for granted. Essential services like having health care in their communities. Essential services like having a policeman in their communities. Essential services like having clean water and infrastructure.”
He said the group is focused on addressing the harms caused by colonization and creating economic prosperity within First Nations communities.
Battiste said the Indigenous caucus will also discuss his party’s proposed gun buyback program to ensure Indigenous hunters are protected under firearms legislation.
The debate over the government’s firearms bill will resume this year amid concerns that it will ban some common hunting rifles.
“Indigenous people have the constitutional right to hunt, and that’s something we’re looking at,” Battiste said.
Other Liberal priorities include building a green economy, addressing climate change and expanding dental-care coverage, as highlighted in the confidence-and-supply agreement with the NDP, Shanahan said.
She said the retreat is critical because the 158 Liberal MPs haven’t got together since before the holidays and it’s time for them to put forward fresh ideas.
“You cannot underestimate what it means to morale and team-building to have people together,” Shanahan said.
The event coincides with the one-year anniversary of the “Freedom Convoy” protests on Saturday. That weeks-long protest began with the arrival of hundreds of vehicles on Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill on Jan. 28 and 29, 2022.
Caucus members attended last year’s winter retreat virtually due to COVID-19, but Shanahan was in Ottawa. While speaking to reporters Thursday she quipped that there is no honking ringing through Parliament this time.
“We started hearing some horns honking and I walked out on Wellington Street later that day to a lot of unexpected company,” she said.
She said she is not concerned the retreat will be disrupted by protesters this year.
Liberal ministers met for a cabinet retreat in Hamilton earlier this week. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will deliver a speech to caucus on Friday in Ottawa.
OTTAWA – Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and MPs from several other parties were on Parliament Hill Thursday to call for the Senate to pass a Bloc bill on supply management.
The private member’s bill seeks to protect Canada’s supply management system during international trade negotiations.
The dairy, egg and poultry sectors are all supply managed, a system that regulates production levels, wholesale prices and trade.
Flanked by a large group of people representing supply-managed sectors, Blanchet commended the cross-party support at a time when he said federal institutions are at their most divided.
The Bloc has given the Liberals until Oct. 29 to pass two of its bills — the supply management bill and one that would boost old age security — or it will begin talks with other opposition parties to bring down the minority government.
The Liberals have already signalled they don’t plan to support the Bloc pension legislation, but Liberal ministers have spoken in support of supply management.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.
OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he’s in favour of mandatory, involuntary drug and psychiatric treatment for kids and prisoners who are found to be incapable of making decisions for themselves.
He said earlier this summer he was open to the idea, but needed to study the issue more closely.
His new position on the issue comes after the parents of a 13-year-old girl from B.C. testified at a parliamentary committee about her mental health struggles before her overdose death in an encampment of homeless people in Abbotsford, B.C.
They said their daughter was discharged from care despite their repeated attempts to keep her in treatment.
Poilievre says he’s still researching how mandatory treatment would work in the case of adults.
Compulsory mental health and addictions care is being contemplated or expanded in several provinces as communities struggle to cope with a countrywide overdose crisis.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.
