Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon to all the members of Parliament here today. It's an honour to be here today to talk about the process--not only about the bill, but as the chief has mentioned, about the process that's happened.
I think many times the federation has come here to speak about a reactive situation to bills that have been passed that have an impact on our treaty rights as well as our communities. I think one of the very important things about this process is the process itself, the joint development of a bill that's going to have a major impact, not only on government but on first nations. If we could create this process across the board for many of the other sectors, we would have a much more efficient system of legislation, where we're actually involved in the drafting of the legislation that also has a great impact on us.
Personally, I think it's a real stepping stone forward in terms of having first nations at the table jointly recommending legislation. I think that in itself allows us to have greater input into the bill itself, rather than always reacting to the bills. It seems that a lot of our communities are left in the dark and having to react to bills and the effect that has had. As a result, that legislation itself is sometimes brought to the Supreme Court of Canada because we haven't had input on it. I think we're setting a good precedent in terms of the duty to consult in some of the cases at the Supreme Court level.
Also, I think in Saskatchewan we have over 95 outstanding claims waiting to be resolved over the last 15 years. As a result, this bill hopefully will give our communities the opportunity to deal with these outstanding claims and be in a position to benefit themselves holistically in terms of their economics, their community, their housing, and many other issues. When money is brought into a community it has a great impact on giving that community new hope of having a better community, and I think that's what we're talking about.
The other issue for us is the whole idea of justice. We're often asked, “What is justice, and what does it mean to first nations?” Ultimately, what we're talking about is something that was wrongfully taken from first nations that has to be corrected in a timely fashion. So ultimately we're talking a little bit about justice as well, justice for first nations, and I think that's an important part of this bill as well.
I'll keep my remarks very brief. Once again, thanks for the opportunity to be here today and say a few words. Thank you very much.