Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I too wish to thank the Committee for the opportunity to appear before you and for your interest in the progress we are making in addressing the recommendations of several Auditor General of Canada Reports concerning the implementation of Canada's modern treaties.
Please allow me to provide a little context.
Since 1975, Canada, aboriginal Canadians, 3 provinces and the 3 territories have entered into 22 such agreements that cover a wide range of subject matter such as lands, resources, water, and environmental considerations and often contain substantial self-government provisions.
The north has been the most fruitful region of the nation for such agreements. These innovative arrangements afford aboriginal citizens of the territories major roles in the political, economic, and environmental affairs of the north and of the nation, including ownership of significant parcels of land.
We have 11 self-governing first nations in the Yukon with attendant land claims agreements.
In the Northwest Territories, four aboriginal organizations have comprehensive land claims agreements, the Inuvialuit, Gwich'n, Sahtu-Metis, Tlicho.
The Tlicho Agreement of 2005 includes self-government provisions and we are in active negotiations with the others on self-government arrangements.
Article 4 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (1993) with the Inuit of the Eastern Arctic led to the creation of the territory of Nunavut, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Thus far, the 22 agreements Canada has concluded with first nation signatories affect more than 40% of Canada's land mass. I use the word concluded loosely because as we have learned, treaty negotiations are not about conclusion but rather about creating new relationships. You have heard these comments many times here in the committee.
I will be pleased to speak to questions the committee may have concerning: the OAG Report of 1998 which examined Comprehensive Land Claims Agreements to that point—both the negotiation of agreements and their subsequent implementation; the 2003 OAG report concerning devolution in the north which also included recommendations regarding agreement implementation; and the 2007 Report on the implementation of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement of 1984 with Inuit Canadians of the Western Arctic.
As you are aware, these reports along with others such as the Senate Standing Committee Report "Closing the Loopholes", the Land Claims Agreement Coalition Model Policy and our own recent internal evaluation have served to point out some of the challenges we are facing in implementing these agreements. They have given us a great deal of direction on how to improve our relationships with aboriginal treaty and self-government groups. From Canada's perspective, we believe that we have done a fair job at completing the one-time or time-limited tasks that are necessary to get these new governments and government institutions up and running. We acknowledge that we need to now shift the focus to developing the relationship with these groups. In particular, we need to find a way to improve our means of resolving disputes.
In 2008, TBS issued Contracting Policy Notice 2008-4 amending contracting policies to improve the obligations to monitor and report contracts under comprehensive land claims agreements. It also fulfills specific commitments made within some Comprehensive Land Claims Agreements (CLCAs) for the federal government to monitor and report on its contracting activities in CLCA regions. I am pleased to report that INAC was chosen to lead this project and we are well underway to be able to issue the first reports, as required in the second quarter of the year.
On this issue of monitoring, INAC is modernizing and enhancing our obligation tracking system to be able to track and report more efficiently and with greater added value on the progress of federal implementation. We believe this will continue to improve the way we conduct our business in a way consistent with the past recommendations of the OAG.
In fact, we are asked to report back to the Office of the Auditor General on the progress we are making and the challenges we encounter in responding to the recommendations.
I welcome your questions.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.