Evidence of meeting #3 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agreement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Because unfortunately, most of B.C. doesn't have a comprehensive claim.
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
If most of B.C. does not have a comprehensive claim, then I would say that maybe 40% of aboriginal communities in B.C. are not part of it.
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Around 40% of the first nations in B.C. are not part of the treaty process.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
I just want to talk about consultation for a moment. Mr. Duncan referenced the periodic review, and in the periodic review the issue was raised that actually Canada had failed to consult with indigenous peoples organizations in submitting their report. Also, a number of nations pointed out the lengthy process for resolving indigenous claims.
The Auditor General's report in 2006 made a specific recommendation around the development of a consultation policy. I wonder if you could update us on the status of that, because the department did make a response on it.
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
On the consultation, I can tell you what I know about it, but we may be able to provide you with more information.
We have established a branch in the organization, in the departments, to deal with consultation. They have developed a guideline that is for the use of all departments in terms of how to approach consultation with first nations and aboriginal groups.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Just to clarify, the department has developed guidelines for all departments to use as guidelines in how to approach consultations. Were first nations involved in developing those guidelines?
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Yes, they were involved.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
They were. So the first nations are comfortable with those proposed guidelines?
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
I cannot say, Madam Crowder, that they will be on side 100%. Of course they will always want to see some evolution of that, and things could evolve. With experience and with jurisprudence, things will evolve. But yes, they were consulted on that.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
The guidelines? Yes, of course.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Great.
On the land claims policy, in the same Auditor General's report, she talked about the fact that the B.C. treaty process was actually based on the 1986 comprehensive land claims policy. You referenced a 1993 comprehensive land claims policy. Has there been any effort to update what's happening in the B.C. treaty process given that there's a newer comprehensive land claims policy?
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
We talked earlier about the common table, for example, which has been established in B.C. That's the forum we have right now to discuss the treaty process in B.C. with the key partners: the First Nations Summit, the First Nations Leadership Council, the province, and the federal government. We are working together to develop some alternatives and some new ways of doing business in B.C., which will have an impact nationally, of course. On our side, we are looking at the potential impact nationally and how we can do it differently across the country, not only in B.C.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
So was the common table a response to the criticism around the Auditor General's report?
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
It's one aspect of it.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
I was interested when you raised the common table, because I spoke to some of the first nations negotiators in British Columbia and they have a slightly different perspective on the success of the common table. Their feeling is that there are not the resources and the mandate there to actually move ahead on some of these key issues.
I know you're very familiar with the unity protocol. When they're talking about certainty, constitutional status of treaty lands, governance, co-management of lands and resources, fiscal relations, taxation, and fisheries, their feeling is that these issues simply are not at the common table. They feel that the federal government does not have a mandate to address those key issues that are part of this unity protocol, which 60 nations have now signed on to.
10:10 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Of course, as I said, we are in the exploratory phase, but Monsieur Billingsley was a part of this process so I will turn to Monsieur Billingsley to give you more details on that. He was there representing Canada.
10:10 a.m.
Director General, Policy Development and Coordination, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Very quickly, in a sense, it's quite right. The first thing we said when we sat down at the common table is that we did not have a mandate to negotiate changes to federal mandates at the common table. However, some very interesting things came out of the common table that are contributing to our internal examination of federal government mandates as we go to the table. The minister has undertaken to work with first nations, and we are working with the first nations, the First Nations Summit in particular, on what kinds of mandate changes we will be looking at.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Do you have any sense of how long that process will take, because of course many of these first nations have been--
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
That's it, I'm sorry. We'll catch that up.
I have two more speakers on the list right now. We'll go to Mr. Duncan for five minutes and then we'll see where we sit.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to continue in the same vein as what Ms. Crowder was talking about, which is the B.C. common table. So if you have unanswered questions, you can just feed them to me.
To put it in a different context, more than 50% of the B.C. first nations are in the system. The common table does offer great promise, and I would like to say that for the most part the common table initiative, from my understanding, was initiated from the first nations, not from the government, so it has a lot of promise.
There was an expectation post-October 14 that there would be some federal push on the common table in order to try to get negotiations in British Columbia moved along a little more quickly. The impression I've been left with recently is that this has fallen into a state of not a lot of activity right at the moment. There are probably good reasons for that, such as the upcoming provincial election and so on, but I wonder if there is any update you could provide on where the common table is right now in terms of pushing ahead and whether real progress on negotiating mandates is likely.
10:15 a.m.
Director General, Policy Development and Coordination, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
There are a couple of things in your question.
One of our challenges, of course, is balancing the ongoing negotiations--and there are a number of first nations who are actively pursuing settling their negotiations, settling their comprehensive claim in B.C. right now--notwithstanding the work that is going on at the common table. So we have to balance that work with the work of examining our mandates, looking at where we can improve our mandates, improving our processes, and meeting some of the demands of first nations in terms of the federal government's negotiation mandates. We're not going to be able to satisfy all of the demands that were put on the table during the common table, but there have been a good many ideas generated in that forum. We're also exploring these ideas--with first nations in B.C., for example, who are not part of the common table--in terms of improving our mandates.
We had that flurry of activity for the common table when we sat and met rather intensively over a period of time. Now we've all gone back to doing our work. I understand that first nations are perhaps not happy with, for example, the time it takes the federal government to do its internal consultations and the internal work that needs to take place to be able to arrive at mandate changes.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
No, I'm not going to ask that question. Thank you.