Marc Miller appointed as Indigenous Service Minister

On November 20, 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau swore in a former Quebec MP and Mohawk language student to the oversee the delivery of services to Indigenous communities across Canada. Marc Miller now sits in Trudeau’s cabinet as Indigenous Services Minister. Seamus O’Regan, who held the position up until October was moved to Natural Resources.

Miller was elected to represent the riding of Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Sœurs in the House of Commons in the 2015 federal election. After the election, he served as the chair of the Quebec Liberal Caucus of MPs. On January 28, 2017 Miller was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities. On June 1, 2017, Miller delivered the first ever speech in the Mohawk language in the House of Commons. Making a number of firsts in Indigenous nations, he made a surprise visit to the late Levi Oakes, Akwesasne Mohawk Code Talker, at his home in Tsi Snaihne on Tuesday, May 8, 2018. In February 2019 he again spoke Kaniehkeha by being the first to do so while using new simultaneous translation services offered to parliamentarians.

Miller will be working closely with Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett. Bennett is one of a group of senior Liberal cabinet ministers that is returning to the same role she had before the October 2019 Canadian election.

According to Canada.ca, “Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) works collaboratively with partners to improve access to high quality services for First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Our vision is to support and empower Indigenous peoples to independently deliver services and address the socio-economic conditions in their communities.

On July 15, 2019, legislation dissolving Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and formally establishing the mandates of 2 new departments, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs (CIRNAC), came into effect. ISC and CIRNAC will continue to work seamlessly together to ensure there are no interruptions to inquiries, delivery of services or relationships with partners. Contact names and numbers remain the same. The 2 websites will be updated accordingly in the next few months”.

Miller stated, “I want to be able to understand the language of the Mohawk people, people who have lived here long before my people arrived.”

He added, “I have discovered something that is more complicated than sharing words with one another. I have found that I am able to understand my place on earth which I did not appreciate before I began learning. It has now just begun to make sense to me how amazing the language is, how rich it is, how exceptional it is. It is a lot more complicated than my other languages.”