All right.
They guide us in the management of constitutional, federal and provincial responsibility in the area of aboriginal rights and treaty rights. Comprehensive claim agreements provide certainty regarding the ownership and management of land and resources. Self-government agreements, for their part, set up aboriginal governments that are accountable to their citizens and reduce federal responsibilities in managing the internal affairs of aboriginal communities.
Finally, through the specific claims programs, Canada can settle historic grievances related to the legal and financial obligations not carried out by the federal Crown with respect to first nations. These policies and processes for managing aboriginal rights and titles help us keep social order by helping us reach negotiated solutions to historic grievances and to disputes regarding aboriginal rights. Unfortunately, we need only think of situations such as the Oka or Ipperwash crises, both of which resulted in loss of life. It cost over $100 million to manage the Oka crisis.
On a more positive note, we would mention the Supreme Court of Canada decision on the issue of the existence of aboriginal rights and titles in the Maritimes. The policies and processes we implement enabled us to strike a fragile balance between aboriginal and non-aboriginal fishers in the region. In fact, the Canadian courts, in their decisions involving the interpretation of aboriginal rights, regularly invite the parties to seek a negotiated settlement to their dispute. The courts regularly send us back to the negotiating table, when the communities take us to court.
So we could say that Canada's policy frameworks for addressing aboriginal and treaty rights, which we call section 35 rights, include the comprehensive land claims policy, which provides for negotiated resolution of aboriginal land rights and claims in those parts of Canada where aboriginal rights were not addressed by treaty. You have in front of you a map, where you can see the modern treaties that have been negotiated up to now. The historic treaties, as you know, cover the Prairies and the majority of Ontario, except for the area of la vallée de l'Outaouais. All that part of the country is covered by the historic treaties, and then you have the northern part and the northeast covered by comprehensive claims, or what we call modern treaties.
The inherent right of self-government policy provides for negotiation of practical arrangements for the exercise of self-government rights of aboriginal people, recognized by Canada in 1995 as an existing aboriginal right under section 35 of the Constitution Act. Reaching those types of agreements is just the beginning. Those agreements are establishing a new relationship between the aboriginal governments, the federal crown, and provincial and territorial colleagues and governments. The establishment of this new relationship is not without its own challenges. Comments from the land claims coalition, from the Office of the Auditor General, and from the Senate committee are helping us with the development of approaches that will help all parties develop a new relationship based on reconciliation.
The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development has been assigned the responsibility, on behalf of the Government of Canada, for negotiation of comprehensive land claims, self-government agreements, and specific claims, and the responsibility to oversee the implementation of those agreements.
The federal government has achieved significant results as a result of the agreements we have negotiated with our partners. For example, Nunavut, whose 10th anniversary we are celebrating, was established and created as a result of an agreement on comprehensive claims. As you can see on the map, agreements cover most of the Yukon and a large area of the Northwest Territories, as well as Northern Quebec, part of Labrador and the Nisga'a Territory in British Columbia. More recently, an agreement, that will come into force on April 3 of this year, has been entered into with the Tsawwassen first nation in the Vancouver area. Self-government negotiations have shown the inherent right to self-government can be negotiated under the Canadian Constitution. There is support for the introduction of modern governance regimes, which must be accountable to the citizens they serve.
In addition, we have settled approximately 40% of the specific claims submitted to date. We have met most of the obligations arising out of historic treaties having to do with the total reserve area in the Prairies. We also gave over $2 billion to Aboriginal communities in Canada and transferred 15,000 square kilometres of land to first nations by way of settlements. However, the government's ongoing commitment is necessary if we are to manage the issue of Aboriginal rights and treaty rights effectively.
Land claims are still in effect for 20% of the land area of Canada, and involve close to 270 Aboriginal communities. The implementation of the existing agreements requires ongoing attention, and we face constant legal and political pressure to develop new approaches, temporary or interim arrangements, and additional funding to advance the issue of Aboriginal rights and the implementation of these agreements.
In fact, Minister Strahl has given us a mandate to explore with our aboriginal and government partners the options for dealing with some of these pressures in order to help us achieve some results. Some of you may have heard of the joint table established in British Columbia. This is a process put in place to explore these options.
With respect to the implementation of the historic and modern treaties, we have identified a need to renew existing policies and processes to ensure the effective management of the obligations of all parties and to establish an ongoing relationship based on the principle of reconciliation, which underlies the signing of these historic and modern treaties.
Finally, as you all know, there has been a major reform of specific treaties designed to speed up results and to promote greater transparency and an increased feeling that the process is consistent with natural justice. Since October 16, 2008, a new tribunal has been in place along with a new process for dealing with claims, one that was devised in cooperation with the Assembly of First Nations.
In conclusion, Mr. Chair, I would like to take a few minutes to present the key components of the policy on comprehensive claims and Aboriginal self-government. If you would like to have more details on specific claims, we could ask Mr. Brant to provide them.
The comprehensive claims policy was adopted in 1973 and covers the negotiation of ancestral rights not extinguished by treaty. As you can see on the map, this covers the entire north of Canada, both east and west. The main objective is to end the uncertainty regarding the lands and resources, to encourage self-sufficiency and the social and cultural wellbeing of aboriginal communities, and to reduce, of course, the number of disputes regarding aboriginal rights. The settlement agreements define a broad range of rights and benefits such as the complete ownership of certain lands. In this case, the reserve status disappears for these communities. There are also guaranteed rights regarding hunting and fishing.
There is also guaranteed participation in the management of the land and resources in the region covered by the settlement, financial allowances, a sharing of revenue arising out of the use of resources and economic development measures.
To date, we have signed 22 comprehensive claim agreements in Canada, the most recent of which was the Tsawwassen agreement in British Columbia, which I referred to earlier.
Over the years, this process has taught us that there is no model for a universal treaty. The final agreements vary considerably among the provinces and territories. We really must adapt our approaches to provincial and territorial realities. Negotiating a treaty is a generation-long project. On average, it takes 15 years to negotiate a final agreement, and about 10 years for the initial implementation. At the moment, there are some 80 comprehensive claim negotiating processes underway throughout the country. Since lands and resources come under provincial jurisdiction, the provinces are essential partners in these negotiations, as are the territorial governments.
Consequently, governments' ability to manage lands and resources without a treaty is being increasingly reduced because of the case law on infringements of rights and obligations to consult. Since 1982, over 40 decisions of the Supreme Court have influenced our understanding of the nature and scope of section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.
For example, the courts have said that the honour of the Crown requires that effective, fair processes be put in place to deal with the issue of aboriginal rights, and, as I said earlier, the courts often send us back to the negotiating table to come up with a negotiated settlement.
I will touch on the issue of aboriginal self-government, just to give you an idea of what is involved.
In 1995, the inherent rights policy recognized the inherent right of self-government as an existing aboriginal right under section 35 of the Constitution Act.
The policy seeks to focus on the negotiation of practical arrangements to provide for the exercise of self-government within the Canadian constitutional framework, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Government negotiations cover matters that are internal and integral to the aboriginal groups. National interest powers—Canadian sovereignty, defence, and international relations—are not negotiable. Negotiations can focus on core governance in one or more jurisdictions. Quite often first nations will ask for jurisdiction on education, child and family services, or other priorities for the community. First nations might also negotiate a comprehensive government arrangement that would cover all the authorities within the jurisdiction.
Self-government represents a new governance arrangement that shifts to a government-to-government relationship, instead of the dependency that we have under the Indian Act. It provides first nations governments with more responsibility, risk, and accountability to their citizens. To date, Canada has completed 17 or 18 agreements of self-government. We have 73 active tables right now involving 385 communities. Self-government negotiations are addressing significant policy challenges related to requirements for co-governance structure and political and financial accountability mechanisms, financial costs of implementing self-government, capacity for program and service delivery, and manageability of intergovernmental relations and implementation mechanisms.
Maybe I should stop there.
It will be a great pleasure for us to answer your questions. If members wish, we can also provide greater detail about specific claims.
