Madam Speaker, I agree that the cap being imposed has many negative consequences.
If a first nation involved in a land claim process has a substantially larger claim than the proposed $10 million cap, it will ignore the process completely. If a first nation is seeking $100 million, it will not get involved in this process at all. It will ignore it and move on to the litigation process.
A note that came out of a briefing from the first nations last month was to do an assessment of what the impact would be. If all claims that were either outstanding or that still had to come were dealt with under this process, it would take something like 100 years to get through the process. When one looks at the fiduciary responsibility of the crown to first nations, that alone says that the bill will not withstand a charter challenge and it will be struck down by the Supreme Court.
To deal specifically with the question of those first nations that have claims in an approximate range of $10 million, say $15 million up to $20 million, in my experience as a lawyer who has done litigation, oftentimes litigants take the position that they cannot get any more under the process, even though they are convinced they are entitled to more. However, the alternative process would be very expensive, time consuming and very difficult on the individuals involved in it. In effect this is a mechanism by the government to browbeat, intimidate and impose resolution rather than to deal with all cases, as I cited earlier, that demand of the government to take part in a meaningful negotiation and reconciliation process.
We certainly do not agree with that kind of imposed cap.