Thank you, Madam Chair.
There are a couple of points I want to make on this, and for Mr. Jean's benefit I'll be referencing section 21(3)(b) in particular, and 21(3)(g). One of the challenges is that we will be asking provincial courts to take a look at the exclusive occupation order after death. We just had a bill before the aboriginal affairs committee where the section dealing with wills and estates was withdrawn from the bill because of the complexity of the situation and the fact that you can't just take wills and estates and refer it over to the provincial courts to interpret. That would include things like an exclusive occupation order, because of the complexity of the land codes. I just want to touch on a couple.
One is that the family home could be a variety of different things. It could be capital housing, which is housing paid for by the band members. It could be social housing, which is housing owned by the band. It could be a band-owned rental. It could be a certificate of possession. It could be a custom allotment. So when you're talking about exclusive occupation and interpreting the terms of the wills, the question becomes whether or not there will be the ability to actually interpret that.
The second piece I wanted to touch on was paragraph 21(3)(g), the fact that the family home is the only property of significant value in the estate. In this particular piece, again, there could be challenges in terms of valuing the family home because the conditions for the evaluation are quite different on reserve from what they are off reserve. Again, provincial courts will be in a position to have to interpret these particular sections and whether or not they have the resources and the tools and the capacity to do that.
The other issue that came up around wills and estates—because it does talk about the collective interest, and it also talks about the best interests of the child—was the fact that some provinces don't recognize custom adoption. If we have an order that's looking at an exclusive occupation order and it's in a province that does not recognize custom adoption, one wonders how they're going to look at the best interests of the child. Again, what kinds of resources are going to be provided to the provincial courts to interpret these different customs? I want to just turn briefly, again, to the acting Canadian Human Rights Commissioner. In the tool kit that he referenced, they actually put in a section here—it's article 34 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which says:
Indigenous peoples have the right to promote, develop and maintain their institutional structures and their distinctive customs, spirituality, traditions, procedures, practices and, in the cases where they exist, juridical systems or customs, in accordance with international human rights standards.
The issue around custom adoptions would fall within that jurisdiction that first nations recognizes but provincial jurisdictions may not.
Thank you, Madam Chair.