Committee grills minister on failure to support First Nations during climate emergencies

Members of Parliament accused Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu of ducking accountability on Monday after the auditor general criticized her department's ongoing failure to help First Nations deal with climate emergencies.

Hajdu began the week flanked by her top officials at the House of Commons public accounts committee in Ottawa as it studies Auditor General Karen Hogan's 2022 audit of emergency management on reserves.

According to the audit, chronic problems identified nearly a decade ago remain unaddressed, putting First Nations at heightened risk of death and destruction from disasters like wildfires and floods.

Hogan late last year joined her predecessors in condemning a "beyond unacceptable," multi-decade failure by Indigenous Services, previously known as Indigenous Affairs, to effectively serve Indigenous people.

Hajdu responded by telling the committee she accepts the audit's findings and that her department is working on an action plan.

"We know that we don't have the luxury of time," Hajdu said.

"The gap is very large and there is still much to be done."

The MPs' questions began with Conservative Kelly McCauley who called the audit "damning" and one of the worst he's ever seen in seven years in the House of Commons.

"No one has been held accountable and no one's getting the work done," McCauley said.

"Who is responsible for this debacle?"

Hajdu wouldn't answer directly.

"It's all of us who are accountable," she replied.

She then started attacking the Conservatives for voting against past Liberal budgets that upped spending on Indigenous programs and blamed the Tories for years of inaction under former prime minister Stephen Harper.

A 2013 Harper-era audit of the same program found chronic underfunding, jurisdictional confusion and systemic ill-preparedness increasingly put First Nations at risk from emergencies.

Hogan reiterated those findings, noting with concern that these problems persist under the Trudeau Liberals.

McCauley rejected Hajdu's point. 

"It's Harper's fault, yes, that's a disgraceful answer, minister," he said.

Department spending too little on prevention, mitigation

Hogan's 2022 review found Indigenous Services is "reactive" and spends too little on prevention and mitigation, finding a backlog of 112 approved-but-unfunded infrastructure projects that could help.

"Concrete actions are needed to address these long-standing issues," Hogan told the Senate committee on Indigenous peoples in November after releasing the report.

"Government needs to be held accountable."

Hajdu said the backlog has since been slashed nearly in half but refused to say how much money the department budgets for these "structural mitigation projects." Joanne Wilkinson, a senior assistant deputy minister, eventually said the department has $12 million for these projects annually.

NDP MP Blake Desjarlais, who is from Fishing Lake Métis Settlement in Alberta, said the figure is embarrassing, called the audit "deplorable" and denounced the partisan attacks as shameful.

"We should be ashamed of ourselves. The government should be ashamed. These are people's lives, beyond politics, beyond partisanship," he said. 

"This government continues to fail Indigenous people, and not just your government. I'll take that point," he told the minister.

"Governments right across this country have failed Indigenous people."

Hajdu's testimony was underscored by a dire warning from the United Nations delivered a few hours earlier, when an international group of scientists handed down their latest in a series of reports urging world leaders to act now or risk climate catastrophe.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned "the climate time bomb is ticking" and threatening humanity's future as he introduced the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, calling it a "survival guide for humanity."

Hajdu said it's clear First Nations sit on the front lines of this crisis, which has astronomical costs tied to evacuation, emergency accommodation and rebuilding of communities and livelihoods.

She rejected the accusation that she's dodging responsibility.

"I have never said, 'No problem. Don't look here.' I am the first to say that we are still in a colonial system that oppresses Indigenous people," Hajdu told Desjarlais.

Changing any "dysfunctional system" takes time, the minister added, calling it a problem her department takes seriously.