Thank you, Madame Chair.
This clause concerns cases where courts will be looking at whether a spouse, a common-law partner, or survivor in the estate of a deceased spouse and so on has an interest or right in or to a structure or lands situated on reserve.
I keep re-emphasizing this point, Madame Chair, of whether the courts have an understanding of the complexity of land codes on reserve. We know that courts are going to be faced with collective interests. They are going to be faced with certificates of possession. We actually heard, in the other committee I'm on, other witnesses talking about the fact that in some cases with regards to certificates of possession there has been such complexity in determining who the actual land holder is. Sometimes there have been up to 10 people who may have had an interest in that particular property. So when it comes to the courts determining who is going to have a right or an interest, what resources are the courts going to have to be able to examine that matter?
We've discovered as well at the aboriginal affairs committee, where we've been dealing with land management issues on reserve, that there isn't a consistency in terms of how the title is registered. There have been some recommendations made and the aboriginal affairs committee has been seized with the issues around implementing a new land title registry system for reserves so that there is some consistency. But that doesn't exist at this point in time. So it's going to be quite a challenge for courts to determine how this interest or right can be assessed when they're evaluating matrimonial real property. This piece of legislation simply doesn't deal with those kinds of complexity. So it's very difficult to support that particular provision.