Senator White: Thank you, minister, for being with us here today, and thank you to your officials. It is a pleasure to see them. I had the privilege of working with some of them in a previous life.

When Bill C-5 was tabled, there was a news release from your government on June 6, and it stated that projects designated for conditional approval will be done so following full consultation with affected Indigenous peoples and in accordance with Canada’s commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, or UNDRIP, and Canada’s constitutional obligations to consult Indigenous groups. I am happy to see that, but what concrete measures is the government taking to ensure that this bill will continue free, prior and informed consent with Indigenous peoples on whose lands these national interest projects will be built on?

Ms. Freeland: Thank you, senator, for the question. Thank you also for acknowledging our great officials.

The Indigenous element is really important, and I will give you a few specifics. Then I would like to talk at the higher level about the approach that I think we need to take.

There will be the creation of an Indigenous advisory council for the major projects office. There is capacity building for First Nations, Inuit and Métis of $18.6 million per year from 2025-26 to 2028-29. You know very well how important that funding is to make it possible to have real collaborative work.

I want to emphasize something that I am personally proud of, which is the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program. I put in place $5 billion. The Prime Minister one-upped me and raised that to $10 billion. I strongly support that. I really believe that if we do this right — and I think all of us need to be committed to it — we can see this legislation as being about Indigenous prosperity, Indigenous participation in Canada’s economic growth and Indigenous participation in building Canada — as you rightly said, senator — on Indigenous lands.

Senator White: Thank you. I’m very happy to hear that. There are a number of initiatives that have been doing great work in our communities. I guess my concern is that this bill will expedite timelines on major projects, and it will certainly affect Indigenous peoples.

How will the government specifically ensure that sufficient time is allocated for the consent and consultation of Indigenous peoples in any meaningful way?

Ms. Freeland: I think I tried to offer some answers to that. I think the Indigenous advisory council will play an important role. I do believe that capacity-building funding is important so that First Nations, Inuit and Métis can participate in the work.

This legislation is not about skipping steps. Rather, instead of taking steps sequentially, let’s take them simultaneously. Let’s all roll up our sleeves, do the work we need to do and not take shortcuts, but do that work faster because we are in a crisis.

I would say the substitution agreement that we already have with British Columbia is a very promising and exciting example of the way to do this. We intend on having substitution agreements done with everyone within six months. In a practical way, that’s about acting on this: Let’s do things simultaneously and not sequentially, and let’s not do things twice.