Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Definitely, I hope, for sure, they know what they'll be getting involved in. Like I said, we didn't have a chance to have our own legal analysis of the document. Until we have that done, then definitely we'll look at what the next steps are.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  At the press conference in June 2007 with the national chief and the Minister of Indian Affairs, I understood at that time that this document would be tabled in September, but I guess over the summer months other things happened and they took precedence over the drafting of this bill.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Definitely, we want to move ahead with the specific claims process. We have to set up a clear and agreeable process that is going to fit everybody's unique situation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It happens. Yes, definitely, you have to use other resources. We can go on with that one forever, because there's a lack of resources in all areas.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Pete is more technical than I am.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  How many years are you looking at to clear up the backlog on small specific claims? If we say there are 800 that are below $150 million and there are 100 above, how many years will it be before you get to the other 100 claims? It might take us maybe another century, I don't know.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Maybe I misunderstood something there, but what you're saying is the $250 million a year will settle the small ones. How long will that take for the 800 or so claims? Then the other 100, as I said, will have to wait until those are settled. There has to be a system to clear up the ones that are above $150 million at the same time.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Exactly, and in a timely manner.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a good question. We haven't been given any indication that there were going to be any additional resources to be able to address these issues. But going back to the ATR, we have an additions to reserve claim submitted in that process and we haven't heard anything back on it yet.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's basically what it was.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's definitely a concern at my community level, because we did have a claim that was sent back to us; this bill is not even in effect yet or not even law, but our claim was sent back to us. It seems that in other parts of the country they're settling claims that were submitted under the same criteria we submitted ours, but ours was returned and others are being settled.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, as we mentioned, we were very encouraged to see that all parties support finding solutions to this file. I guess what we need to see is sincerity in really dealing with this issue. It's been ongoing for many years. Can it be added into the political accord? Is it going to be binding?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, for one thing, as the Quebec region, we would like to sit down and study this bill and definitely look for more solutions and find out how we can make changes to deal with that backlog. But we haven't had the time to work with this document. As I mentioned earlier, we didn't even have a chance to have a proper legal analysis of it or to have it studied.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, definitely. As we stated in our opening remarks, we didn't have time to fully analyze this or even to get a legal analysis. Yes, there will be more amendments when we get directions from the chiefs in Quebec.