Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister, for coming before the committee on this important bill.
I have three questions. I'm going to ask them all at once and then turn it over to you to answer.
First, what kinds of commitments and assurances are there to ensure that the political accord is followed through in a timely way? We've seen with other political accords that when there was a change of government they often collapsed.
The second question is a philosophical one for those of us who in previous lives dealt with mediation, negotiations, and what not. Many of us have come from an interest-based position on negotiation and mediation. I wonder if philosophically there is any will to work toward a more collaborative approach to settling these claims instead of an adversarial one. Even with this work it's still an adversarial approach.
My third question is based on some of the very good work that was done by the parliamentary staff on transition. We know from the records that there are 612 claims under review and 138 in negotiation. Previous departmental witnesses who came before the committee indicated that the backlog was significantly more than that because there are claims that have not reached the stage of being reviewed.
Parliamentary research said that when we're looking at claims that are already in the hopper, the practical effect of clause 42 is to return the clause 16 clock to zero for all claimants with active claims, irrespective of when their claims were submitted or decisions to negotiate the claims were made under the pre-SCTA system.
In essence, to have the clock turned back to zero for the claims that are already in the system and could have been in the system for a significant number of years once that review is done seems to disadvantage them. Are any extra resources or mechanisms put into effect to not disadvantage people who have already been in the system for years and years?
Thank you.