Thank you.
I, too, come here with many concerns and issues with the Indian Act. Back home we have what we call landowners, and yet we have a lot of obstacles. The department, the regional and the district office, are telling us that we have to take these lands back. This is an issue that was brought up back in 1955, when the district office told us that we can give these landholders land for them to prosper and profit from.
The other issue is with the wills and the estates that we have. When we lose a loved one, there are disputes, but we handle them at the band level. When people go through the process at the district and regional office, they have to wait for close to one year to get an application process through in order to try to get their grievances out of the way, yet they run into a lot of red tape through the system. This is one of the reasons we do it on our own, but it's not well respected for the chief and councils to try to settle these wills internally without any federal bureaucrats coming in to tell us what to do.
We've been doing this for some time, and yet when people pass away in our communities, they're still on the band list. They're not excluded from the band list. They're still on the band list when they pass away. A lot of these things are going on.
We pass a lot of bylaws, but they are scrutinized at the federal level too, because these are not bylaws that they accept from a first nation. When I heard that first nations are not allowed to pass bylaws....
We're under the band custom back home, whereby we have our own band elections, not elections under the Indian Act. Our people drafted their own election codes. They weren't drafted by an Indian Act process. We respect these band custom elections, because they are under our laws, which we wrote. These are respected at the regional level and at the district level and also at the federal level. They are recognized by our band membership, who pass these things at band assemblies. What our band members speak, when we pass things, goes through them, not through the chief and councils creating any of these bylaws.
So you can see that there a lot of issues that we inherit back at home as chiefs of a first nation. Yet we go through obstacles in making these changes.
I have to give Rob Clarke a pat on the back for making these changes, because back at home we are looking at a hydro project from which we can benefit in the long term. But some of these designations of the lands are a hurdle to our first nations, because we have to go through this process now in trying to benefit our people through this project. If it ever does go, then that's the wealth of our first nations back home.
Yet this Indian Act holds us back. I as a chief represent 1,050 from Chakastaypasin First Nation. It affects us on our land claims too. There are a lot of issues that affect us in this Indian Act, that tie us down.
Our elder here, Barry Ahenakew, mentioned the recipients' agreements that we signed. There are sections in these that define a band. If you're a band, you're a band. There are a lot of things in these agreements involving accountability and transparency that we have to endure for our funding, from monthly reports right down to auditing and consolidating the audits. These things are hurdles to our first nations people at home when we try to do business and our staff are not funded properly, because all the programs are at a standstill. These things and the Indian Act affect us back at home as a whole.
From a treaty perspective, I've always said that if the treaties were honoured and if the Indian Act were maybe abolished, we wouldn't be in this situation today.
You know, some first nations do abide by and work by the Indian Act, but it does have hurdles and it does have infringements on how to conduct business and how to prosper in the modern world today. A lot of these articles and sections are obstacles for us back at home.
I'm pleased that I am here today with my colleagues from east to west, and I guess from north and south. A lot of first nations back at home would like to see a lot of improvements in this Indian Act.
I have lots to say, but I'd like to let my other colleagues around the table here say something. I know we are limited to at least an hour here.
Thank you. If there are other questions, I will answer them as much as I can.