Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on June 4th, 2008

[Chief Kim Baird]

The land is definitely the most valuable aspect of the treaty from an economic development perspective. We're beating back developers with a stick already, and in some ways it's good we don't have water. We have time to get our land use plan in place, to sort out our priorities before we start entertaining different proposals.

There are two key areas that other parties have expressed interest in working with us on. One is residential development, which isn't anything new to us, because that's been discussed for decades. The second area has to do with our proximity to the Roberts Bank Superport. There is some opportunity to take advantage of container-related transportation industry opportunities, ranging from extreme, intense industrial development to less-intensive commercial spin-offs. So our land use plan envisions the communities deciding what areas they want to dedicate to this type of development.

It's been exciting—some of the best port operators in the world have hosted me and some members of council in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore to show us how they operate their facilities. These are the types of companies that want to work with us. We have a very strong relationship with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, another group that wants to work closely with us.

We want to proceed carefully, because there are livability issues that bump up against industrial development. So we will need lots of discussion within our community to decide how we handle that.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

To follow up on that, in terms of the types of development proposals, I can see that helping, in a general sense, the broad picture or the big picture economically. How will this affect the--if I can use this term--ordinary resident of Tsawwassen? Will the ordinary people who are looking for jobs also find a huge potential here for improvement in their economic situation, or will it simply be a few key developers and those landholders?

[Chief Kim Baird]

No, certainly not. In the major developments, we would look at employment and spinoff opportunities as a priority. I think, though, we're looking at all kinds of schemes to ensure that individuals can participate in whatever sector they want to. We want an economy that has a number of sectors within it so that we don't put all our eggs in one basket, per se. We do want to encourage entrepreneurial spirit as well, because I think a lot of sustainability has to reside from individuals, not the collective, and we need to support that the best way we know how.

I've been very impressed that some of our youth who've been unreachable in the past are starting to talk with excitement about the opportunity that is happening. Again, it's quite contagious.

We strongly believe it needs to be supported at both levels, a global strategy but also really encouraging individual entrepreneurs as well.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Just to follow up a bit on Mr. Lemay's question relating to the numbers of people who are living on reserve now, do you foresee, with the proposed improvements in economic development for all, including those who are going to have better employment opportunities, a return? I wouldn't use the words “mass return”, but do you foresee a significant return to live on the Tsawwassen reserve as the result of this agreement?

[Chief Kim Baird]

I don't know. Most of the people are probably Laura's relatives, so maybe Laura can answer that.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Chief Kim Baird]

A number of people are interested in the community we're becoming. I found, too, that while some people are concerned about some of our off-reserve members voting on decisions that affect those on-reserve, they seem to have great capacity and great experience in all different kinds of fields, and they're interested in coming back to the community and sharing their knowledge and expertise.

So rather than fearing it, I think most of us on council have found that it's something to welcome because we're finding such a diverse range of talent. We have people who have experience on city councils; we have all kinds of talent we didn't realize we had. I think in reaching this treaty and connecting with some of our relatives to talk about it we have done a lot of community building, and just that process itself has been phenomenal.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

You have one minute.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

I have one final, very quick question.

In considering all the hard work, the many years of negotiation, and the progress that has been made--we're currently studying in committee, as you know, and we'll then move on to report and third reading and through the Senate--what would your encouragement be to us as a committee and to Parliament as a whole, the House of Commons and the Senate, in terms of moving expeditiously to complete all of this work?

[Chief Kim Baird]

For the treaty to be most beneficial and to really represent reconciliation, it's extremely important to us to have all parties support it and have strong support in Parliament. The sooner we can get it ratified, the sooner we know that we can implement it, and we really look forward to doing that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Thank you, Chief Baird.

This concludes our session with you today. As you may know, last week in discussion the committee agreed that we wanted to hear from the minister today, and that we also wanted from you, but that we will make an effort to move expeditiously with this and get it forward. This committee going clause-by-clause is our next item of business.

So thank you very much for being here today.

To committee members, we have a little bit of housekeeping. We do have a meeting scheduled on Monday at our normal time, 3:30 to 5:30. The next order of business is to deal with clause-by-clause on this bill. It's unusual in the sense that it's an implementation bill, a bringing-into-effect bill, as opposed to actually dealing with the substance.

As it stands, that is our first order of business at the meeting on Monday, unless there is an appetite to deal with that right now.

Is there any comment on that?

I mean, it would be extraordinary to do something this quickly, but if there's an appetite to deal with this now, we can. If the committee would like the weekend to consider it and deal with it on Monday, that is fine. I'm in the hands of the committee.

Ms. Crowder, you would prefer to do it now?

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Absolutely.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Okay, well, if the committee likes, we can move to....

Maybe I'll ask someone to move whether we would move to clause-by-clause.

Ms. Crowder.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

I move that we move to clause-by-clause immediately.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

That's seconded by Mr. Russell.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

So be it. We'll move directly into clause-by-clause.

We'll take a minute while the agenda is distributed to committee members.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chair, can I make a motion that we move all clauses in one motion?

[An hon. member]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

It was my intention to.... We will proceed in that way, but rather than a motion, what I'll do is deal with clause-by-clause consideration.

Pursuant to Standing Order 75.(1), consideration of the preamble and clause 1 are postponed to the end.

At this point, the chair calls clauses 2 to 33 inclusive.

(Clauses 2 to 33 inclusive agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Shall the short title carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Shall the preamble carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Shall the title carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.