Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Micha Menczer, and I am the legal counsel for the Mohawks of Akwesasne.
I will be brief. There is a written presentation in the kit that goes into more detail, but I want to address some of the proposed solutions from Akwesasne. My colleagues have addressed some of them. I want to highlight two areas.
There is a copy in your kit of a political protocol that was entered into between Akwesasne and Canada in 1998, and renewed recently in 2012 for 10 years. This protocol really recognizes the multi-jurisdictional nature of Akwesasne and the problems this creates for the community, both international borders and interprovincial borders. One community, so many jurisdictions, hard to govern, both for the Mohawk Council and for external governments.
It also recognizes a commitment to look for innovative and new solutions that will address this unique situation. There is no other first nation in Canada with these circumstances.
You hear a lot of things in the press about Akwesasne. For those of you who have been there, you'll know it's a very strong community, a well-governed community, and this protocol recognizes it. How does this relate to the bill?
The other piece I want to comment on is that in the spring of 2012, Akwesasne and Canada's chief negotiators signed two agreements—an agreement in principle on lands and estates, and an agreement in principle on governance and relationship. Those are also excerpted in your kits.
The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs recently received cabinet approval, and we are beginning final negotiations this summer. That agreement will recognize Akwesasne's jurisdiction over water and wastewater regulation and standards. Under clause 14 of the bill, upon completion of that agreement the bill would not have application to Akwesasne unless they sought to be on the schedule, as you are aware.
So how do we address these unique circumstances of multi-jurisdiction in Akwesasne? In terms of our recommendations in this area, there are two things.
First, under subclause 5(4) of the bill, there can be a regulation made exempting a first nation for all, or parts of, the bill. Our recommendation—it's in the submission—is that because of the fact that it is multi-jurisdictional, and as Jim has mentioned and as the written presentation goes on to explain, you can't have Ontario and Quebec in each part of the community looking for a consistent system. So we're looking for a concurrent development of a regulation under subclause 5(4) that would set out the regime for Akwesasne—the only one in Canada that is unique in this way.
The second element is that other bills you have—for instance, Bill S-2, dealing with matrimonial and real property—have a transition period when talking about first nations with land codes, to develop their laws before the bills click in. Even the first nations governance act of 2002, which was flawed in many ways, had an interesting provision in, I believe, clause 34 that allowed a three-year period for nations in the process of concluding final self-government agreements to be exempt from the application of the bill, to allow those agreements to be finished and ratified.
We're looking for the same thing in this legislation for Akwesasne. We're entering into final negotiations this summer. Actually, I'm going to a meeting tomorrow with the federal negotiators, where we're going to set the timetable for this.
It doesn't make sense to do that work, have the bill apply, and then un-apply. So we're looking for, similar to what you have in Bill S-2 and similar to the concept that was in the governance act, a three-year transition period to allow us and Canada to complete this work that will give recognition to Akwesasne's jurisdiction.
There is a lot more in here, but another element is that Akwesasne has been recognized by Canada, by Liberal governments, by Conservative governments, as unique through the political protocol, and needing to find solutions. There is a demonstrated capacity. There is a first-class facility. When Minister Duncan was minister, he visited the community and commented very positively on what it was like. The Grand Chief has invited your committee members to come down and see it for yourself.
So there is capacity, and there is a legal basis, based on the self-government agreement negotiations nearing conclusion, and the political protocol to look at this differently.
That's what we're asking.