MP Benson uses Sask. student’s help to table bill in Ottawa

Saskatoon West NDP MP Sheri Benson used the help of a Saskatoon high school student to table a bill at the House of Commons last week.

On April 30, Benson introduced Bill C-443, an act to strengthen, protect and maintain Indigenous languages.

The bill was the brain child of Elger Pakingan, a Grade 12 student at Bethlehem High School who won a contest run by Benson called Create Your Canada. The contest asked students to submit ideas for federal bills that would further reconciliation in Canada.

“(Pakingan’s) submission rose to the top for a number of reasons,” Benson said. “It was really well written and well researched; you could tell he really thought about why this would be important.

“Having a bill that protected Indigenous languages could really be a game-changer.”

Since the government introduced a similar bill in February, the timing couldn’t have been better for Benson.

After crowning Pakingan as contest champion, the next steps were incorporating his thoughts into a formal bill, then flying the beaming student out to Ottawa to see it be introduced.

“He just had a big smile on his face, and had never been to Ottawa before, so that was an added bonus,” Benson said of Pakingan’s reaction to the news.

However, it wasn’t without its share of problems.

With an election on the horizon, the partisan nature of politics nearly interfered with Pakingan’s big day.

The government house leader moved the agenda to government orders, which means the routine proceedings that allow private members bills was cut from the agenda at the start of the session.

“I had to look up at (Pakingan), who was sitting in the member’s gallery, and sort of shrug my shoulders and mouth to him, ‘I’m not sure we’ll be able to actually table your bill,'” Benson said.

In a rare moment of cooperation, members put their differences aside and allowed Benson to introduce the bill.

There’s no word if the bill will become legislation just yet, but it will have the opportunity to be incorporated into February’s Indigenous language bill.

“(Pakingan) will be writing his final exams and I’ll be trying to get his amendments into the government bill,” Benson said.