Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I honestly don't know.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think if the deputy minister or the minister were sitting here, they could tell you what resources are devoted to particular regions, and there are parts of the organization—or there used to be, in any event—where that's what people did. They were experts in it. They knew the p

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It varies, because some things are really simple and some things aren't. So, no, I don't think you could say that. I can give you some examples. There was one out on Lake Superior where there was an addition to a reserve that involved a sawmill. The sawmill had been there for a l

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't think that's a big issue. The minister essentially approves the order in council, in any event, before it goes to the cabinet committee, and it's never more than a week or two. So you're not saving great amounts of time.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The main impediment for economic development in the Indian Act is the actual ownership of assets on Indian lands and that you can't attach any non-Indian ownership to assets that are on Indian lands.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right. As a consequence, anybody who gets into that either extracts an enormous premium or doesn't do it. You end up with convoluted kinds of relationships, which are costly.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Most of these things end up in terms of cost. They can be monetized, and you find that doing business on Indian reserves often just costs a lot more than it ought to.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the challenges, and the lawyers around the table will be aware of this, is when first nations want to develop their lands often an outside non-aboriginal partner wants to get involved. They go to their lawyers and talk about the leases. The first thing their lawyers say is

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It is a bit of a conundrum, I would admit. On the one hand, first nations argue that by being given access to resources and having the ability to create their own source revenues, they will become self-sufficient on their own and will not rely on federal or provincial funding. In

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's clearly an empirical question. It would vary by circumstance. I can't comment on government policy. I don't know what the current negotiated rules are. Normally there is an expectation that there's going to be a transition and that you are going to take any resources that ha

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't recall specifically. I think there are a couple of tangibles and a couple of intangibles. On the tangible side, the regime created under the lands act is local. It creates local decision-making. Generally, that translates into speed, which is highly desirable in most ec

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I had an answer, I would love to give it to you. I've been thinking about this a lot. Really, I think the key to most successful communities is to get the community members engaged in their own future, essentially having them take charge. Some of the discussion goes around ho

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's my pleasure. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, good afternoon. I want to thank you for the invitation to speak with you about first nations economic development. As the chairman said, I have a few opening remarks. I'll establish my credentials at the outset, such as