A bill introduced earlier today in the legislature would give truth and reconciliation the standing it needs to improve the lives of Indigenous persons across Alberta, its sponsor said.
Brooks Arcand-Paul, the NDP’s Indigenous relations critic, said his private member’s bill creates a framework for consultation, progress and accountability that’s lacking in the ruling UCP’s governance approach.
Citing the child welfare system and drug poisonings as examples of failures, Arcand-Paul said: “I came into this job saying that my whole responsibility here was to make sure that my people stopped dying because of the UCP government’s inaction.”
He continued: “That’s what I hope this legislation will do.”
A lawyer who grew up in the Alexander First Nation near Edmonton, Arcand-Paul called the proposed legislation the first of its kind developed in consultation and collaboration with Indigenous nations. “They were at the helm the entire way,” the shadow minister said.
The Reconciliation Implementation Act would require the provincial executive council to consider reconciliation in all its decisions. The Indigenous relations ministry would have to consult with Indigenous communities to develop and publish a truth and reconciliation action plan. And it would have to publish an annual progress report.
There’s growing acceptance in Canada that forced assimilation and other colonial practices lie at the root of socio-economic disparities that persist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals.
Published statistics peg the life expectancy for Indigenous persons in Alberta at 10 to 15 years lower than that of their non-Indigenous counterparts. Indigenous persons are more likely to experience poverty and chronic illness, to die violently or to end up in foster care.
Truth and reconciliation in Canada is tied to 94 calls to action in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which operated from 2008 to 2015 to document the history and impact of the residential school system. The TRC spent six years traversing the country to hear testimony from survivors and others whose lives were affected by residential schools.
The TRC’s work amped up public awareness of residential schools and their deadly and abusive history, along with terms like “cultural genocide” and “intergenerational trauma.”
Residential schools were government-funded, church-run institutions designed to assimilate Indigenous children into a European-based culture. Indigenous children were removed from their families and distanced from cultural practices.
They were often barred from speaking their languages. Conditions were harsh and inhumane and sometimes even deadly, with emotional, physical and sexual abuse commonplace.
At least three other provinces or territories have legislation in place connected to truth and reconciliation. British Columbia was the first, in 2019, with legislation aligning the province with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, or UNDRIP.
Manitoba has the Path to Reconciliation Act, and the Northwest Territories has the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Implementation Act. In Nova Scotia, the Truth and Reconciliation Commitment Act was introduced to the legislature in 2016 as a private member’s bill.
A reconciliation status update in 2023 from the Yellowhead Institute classified 81 of the 94 calls to action as unfulfilled in Canada. The Indigenous-led research and education centre checked no calls off the list during its reporting year.
Alberta’s government claims progress on 20 calls to action. But with no reporting structure in place, the government can’t be held to account, said Arcand-Paul, the member for Edmonton-West Henday.
His legislation is necessary because “there’s so much work to be done,” Arcand-Paul said. He pointed to the disproportionate numbers of Indigenous people caught up in systems like child welfare, incarceration and criminal justice.
The Canadian government in 2022 published on its website that the number of Indigenous people in Alberta was just under 260,000 people or 6.5 per cent of the population. Most of them are First Nations or Métis, although there are also Inuit people in the province.
Alberta has 45 First Nations and eight Métis settlements within its borders. The most common languages of First Nations are Blackfoot, Cree, Chipewyan, Dene, Sarcee and Stoney or Nakoda Sioux.
Indigenous languages feature in the Arcand-Paul bill — it requires that the government make available reconciliation documents written in them.
The languages requirement would help bridge a gap between often-remote Indigenous communities and the Alberta government, Arcand-Paul said. The way things are now, Indigenous persons and nations usually feel disconnected from the legislature and its decisions, he said.
The gap is amplified by the province’s routine lack of Indigenous consultation on laws and policies, Arcand-Paul maintained.
In drafting the proposed legislation, Arcand-Paul travelled to Indigenous communities in Alberta, regularly hearing that MLAs and ministers had never before showed up to discuss legislation, treaty relationships and “becoming a better partner in reconciliation.”
Arcand-Paul said he found “overwhelming support” from Indigenous persons “that this legislation was absolutely necessary.”
He called the proposed law “an opportunity for optimism to creep into the legislature, which often doesn't arrive, particularly for Indigenous people.”
The burden of fulfilling the calls to action too often falls upon individuals, Arcand-Paul said. “But it should be the government that is doing the big, heavy lifting, because there are specific calls to action in the TRC final report that require them and obligate them.”
The law would also represent a melding of Indigenous knowledge and approaches to governance with more colonial ways of doing things.
“One of the benefits of electing Indigenous people that have lived experience in our connections to ceremony and culture is that we can start making these changes and giving Indigenous peoples a voice in this province in really beautiful and creative ways,” said Arcand-Paul.
His proposed law would provide the UCP with a chance to witness the value of Indigenous consultation. “I would love to see the other side recognize the value of including Indigenous leadership in this type of legislation.”