FNS Advisory Panel Legislative Process FNS Business Plan

December 9, 2025

Brian Pallister, MP
Portage-Lisgar
Opposition Critic for Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Room 914 Confederation Bldg.
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

Dear Mr. Pallister,

Re: The First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act, Bill C-19

Please accept this letter in response to the news release you issued and the news conference you held on December 2, 2002.

All four institutions comprising the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act, Bill-C19 have a business plan in place. One can download the full business plan of First Nations Statistics on its web site at www.firststats.ca.

Aboriginal data exists in over a number of federal departments, such as the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Health Canada, Human Resources Development Canada, and Statistics Canada. Unfortunately much of it remains stagnant. Once established, First Nations Statistics will have the authority to access and conduct assessments and analyses of this existing data for accuracy and completeness. This will ultimately assist federal departments in evolving new policy frameworks.

Statistics Canada will continue its mandate for the Canadian Census and has collected First Nations information in its Aboriginal Peoples Survey in 2001. However, this information has not been thoroughly or properly analyzed and distributed back to First Nations communities and governments. First Nations communities unhappy with the dissemination of the data have refused to participate with Statistics Canada.

Of the data already collected, First Nations communities and governments do not have control over their information or data requirements. As the Chief of the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point, I have seen first hand that statistical analysis and assessments of First Nations data from a variety of departments and agencies have not met the needs of our people and communities.

The development of these institutions is in no way off-loading program and service delivery or the federal governments fiduciary obligation. It is an empowerment tool for First Nations to strengthen their economies and to build capacity in their communities. Nowhere in Bill-C19 is it structured or affirmed that the federal government will off-load or downsize their responsibilities to First Nations communities.

As far as First Nations Statistics is concerned, the size of a community is irrelevant because the benefits First Nations Statistics provides can be used by every First Nation. The interpretation and access to vast collections of information and statistics through First Nations Statistics can serve community needs and will go a long way in assisting leaders to make informed decisions regarding what is needed in improving the social and economic conditions of First Nations communities, no matter the size of the community.

First Nations Statistics is a step in the right direction for First Nations. What it does is give us the economic tools that are available to other governments. Having a First Nations specific statistical institute will ensure that data analysis, assessments and published statistics and information about First Nations are relevant, reliable and responsive.

Having accurate statistics will only augment community leaders ability to plan for their community and to negotiate accurately with the federal government regarding program and service delivery. The social conditions on First Nations would surely benefit from that new development.

I have enclosed some background documentation directly related to your concerns regarding Bill-C19. To discuss this issue further, please contact Alfred Linklater, Executive Director at 613 565-6222. You may also want to visit our website at www.firststats.ca for further information.

Sincerely,

Chief Tom Bressette
Chairperson, First Nations Statistics Advisory Panel

Enc:
cc. Advisory Panel Members 
Right Honourable Jean Chretien, P.C., M.P., Prime Minister of Canada
Honourable Stephen Harper, M.P., Leader of the Official Opposition
Honourable Gilles Duceppe, M.P., Leader of the Bloc Quebecois 
Right Honourable Joe Clark, P.C., M.P., Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party
Honourable Alexa McDonough, M.P., Leader of the New Democratic Party
Honourable Robert Nault, P.C., M.P., Minister of Indian Affairs
Honourable Sharon Carstairs, P.C., Leader of the Government in Senate

ISSUE: Background response to criticism made by Reform MP Brian Pallister on December 2nd 2002, intended as supplemental information to an accompanying letter.

DATE: December 6, 2025

First Nations Statistics (FNS) represents years of First Nations lead, First Nations driven planning to create real capacity and expertise for statistical based research and analysis. Preliminary planning for the institution was conducted and supported from research and discussions for sustainable development out of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People, and the AFN Chiefs Committee on Fiscal Relations and National Table on Fiscal Relations. The institute represents a primary response to First Nations community leaders, technicians and data researchers seeing First Nations information being created from a federal needs perspective, one that suffices program reporting but greatly misses intelligent, explorative research. The present business plan for the institute outlines a vision that does not duplicate existing collection and maintenance of the minimal federal programs for First Nations data collection such as Statistics Canadas Census or for any of the administrative records collected by the 15 or more federal government departments that currently collect information from First Nations. Instead, the FNS vision for the future is to develop an intelligent institution that can evolve practical solutions utilizing statistical activities such as community-level data collection and purposeful data analysis and interpretation. All governments have institutions to facilitate their capacity needs, and FNS represents structural capacity to do the kind of statistical work that the federal government has not been successful at. Ultimately FNS has been developed out of the need to collect, process, analyze and publish statistics that appropriately meets the needs of First Nations communities large or small, its people, its administrators, its technicians, and its visionaries.

Re: government duplication with respect to the First Nations Statistical Institute

• FNS is not being created to replace existing publicly funded structures or resources, and it is not designed to be a new branch or division of either Statistics Canada or the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. The institute will conduct statistical activities because it is First Nations doing work for First Nations and not a government agency.
• Secondly, FNS will conduct statistical activities that will not duplicate the work of Statistics Canada because Statistics Canadas only mandate is to collect information. So far, Statistics Canada has conducted the Census and has collected two Aboriginal Peoples Surveys on-reserve (1991 and 2001). FNS will not conduct these surveys, but look to case-specific statistical collection, analysis and interpretation that better meets the needs of First Nations governments, businesses and organizations.
• FNS aims to address the deficiencies that Statistics Canada has had in successfully surveying the First Nations population. First Nations have needed statistical infrastructure that responds to information needs defined from First Nations. In a real sense, a coordinated and accessible system for information for First Nations is non-existent, beyond minimal collections from the Census and the Aboriginal Peoples Survey. First Nations communities, in response to negative experiences with Statistics Canada in the past where upon they agreed to participate in data collection, but were unhappy with the dissemination of the data, have refused to participate with Statistics Canada.
• Lastly, FNS represents real infrastructure for First Nations. FNS is proposed to be established on First Nations lands, and be staffed by First Nations people, something that the federal government has not yet committed to. The institute will also be reaching out to communities for capacity training, to develop awareness and education for long-term, sustained use of statistics as community planning and decision making tools.

Re: establishment of race-based institutions

• Section 35 of Canadas Constitution Act, 1982, recognizes and affirms the existence of
  treaty and Aboriginal rights, not race based rights. The treaties and Aboriginal rights enjoyed by First Nations people are not about segregation. The development of the institutions in Bill C-19 is to provide First Nations with the economic tools to begin meeting the challenges facing their respective communities.
• All governments, whether federal, provincial, territorial, or municipal have or can create
  institutions to address information needs. Bill C-19 is an opportunity to develop an institution for First Nations.

Re: costs, and lack of business plans

• Projected costs for developing and establishing First Nations Statistics have been made
  public since the spring of 2002. In addition to FNS all participating institutions in the First Nations Fiscal Institutions initiative have their own business plans. FNS has made its business plan available in paper copy which it has been circulating at the many information sessions it has participated in, having received invitations to attend numerous conferences and events. The institutes business plan has also been available for download at its web page: www.firststats.ca. Business plans and further public information on the other institutions can be found at the central web kiosk at www.fnfi.ca.
• Included in the FNS business plan are the projected planning costs for the first year and
  for the first two years of operation as a fully functional institute.

Re: off-loading by the federal government of fiduciary obligations

• The intent of the legislation is not to off-load the fiduciary responsibilities to the four
  institutions or to First Nations communities.
• The federal government has tried for years to model real, sustainable development for
  First Nations. Criticism has come largely from the fact that these models have been developed without direction from First Nations and without well-researched or well implemented plans for certain success in First Nations communities. The reason behind the lack of success can be argued as there being a lack of capacity and commitment in the federal government to conduct good research in assessment and evaluation of First Nations programming.
• The intent of First Nations Statistics is to create a relevant, reliable and responsive
  infrastructure that will empower First Nation communities to strengthen their understanding of social, fiscal and economic conditions, and to build real statistical capacities in their communities
• First Nations communities can utilize the institute to fast-track improvements to statistical 
  infrastructure that would not exist within the federal system for lack of a mandate on the account of any department to produce information that has utility to First Nations governments, businesses and organizations to conduct statistically relevant research.

Re: benefits to small communities

• FNS will provide small communities with many benefits. The institute will be a statistical
  body solely focused on First Nations. As a body with the capacity to employ and train people from First Nations communities the institute provides real community infrastructure.
• Communities will also benefit from the institute being a body that will evolve its expertise
  specifically in the field of data collection, analysis and interpretation methodology to successfully integrate the modern language of statistics with the proper understanding of the traditional value system and traditional knowledge of First Nations. The federal system does not have access to or an understanding of traditional knowledge and respectfully cannot be understood to represent the values of First Nations in its data collections and analysis activities.
• First Nations will benefit from statistical activities being optional. A First Nation will have
  the option of how to approach and what types of statistical activities they need for their purposes. Unlike federal government collections, FNS will plan or implement statistical activities for the sake of statistical curiosity. In summary, FNS will work with First Nations on real, defined information needs, and will adhere to making statistical quality, coherence and availability of outputs the priority.
• As far as FNS is concerned, the size of a community is irrelevant. The main benefits FNS
  can provide are applicable to every First Nation in Canada. The interpretation and access to vast collections of information and statistics through FNSI can serve community needs and will go a long way in assisting leaders to make informed decisions regarding what is needed in improving the social and economic conditions of First Nations communities, no matter what the size of the community.

Conclusion

• The establishment of First Nations Statistics has many benefits that will allow First
  Nations communities to have data analysis, assessments and published statistics and information that are relevant, reliable and responsive. This will augment the First Nations leaderships ability to plan for their community needs and to negotiate accurately with the federal government on program and service delivery.