Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Obviously it would be to remove the $150 million cap so that all claims are under the jurisdiction. The biggest weakness of the bill is that there are some claims that will fall outside of it. So when you're looking at the bill itself, it's good, but it doesn't address everything.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I could actually answer that a bit. I do a lot of negotiations, and none of the negotiations I've been involved with actually provide for land. It's usually land on a willing buyer and willing seller basis. The way a negotiation would work is that if a band lost 33,000 acres, as in the case of Kahkewistahaw, the settlement wouldn't give that specific land back.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think there's a perception out there that when you're talking large claims, you're talking billion-dollar claims. On the $150 million limit, depending on how the tribunal addresses compensation, there's going to be a range of claims in the $100 million to $200 million, which could possibly encompass some.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The largest one we've settled so far is Kahkewistahaw surrender claim, which is about $94 million to $96 million.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  On the resources thing too, the bill doesn't commit any resources. That's not really the purpose of it. It sets the tribunal. Obviously the idea is, if the tribunal works really well, claims will all be settled in negotiation, so you'll hardly have to use it. But obviously if you're going to deal with the backlog, correspondingly there have to be resources not just for settlement dollars but also for process.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That was actually one of the subcommittees I was on. I do a lot in negotiations. One of the big problems we have is that when there is a dispute, the federal government almost never agrees to even non-binding mediation. At most, we have the Indian Claims Commission facilitating, and that's about it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll try. On the provincial thing, as I understand the bill, a province can't have awards against it unless at the outset it agrees to be bound by the decisions. So a province has to agree to be granted party status before it can have an award against it. I know that was a concern of ours, that if a province is in, then it's in all the way, but if it chooses not to, then it can't have an award against it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll just add a few comments. Obviously I would just comment on the bill technically. I would have to say that it was jointly developed, and things are a compromise. It doesn't do absolutely everything, but I think it's a big improvement over the current process for specific claims that would fall within the jurisdiction of the tribunal.