Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon to each of you.
Mr. Maurice, it's good to see you again. We've met at a number of different forums.
I haven't had a chance to go through your brief in a lot of detail, but I've listened to your oral presentation. Some of the points are quite intriguing. I'll raise a couple.
First, I want to address the point I've been addressing with most witnesses. Most presentations and most witnesses say they haven't been consulted. We have brought this up as well with the government. In briefings from the department, they say they have no legal obligation to consult on this particular bill, primarily because it's voluntary and you can either choose to be a part of this process or not. Second, on its face, because it's voluntary, there's no impairment or potential impairment to people's rights or damage to one's interest. Maybe I could get a quick comment on that.
Then I want to go to page 6, where you talk about section 15 and the filing of a claim, how it's supposed to be filed, how it's going to be accepted, and not claiming anything other than compensation and that type of thing. You can't seek any remedy other than monetary, and it can't exceed $150 million. You're saying the tribunal should be able to not necessarily make an offer or order, but be able to make a determination that certain lands are owed to the claimant, the aboriginal group or organization. Is that right?
It seems you have a similar point when it comes to the claim limit. Maybe the tribunal cannot say or order the government to pay you more than $150 million, but the tribunal could make a finding that you're owed more than $150 million.
Those are very interesting concepts that are not specifically addressed within this bill. They would go beyond what this bill is now proposing.
On those particular points, if we amended it in some way to allow this to happen, does it comply with the interests that have been outlined here, that is, the speedy resolution of outstanding specific claims?
You can correct me if I'm wrong on those two different points around section 15 and the section concerning the cap limits. They're very interesting proposals.