Evidence of meeting #14 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was tribunal.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
Eighty, okay. And does that comprise all the chiefs in the province?
Director, Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs
There are 203 chiefs.
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
So you represent roughly a third of them, a little more.
Research Director, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
I should clarify too that we also do specific claims work for bands outside that membership.
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
So they retain you on a fee-for-service basis, or whatever?
Research Director, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
No. We receive funding from RNFU to do claims work. They just provide us with a mandate, and we add them to our economy of scale.
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
When you talk about consultation--and I think we all agree that's very important both in the creation of the legislation as well as with respect to consulting in general--how did you consult on Bill C-30 on this particular issue with the Indian chiefs you represent? Did you have any consultation with them?
Research Director, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
All we've been able to do is present, because there's been no consultation. There's been nothing to present to chiefs to get comments on and give feedback to.
Research Director, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
Because we didn't see the legislation or the political agreements in process. It was only presented to us at the end, so we didn't--
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
So then the reason you haven't consulted with them is that there's been lack of time. Is that the reason?
Research Director, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
No. Because we didn't see the legislation or the political agreement, we had nothing to show them to get feedback on. As soon as we did, we presented it to them.
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
The first reading of this was November 27, so you would have had a copy of the bill since then.
Research Director, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
Right. That's been presented to the chiefs.
Conservative
Research Director, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs
Many chiefs have, and these are the concerns they have articulated.
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
Are you aware of the process that the chiefs use to communicate and to consult with the people they represent?
Director, Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs
I think the chiefs really haven't had much of an opportunity to consult with their community members, and so as a result, as an example, we do have a chiefs council meeting coming up later on in the week, and based on our report, then the chiefs will consider how they're going to carry out community dialogue.
I guess one of the challenges we have as well is that out of the 203 communities, probably only 150 really are involved in the specific claims process. There are still many communities that do not even know about specific claims.
Conservative
Director, Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs
That's a possibility, but it's also likely that a lot of the new leaders have no idea what specific claims are.
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
So there's an education component that's missing there.
Director, Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council, Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs
Yes.
Conservative
Ken Epp Conservative Edmonton—Sherwood Park, AB
Thank you very much. I appreciate that additional insight into your organization.
NDP
Conservative
