Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the member for the question. We know the minister and his officials have recently appeared before this committee, and again through one of the committee members we heard they went to some lengths to reassure the committee that all is well w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. Again, there was no consultation with any governments. The consultations that took place were internal to the Nisga'a Nation on the basis of our jurisdiction, our ownership of the lands, and our law-making authorities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, again, as I indicated in my comments, the Landholding Transition Act is unprecedented in Canada, and I believe around the world, as we've been informed. We've always maintained that we're quite willing to share our experience with anybody who wants to learn from our experie

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Are you talking, sir, about the Nisga'a Landholding Transition Act?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There were no negotiations. These are law-making powers that are opportunities within our treaty.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. From the Nisga’a Nation's perspective, we're glad we got our treaty. We're quite happy with it, thank you very much. The premise of the treaty—as you all know, as the history of the Nisga’a land question is well documented—was to re-empower the Nisga’a Nat

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. Recently, in 2008, the Nisga’a Lisims Government enacted the Nisga’a Landholding Transition Act under Nisga’a laws. This will transform our current landholding system to move to individual fee simple ownership of residential properties. This is only p

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  An important point is that's the first we've heard of those pieces of legislation. The Nisga'a Landholding Transition Act was passed by our government in 2008. Right now we are working toward the administrative support necessary, the regime, and the regulatory regime to put that

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, the senior government for our lands is the Nisga'a Lisims Government. It's the central government. Then we have four Nisga'a villages. Each of them has a village government, and they have jurisdiction over their village lands.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I thank you for the question. As you know, sir, the Nisga’a treaty is the first modern land claims agreement in British Columbia. We don't want to be misunderstood here. Notwithstanding the challenges that we are encountering in implementing our treaty

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. Thank you for the question. Mr. Chair, through you, the coalition strongly believes that there has to be an independent body that reports directly to Parliament on all of these issues. That's the only way we can effectively, first, assess the situation, and second, decide o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, there hasn't been, to our satisfaction, through you, Mr. Chair. Just before I lose the point, in addition to the annual leadership meeting of the coalition, the representatives of the members of the coalition meet on a regular teleconference, usually three or four times thro

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The problem as we see it, Mr. Chair, is that all of these attempts by the aboriginal affairs and northern development department to fix the problem are internal to the aboriginal affairs and northern development department. We find it hard to gauge with any certainty to what exte

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, through you, Mr. Chair, for the question. The Land Claims Agreements Coalition was formed in 2003, as I indicated in my opening remarks, and since then we have had an annual leadership meeting, which usually takes place in Ottawa. Our most recent leadership meeting w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, that certainly is what we would like to happen. Obviously, from time to time, not all the leaders are able to make it, for whatever reasons. The way we reach decisions in the coalition is by consensus. All of the representatives at our meetings have an opportunity to express