Natural Resources committee  There is a power to assign individual tribunal members to form a panel to decide claims. There are also situations where you would have a panel of more than one tribunal member to hear claims, and that gets on further.

Natural Resources committee  There would be a minimum of five members on the tribunal. So the Governor in Council will appoint a minimum of five members to the tribunal.

Natural Resources committee  It's clause 38, and it's not all of them; it's just the majority.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, that is correct.

Natural Resources committee  No, the United States system does not have an administrative tribunal similar to Canada's. I'm not certain if their courts would be able to come across the border to examine witnesses. Perhaps Ms. MacKenzie might know.

Natural Resources committee  This is fixing and paying the remuneration. So the salaries of these employees are fixed by Treasury Board. They define the amount of remuneration for the salaries.

Natural Resources committee  The minister may enter into an agreement with insurers, for example, to deal with claims as they come in.

Natural Resources committee  That's correct. It gives the power to the minister to enter an agreement with an association, an insurer, or a person to carry out any of the functions associated with the payment of interim financial assistance. If the minister wants to pay financial assistance before the tribunal is up and running, then the minister can do so through an association of insurers.

Natural Resources committee  The tribunal isn't operating yet. There is a declaration, under clause 31, that the claims are to be dealt with by a tribunal, but before the tribunal is established, the minister wants to continue to make payments to victims. This provides that the minister can enter into an agreement with any association or person to pay those claims.

Natural Resources committee  The issue here is that there may be some who have suffered damage or hardship and you want to ensure that they are provided with compensation immediately. This allows that kind of interim financial assistance to be provided to victims.

Natural Resources committee  It could be. The point is, though, that—

Natural Resources committee  The idea is that once you establish the claims tribunal you don't want claims to be continuing in court. The advantage of the claims tribunal is that it brings all the applicants together, all the claims, and then it is able to deal with them equitably. You don't want two different jurisdictions to deal with the claims.

Natural Resources committee  It's not the minister; it's cabinet that makes the decision.

Natural Resources committee  It's the Governor in Council that establishes the tribunal.

Natural Resources committee  The rationale for the tribunal is that an administrative means of addressing the claims is probably more efficient and more equitable than the court system in dealing with a large number of claims. So the criteria are provided in 31(1), where they say that the Governor in Council believes it's in the public interest to establish a claim, having regard to the extent and the estimated cost of the damage--so a large incident--and the advantages of having the claims dealt with by an administrative tribunal.