This week for ministerial QP in the Senate, the special guest star was Dr. Carolyn Bennett, minister for Crown-Indigenous relations, her first time since the Indigenous and Northern Affairs portfolio was split into two. Senator Larry Smith started off, worrying that Northern and Indigenous groups said that they had not been consulted at all when it came to marijuana legalization. Bennett responded that every minister was supposed to build capacity in their own departments to do consultations with Indigenous communities. Smith asked if she had heard anything from Northern communities regarding the legalization of marijuana, particularly around mental health supports. Bennett noted that she was aware that some substance abuse stems from trauma related to things like residential schools, which is why they had a trauma-informed approach and that they were looking at healing and dignity moving forward.

Senator Marshall asked about posting individual infrastructure projects to her website, which has not been done 15 months after it was promised. Bennett noted the growing pains of splitting the department, and admitted that they can do better regarding transparency, but also noted the department is decentralised, with a lot of regional authority to make approvals.

Senator Dyck took a dig at Senator Beyak (who was not present) regarding the requirements for audits of First Nations for federal funding they received, and wanted some clarity as to what happens now. Bennett says they are talking about a First Nations Auditor General as they renegotiate the financial relationship, but currently they do have audited financial statements for all federal dollars.

Senator McPhedran asked a multi-part question around implementing Bill S-3 on elimination sex-based discrimination in the Indian Act. Bennett noted that they were working on the consultation report, and there was work going forward to empower women as part of individual nations as the reconstitute themselves going forward.

Senator McCallum asked about Indigenous women in federal prisons, and Bennett said that while they have to do better, the issue of trauma and inter generational effects of residential schools were part of the reasons why they were seeing these large numbers, which is why they were dealing with issues like social determinants of health, along with other measures like those proposed around jury selection in the current justice reform bill, before she meandered into women in prison not being able to raise their children, which they needed to address to stop the cycle. 

Senator Ngo asked about China’s interest in the North, particularly around shipping, and wondered why there were no Arctic sovereignty measures in the budget. Bennett said that they have been developing an Arctic policy and while some countries are seeing the Arctic as a common good, which worries Northerners. She noted that the policy framework needed to contain the priorities of Northerners.

Senator Patterson asked about co-management in Nunavut, and the fact that board salaries haven’t been increased in years. Bennett said they have taken a whole-of-government review of all boards, and that includes Nunavut boards, and hoped that the review would be done within the fiscal year with a Northern lens on the process.

Senator Lovelace Nicholas asked about the Supreme Court of Canada’s rulings on duty to consult, and how there are complaints that there has not been adequate consultation with the Trans Mountain pipeline. Bennett first led off with mention of how consultations will happen under the new environmental assessment legislation, and that there are impact benefit approaches with 43 First Nations along the Trans Mountain path, but she wanted better transparency going forward as they come up with resource sharing agreements, and then wandered into discussions around the fact that this was a twinned pipeline, that reconstituted nations could take more decisions together than as bands, and then meandered through consensus not being unanimity before she returned to the assessment bill.

Senator Bovey asked about the Indigenous communities in Manitoba that were cut off as a result of the Churchill rail line being out of commission, to which Bennett spoke about including Churchill in the Nutrition North program, and its status as a deep water port, but didn’t really answer about timelines.

Overall, the longer things went on, the more Bennett started to meander about in her answers, so that it became hard to find the plot in some cases (and I tried. Dear reader, believe me, I really tried to distill her answers). While the looser time clock in Senate QP tends to give most ministers time to give better answers, and some of them do so, others will take the opportunity to wander about. Bennett falls into the latter category. And to be fair, some Senators have difficulty with keeping questions short as well, and today it was Senator McPhedran’s turn to test the rules by attempting a four-part question. The Speaker cut her off after the third part, and admonished her for doing so, but the tendency to make a speech before asking a question is always a live one among some of the Senators.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Senator Raynell Andreychuk for a smartly tailored grey suit with a white collared shirt, and to Senator Art Eggleton for a black suit with a pink shirt and a black and purple tie. Style citations go out to Senator Dennis Patterson for a medium grey suit with a teal blue shirt and a black and teal patterned tie, and to Senator Caroline Stewart Olsen for a pink-brown smock dress with a dusky rose sweater. Dishonourable mention goes out to Senator Jane Cordy for a gold-yellow jacket with a black and yellow top and black slacks.