Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on March 1st, 2011

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Has it? Will it?

[Pamela McCurry]

Well, there's clearly more work to be done on that. I believe that just recently, in a letter, Mr. Justice Slade, who is the chair of tribunal, invited the advisory committee to participate in discussions around mediation. It's also mediation on consent, which is an important factor. We'll have an opportunity to flesh out all of that soon.

[Greg Rickford, Conservative, Kenora, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you very much, Mr. Rickford.

Now we'll go to the five-minute round, and we'll welcome Ms. Fry.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would like to look at appendix A again, please, if you don't mind, the schematic. Thank you.

I notice that the second little bar says “Claim meets Minimum Standard”. First, there's, “First Nation (FN) submits claim“, and then it says ”Claim meets Minimum Standard”. What is the minimum standard that those claims must meet? Is it just a dollar value?

[Colleen Swords]

I'll ask my colleague to respond, but essentially, it relates to the quantity and quality of the information provided. It is more than just claiming X for x amount of dollars.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Okay. Can you tell me what those criteria are?

[Anik Dupont]

Ms. Swords is right. It's on our website. It's basically to guide the first nations that want to submit claims. There's the minimum requirement for documents and there is a way the information is to be presented to make it a lot easier for faster processing of claims. The first nations can now go on our website to get that guidance.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you.

As we move along through the schematic, it says, yes, the claim has been accepted for assessment and accepted for negotiation. What are the criteria for accepting for negotiation?

[Colleen Swords]

Well, the primary criterion is whether there's a lawful obligation on the part of the federal government.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

The only criterion or the primary one?

[Colleen Swords]

Only or primary?

[A voice]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

The only one? Okay. Thank you.

I just want to note here that the tribunal process, you say, is final. I note that at the very bottom of the chart it says “Judicial review only”. Does that mean it really isn't fully final and you could trigger a judicial review if the first nation in question doesn't agree with the final decision of the tribunal?

[Pamela McCurry]

There is access to the Federal Court for a judicial review under the statute in I think section 31. Primarily, the issues would go to questions of jurisdiction.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I have one final question. I know that we're talking about the specific claims process here, but what happens with the treaty negotiations in B.C. that seem to have been going on for 20 years now? What is happening to those? Can you explain that to me quickly?

[Colleen Swords]

The treaty process is continuing. It's quite different from the specific claims process, because it relates to situations where there isn't a treaty in place. There is a treaty commission, and we are working closely with them. The minister recently appointed a special representative to see whether there are ways to try to speed things up and to try to deal with the ones that are closer to settlement as quickly as possible.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Thank you very much, Ms. Fry.

We'll go to Mr. Weston for up to five minutes.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

To respond to Ms. Crowder, I just want to say that some of my best friends are lawyers.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I have been involved with the council for specific claims in British Columbia. Maybe you and my clients crossed paths at some point. Who knows?

I obviously applaud the streamlining process. Very big strides have been made there. Clearly, other countries looking at us would applaud the value of justice that is being served here, in the sense of really attending to the needs of people who feel that they've been left out of a system and are being brought back in. So to whatever extent you're contributing to those things, I think Canadians have to be very proud.

Can you perhaps go back to the question of what the future holds in terms of future claims arising? Is there an end point? Can we point to some sense that at the end of the day there will be no more claims? How do we do that?

You said that we're monitoring, that we're keeping on top of this by applying ourselves to higher levels of complexity. Over $150 million now, we have this new process. Cabinet is more involved in monitoring. But what can we say, going forward in the future, is the end point so that first nations and other Canadians can say

there is an end to this process, there will be no other claims?

[Colleen Swords]

That's a very difficult question to answer. Essentially, the process we have in place envisages a special $2.5 billion over 10 years to try to deal with claims under $150 million, which we would hope and expect would be a large majority of the claims.

I don't know that we will ever be able to say we will never see another specific claim in the future. I mean, a claim is something that a first nation can put forward. But they do relate to things that have gone on in the past, and I'd like to think that as time has passed, Canada, Canadians, and the government have become better at understanding what its obligations are and are abiding by them.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Ms. Swords, do you think that by offering a more streamlined process, and by making it clearer by putting the things you're talking about on the website, we're perhaps giving people a sense that now is the time to present their claims, and that we are consolidating them and getting on with the process of national reconciliation?

[Colleen Swords]

That's a very good way to put it. Indeed, we're concentrating attention and effort over this period to try to make sure we can deal with these lingering outstanding claims.