Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's an honour for me to be here this afternoon in front of the standing committee, listening to the presentations on Bill C-30.
The joint process to develop Bill C-30 and the political agreement, as many others have reiterated before me, has been a very positive experience in working with the Government of Canada. I believe strongly that the relationship between former minister Jim Prentice and National Chief Phil Fontaine in working on the claims commission in the past has been instrumental in making this happen. I want to acknowledge that, as well as the work that my colleague Shawn Atleo, as well as Mr. Bruce Carson from the Prime Minister's Office, put into this. Very clearly, it had to be very, very high-level work to bring us to this point having an opportunity to talk about an actual bill. So in my view, like that of many others before me, it's unprecedented and has to be acknowledged.
We support the bill and the political agreement in its current form as a substantial improvement over the status quo, and over any other previous attempt to address this issue. I've been a regional chief since 1994, and for part of that time I worked with the Atlantic chiefs, who made their presentation earlier. I was a former member of that joint task force back then. I sat in on a number of committee meetings across the country, trying to do the same work we're talking about here today.
To see and to have the ability to actually put some legislation in place that speaks to the things we had issues with, like the government being the judge and jury, has been quite interesting to see happening.
Bill C-30 is not about trying to fix all of the inadequacies of the specific claims policy or process. There are inadequacies in the specific claims policy and process overall. The matters addressed in the companion political agreement are intended to address related policy and process issues.
My colleagues from the Atlantic chiefs, Chief Noah Augustine and Chief Lawrence Paul, under the banner of the Atlantic Policy Congress, spoke to that earlier about how we as the Atlantic region plan to keep the government's feet to the fire in relation to this political agreement.
Like you, Mr. Bruinooge, I was at that treaty conference last week. Being one of the first components of the political accord, it's very good that it happened. I was very excited to be there and was very happy to make a presentation on behalf of some of the issues we have in relation to treaty in the Atlantic region.
At the same time, I've been at many treaty conferences in the past. Hopefully, unlike last week's, this isn't going to be sitting on my shelf collecting dust; we hope to see the political accord as a means to implement this. It's very important that we show we can do that.
The process used to develop the bill and the political agreement establishes a high-water mark that needs to be replicated in other policy areas. I think we have a real opportunity here to move forward in a number of other areas, as a means to engage us very clearly at the highest level, between the government and the Assembly of First Nations. So I see this as a real opportunity.
In addition to the joint drafting with Canada, the Assembly of First Nations has been engaged in information sharing and dialogue with first nations in the regions. We have striven to support this regionally to the best of our abilities.
In Nova Scotia, we did it through the two tribal councils, one being the Union of Nova Scotia Indians, and the other being the Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq. Prior to the assembly coming in and giving them an overview of what the bill was, they were both adamant. In fact, they made us sign papers saying it was not consultation. We signed them. We told them that consultation is the Government of Canada's job, not ours. We were there and we were supportive of this effort, but at the end of the day, if there's more consultation to be done, that rests with the government, not with us.
So there are many positive things to be learned from this process, including the need to engage first nations directly and within a timeframe that is reasonable. As you're aware, the bill was introduced, I believe, on November 27. By the time we had a chance to analyze it, to try to do some regional sessions and sit down as the chiefs of Canada by December 11, it was a very tight timeframe. It's very challenging.
While we strongly support this bill in its current form without amendments, this should not preclude others from suggesting amendments. That's a basic democratic premise to anybody, and first nations as well. So we're not here to say that everything is perfect, by any means, but we're definitely supportive of the work that has brought it to this stage.
The real priority with respect to implementing this bill and the political agreement must be in living up to the commitments that these embody. Therefore, it's important to fully implement the undertakings and the joint process outlined in the political agreement in a timely fashion. A fair and independent tribunal that can make binding decisions has absolutely gone way beyond some of the work that's been done in the past, and I have to acknowledge that. What I would like to see from here on in is, is this bill implemented?
We understand that Parliament has a role to play. Ultimately, as the first nations, we really don't care who the government is that implements it. We just want to see this bill implemented, because there has been so much work done and it's gone so far beyond where we've been in the past.
With that, thank you very much.