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.
9:35 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
No, not really, because right now they are just developing their final report. On December 21, if I remember correctly, it's about the mediation services....
February 10th, 2009 / 9:35 a.m.
Ralph Brant Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
No, mediation was to continue until March 31. The inquiry side was shut down as of December 31. Now they're doing their final report.
9:35 a.m.
NDP
9:35 a.m.
Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Yes, it will.
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NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
So the mediation service is continuing then. I say this because the role of mediation was one of the questions we had back in the days when we were originally talking about the bill. So has that role continued to be fleshed out?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Madame Dupuis decided to close the mediation function as of December 1, in effect.
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
At the commission. We've been contracting with others to provide the mediation services until we can get a new mediation function in place.
9:35 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
So that mediation function is still happening, but the new process hasn't been implemented.
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
That's correct.
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NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
What is happening to the specific claims that were before the commission and still in process, that is, those the commission had actually started? And how many of them are there?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
There were about 18 claims still with the commission when the decision was taken to close the commission. We decided that the ones that were actually into the inquiry process should continue to the completion of the inquiry. For those claims that had not started into the inquiry process, we brought them back into the department and gave the first nations an opportunity to review the claim and to give us any new information they might have, and then we'll process them through our normal assessment. So they were given a second chance, really, to refresh their claim.
9:35 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Out of the 18 claims that were in the inquiry stage, how many of those went back to the department?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
About 10.
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NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
About 10. Are the claimants going to get any additional financial assistance to help them, because the process is different from the one they actually started with?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Yes, we provided funding for them to review their claim and to provide any additional evidence or case law that might apply since the claim had been filed.
9:35 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
You are probably aware that when the minister and the department were here last week, I raised the issue about the six months, and now I understand that I need to ask another question.
First nations were given notice that they had six months to supply additional information. Were those six months for the people who were at the inquiry stage at the commission, or were they for all of the claims that were in the hopper?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
It was for all of the claims in the hopper, that is, at the assessment stage.
It was a fairness issue. Because some of these claims had been in the system for about 10 years, we thought we should give them the opportunity to refresh their claims before we did our assessment, under our lawful obligation, at review.
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NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
So all of the claims that were in the assessment process now need to be reassessed under the new rules?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
Yes.
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NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
And every first nation who had a claim had this opportunity to refresh their claim.
What happens if they don't have the financial or current capacity to refresh their claim within that six months, but they know they have additional information? What's going to happen to them if they have information that comes in after the six months?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
If they tell us that, we'll put the claim on hold until they can complete the work they need to do.
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Specific Claims, Treaties and Aboriginal Government, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
It'll be a new claim. The three years will start again.
9:35 a.m.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
It'll be a new claim. So if they aren't able to meet that six-month criterion of submitting new information, they will lose their spot in the queue.