I do not believe that the apology was an exercise in futility. Rather, I believe that the federal government's apology on Indian residential schools was a good thing. I saw in my own family the way that it made a positive impact on first nations people. My father went to residential school. I'm the first generation in my family who didn't go to residential school. My older cousins went to residential schools. The apology was not a panacea. It was not a miracle solution, but for some people, such as my father and my uncle, it did make a positive impact on their immediate well-being. That's the first thing I want to say.
The jury is still out on the outcome of how to assess the crown-first nations gathering. If we look back in 10 years and say that the meeting didn't have any impact, then perhaps it was an exercise in futility, but if this time period we're in right now ends up leading to some concrete, tangible outcomes for first nations people, then perhaps it was a step on the road to that. We'll see. The jury is still out.
With regard to your question, no, I don't believe that meaningful consultation is too onerous. I don't believe that the duty to consult is an onerous imposition on the crown. The honour of the crown is at stake.
The reason I said consultation needs terms of reference, a timeline, and resources to do so is that those are the things that need to be in place if we want things to actually happen. If you want something to happen, measure it. Let's put the measurements in place by which we can evaluate whether consultation has occurred.
Putting out the call to 633 first nations across Canada and other affected parties does not have to be a huge, onerous burden on the crown. That could be done reasonably within the existing resources allocated to the federal department, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, in my belief. Furthermore, the consultation process to actually bring in those voices, to aggregate them, and to work those into a piece of legislation that would legitimately replace the Indian Act could be done realistically as well. No, I don't believe it's too onerous.