Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Honourable members, thank you very much for having the BC Treaty Commission, my colleagues and me, join you this afternoon.
We're here to discuss the modern B.C. treaty-making that is going on in British Columbia. This was established in 1992. Unlike the rest of Canada, treaties remain unfinished business in British Columbia.
This is the first time the BC Treaty Commission has appeared before the finance committee, and we do that for a very particular reason: we feel there's not a clear understanding and a clear appreciation of the direct economic benefits of treaty-making in British Columbia.
So we're here to emphasize that and to underscore the words that come from the economic action plan. The Prime Minister's commitment to promote greater participation by aboriginal men and women in the Canadian economy and to address the specific challenges and opportunities they face are well reflected in the economic action plan. What we have to offer through the B.C. treaty process speaks directly to that.
A perfect example of this is that on the west coast of British Columbia you were all participants in moving through the Maa-nulth treaty process. It happened within four days, with all-party support. That has already started to show economic benefit for the region. As soon as that was done, the Province of British Columbia transferred what they called early land transfers. They transferred pieces of prime real estate, not the type where you usually find Indian reserves but real estate having prime economic development potential. They transferred that immediately to the Maa-nulth first nations, and they now have real economic opportunity, primarily in the area of tourism.
We're here to ask your support in accelerating the treaty process and accelerating what's going on through the government with the treaty process. We want to build on the impetus that was created by the Maa-nulth Final Agreement and also to underscore the impacts that were mentioned in the 2006 Auditor General's report, where the Auditor General noted:
the federal government expects that the fair and timely resolution of B.C. land claims through negotiated treaties will clarify rights to land and resources in the province.
The Treaty Commission has commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to update our economic benefits analysis of doing treaties in British Columbia. The last one was done by Grant Thornton in 2004, five years ago. Since then we've had the Tsawwassen treaty that's implemented now and we have Maa-nulth, which was passed in May of this year in the House.
We're taking the reports of the economic benefits of treaty and we're bringing them into today's dollars. The report will be finished next month. Already the preliminary numbers underscore what the previous report said, which was that there's tremendous economic benefit. If we were to do two treaties a year for the next number of years, rather than one every five or so years, we would be looking at doubling net benefits to $2 billion; but for the wage income, we're talking about $7 billion if we do just two treaties a year rather than one every five years or so.
Just as important, though, for you is the lost opportunity costs we have. The Grant Thornton report of 2004 estimated that we lose $1.5 billion a year because we don't have the treaty settled. And of course, take all those numbers and there's the multiplier effect.
So in conclusion, what we're seeking from the Standing Committee on Finance is to consider in your report to Parliament the importance of achieving the economic stimulus effect that will result in the province of British Columbia by completing treaties in a very timely manner. We know it can be done.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.