I would say first of all that the land codes themselves, the First Nation Land Management Act, are a form of sectoral self-government. It just applies to land management.
There's a whole range of ways that a first nation can leave the Indian Act. The most common that we see in Canada right now is first nations that have opted out of the Indian Act in regard to elections. The majority of first nations in Canada follow band custom elections, so they follow their own procedures. The only thing is that they lose access to the appeal process that the Indian Act provides under the indigenous and northern affairs department, but with that they can develop their own institutions.
For first nations that are still under the Indian Act, you have many governance agreements. They sit down with Ottawa and the province they're in. They're able to take back jurisdiction over some areas. As an example, in northern Ontario, in the Anishinabe governance agreement, a multitude of Anishinabe nations came together and voted on a deal. I don't know exactly how many areas there were, but they are areas that are very intimate to first nations culturally, like language, culture, education and defining who a member is whom the first nation can take back.
Working in this area for about 15 years now, we've worked with a lot of first nations, particularly on the Prairies. We've always found that for first nations, even under the Indian Act, as problematic and anachronistic as that legislation is, there are always ways they can take back control by adopting policies. First nations can pass band constitutions that allow them to create accountable institutions that can act as checks and balances, and then often, when those things are contested in court, the court will recognize those institutions that were established by the first nation. The big thing is that the first nation needs to accept these institutions and buy into them.