Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much for coming on relatively short notice.
It was my understanding that we were also going to have the land management organization, but we have had the benefit of the briefing, so some of my questions might touch on information they've provided to us.
I have four categories of questions. I prefer to put those to you so you can mull them over and give a timely answer, just so you have an idea of the areas.
The first one is on capacity building. I noted in the materials provided to us by the land management group, the Lands Advisory Board, that there are dollars for capacity building, but they only appear to be available to the signatories to land codes. It was noteworthy to me that while there might be Alberta first nations representatives on the actual board, there's not a single Alberta first nation that has yet signed up and has a land code. I thought that very interesting. And I don't see any Maritimes or Northwest Territories/Yukon first nations. So I'm raising a question about capacity and who those dollars are made available to.
The second category of my questions has to do with the process for the land code, the liability issues, and the capability to replace federal and provincial regulatory regimes, particularly for environmental impacts. I'm wondering about, in the process of the guidelines, providing ample information, including in the consultation with the first nation members, on the potential liabilities the first nation and its peoples may assume, including to external persons and lands and waters external to the reserve, if they accept development on their lands and it causes damages.
You mentioned that it replaces a federal assessment. There are recommendations being made that this code can be absent in an environmental regime. I would appreciate some discussion about that, because there are obvious potential major implications, plus the fact that, frankly, there's not much to replace at the federal level. Most of the environmental regime is at the provincial level and it doesn't apply to first nation lands anyway.
My other question is this. What about traditional lands? That tends to be where most of the impacts are occurring. Developers external to the first nation, sometimes in partnership with the first nation, are developing not on the reserve lands but on the traditional lands. Are those included? And if not, why?
My final category is on the implications of replacing the Indian Act regime with the land code regime. Does that mean the land then becomes fee simple? What are the tax implications for a first nation if they sign on? And will the property become subject to Canadian tax laws?
That's a big bundle of questions, but in three or four categories.
Whoever would like to respond, I welcome your comments.