Thank you.
To speed up the process, I think there needs to be a look at the steps. There are no clear steps for ATR. We kind of get lost in the Canadian government staff or the Department of Justice staff looking at their liabilities and what that is, rather than looking at getting the lands back to the nations as quickly as possible. We get tied up in environmental reviews and we get tied up in what municipalities say.
From a first nations lens, a municipality is a child of the provincial government and its opinions shouldn't overtake the nations getting their land back. A lot of times in the ATR process, for example, municipalities provide comments about municipal services, about access to roads and about all this loss of taxation revenue, but it's the nation's land, so why are we delayed because of a municipality? Why are we delayed because of the liability of Canada? Why are we delayed because of all this bureaucracy and people who have to have a say in things, when it's our land?
As an indigenous person, I'm looking at it as my land and wondering why it's taking you so long to give it back to me. That's some of the bureaucracy that comes up with that.
Then we get tied up in people playing politics, for example. They're bringing up other issues that don't necessarily reflect that it's indigenous land. They want to talk about something else and then they start playing politics with local MPs and other things to raise other issues, when the issue for nations is getting that land back and reconnecting with that land.