Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, each of you, for your presentations.
Ms. Lickers, I certainly heard your impassioned plea to pass this piece of legislation without amendment, and that the committee probably has more to do with how this piece of legislation is wrapped within the political accord, and other factors. I would just argue that I think we have more to say about this particular piece of legislation and that we can make more changes to this particular piece of legislation on our table now than to some of the other political nuances that may surround it—but that's a debatable point.
I want to raise two issues.
On the issue of land, Mr. Devlin, and the fact that the tribunal cannot award land, or really make any declarations regarding the awarding of land arising from its decisions, you had suggested that we should at the least expand it to make declarations respecting land quantum and about the nature of such lands owned by Canada.
What would that do in a practical sense if we included that amendment? Each of you can comment on that. What does it do in a practical sense? Does it maybe force more open negotiations or force people to negotiate a settlement? What does it do in a practical sense?
And then my second question is about the release, because these issues have been raised before by me and by my colleagues. I remember the Indian residential schools debate. When the crown was going to make certain awards to individuals or survivors of Indian residential schools, they would not compensate them for loss of language and culture—this was a huge issue—but wanted the survivors to release all claims against the government for any loss of language and culture. This was a hugely emotional issue, affecting individuals and communities, and one of the real stumbling blocks, I think, to any type of process, until we had this Indian residential schools agreement. I see this being resurrected somewhat here in the release provisions.
So I just want you to comment on those two aspects: the land declarations, and what they do practically; and on the release provisions again.