Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  My information is that $106 million for the federal contaminated sites action plan was added in supplementary estimates (B). I will verify that for you and get you a financial—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  And there was an item in the supplementary estimates for the clean air program as well.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll be happy to provide you a table on what was in the main estimates and what was added through supplementary estimates.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Further to my previous answer, additions to reserves is a process of taking land that's available. It's almost always provincial crown land. The province has to go through a process of making it available. It has to be transferred to us. In order not to create a whole bunch of liabilities for the federal government, we go through a due diligence process of making sure there are no third-party issues and that the environmental issues on the site have been remediated before transfer--just as if you were buying a house, you would want to know there was no asbestos or hidden gas tanks.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The better people to ask would be the chiefs and councils that have gone through the process. I think we have enough evidence to say no, that is not true, that in fact it has activated economic activity in the area and it has certainly given the communities a lot more control over their land use and land decisions.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's very likely. I've been here for the last five cycles, so....

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't think, if I understand your question, these should be characterized as cuts. These are actually changes in spending because things have been completed. What happened on a number of the contaminated sites projects up north is that the remediation work is done. We've moved on to the monitoring phase on those specific projects.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, I think the exchange we had was about the contaminated sites program and the clean air agenda, which were again caught in that problem we always have that when the estimates go to bed, we don't know what's going to happen to the sunsetted programs in the budget. That's always unfortunate, because the planned spending doesn't reflect things that will happen in the budget.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In fact, in those programs the money was added in. There was money added through supplementary estimates (B) for contaminated sites—$106 million—and there was money added back in for the clean energy agenda. I'd be happy to try to construct a funding table for you of what was in the mains and what was added with supplementaries.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Very quickly, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a separate department. Justice Sinclair is the deputy head of that department. He has his own estimates, his own report on plans and priorities, and his own performance report. So that's really a question you should put to him.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If you've been following the issues in this area for a while, I think you've seen increasing attention to the need for a more solid structural foundation for the activities we have. It was a major theme of the former Auditor General's report last year. You're also seeing that reflected in the action plan.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sure you're familiar with the fact that specific claims are allegations of very specific violations of trust or responsibility by the Government of Canada. Some of them go back a long time and some of them are more recent. They often involve land transactions and that sort of thing.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think there's definitely momentum in these issues. The pioneering communities were Sechelt, Westbank, and Nisga'a in terms of a modern treaty. Everybody has learned a lot from the early experience. We've learned the importance of having dispute resolution mechanisms in place so that you don't have to go to the courts to resolve every little issue.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I may comment, I think what our position would be is that we are fully implementing all of the legal obligations under all of the modern treaties. There are no dollars that have not been delivered and there is no foot-dragging. What happens in the agreements is that adjustments are made when you leave the Indian Act and enter into self-government, and people enter into those agreements freely.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, I'd just repeat that what you're hearing is negotiating friction between what they would like to get and what we think we can offer. In the Yukon, ten of the eleven first nations did sign a renewal of their agreements. We are generally able to renew these agreements and keep going, but we don't expect that everybody's going to be happy with the formulas and the amounts that we can afford.