Tom Beaulieu

I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to directing the Department of Justice to lead a government working group -- I am not speaking of the Ministers but maybe of a lower level of working group -- to incorporate some changes to reduce the Indigenous inmate population.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, since 2013-2014, 712 Northerners have been approved for residential placements in southern facilities, with 467 completions, 152 early or self-led discharges, and 102 self-cancellations. Note that these figures likely reflect multiple sessions for the same individuals.

Most recently, roughly three quarters of Northerners who started residential addictions treatment in 2016 completed a full session. When we set out on our tour, point-in-time data indicated that 38 adult Northerners were in residential treatment. This group ranged in age from 24 to 60 years...

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [English translation not provided].

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about a $1.1 billion class action lawsuit that was filed last month by former patients at Indian hospitals in Canada. These facilities were racially segregated general hospitals that were built between 1945 and 1981 to enhance policies of assimilation in order to replace traditional, Indigenous healing with western biomedicine. However, the Canadian government justified the construction of these facilities as a way to isolate the spread of tuberculosis and other diseases.

Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, my second question is on the status of the particular lots. Previously, there were areas that were maybe earmarked for commercial development and the commercial development areas don't pan out, so they end up essentially being strictly residential lots. I would like to know if the department has a process in which individuals who find themselves on commercial lots, which appear to have a higher value. I am only saying appear because I am seeing one side of the road that is commercial with a residential property and one side that is a residential lot with...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know this is an information item, but I have a question for the Minister on the gas tax. I can't remember last year how we ended up with $11 million extra in gas tax. Could the Minister just refresh my memory? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do not have any further questions on this section at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think, Mr. Chairman, most governments want to settle the claim in unsettled areas, but I guess my question is very specific. If an individual is using a cabin for non-recreational use; I don't consider somebody going out to hunt bison and has a cabin along the Slave River to be recreational use. Maybe they go there and picnic and that by boat and so on, but I am seeing recreational use as something you may be able to access by a vehicle, by a car. From the cabins that are used for traditional harvesting, are they taxed?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to get into the negotiations part of this section a bit. I am wondering if the Minister could advise me as to what the plan is for the self-government portion of the negotiations with the Akaitcho? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. After all this, I hope I have come back to the right section. Mr. Chairman, earlier in our deliberations with the Department of Lands, I had asked questions about taxation of cabins. The Minister had indicated that the Lands officers did the enforcement; MACA does the taxing. I would like to ask basically a similar question, is that: is there any difference between the taxing of cabins between the treaty people, the Metis, and the non-Aboriginal people who have cabins in the bush for harvesting? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I speak unanimous consent to return to item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted