Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If I could spend a couple of seconds on the first part of your question, absolutely we have heard many concerns about the transition period, about resources, about a whole host of other issues, and I'm certainly not trying to suggest that we haven't heard that wasn't there. On the interpretive clause, certainly we believe there is the possibility under the act as it exists today, as has been done in a number of areas of employment-related matters, to be very sensitive to the balance of issues that would need to be treated in dealing with complaints in an aboriginal context.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I've timed it, and I think I can keep it to a bit less than 10 minutes. My colleague, Monsieur Ricard, has been unavoidably detained, but he should be here very shortly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is a pleasure to be here once again to discuss Bill C-44. Today, I would like to comment on some of the testimony you have heard, and then my colleagues and I would be pleased to answer your questions.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I guess when we look to the court decisions, the court speaks to consulting with the potential rights holders, or the actual rights holders would be my lay description of it. Obviously, there are any number of ways that consultation can take place. First nations can group together to do that, or other aboriginal groups can group together, or they may wish to speak individually on the subject.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, certainly in the instance of a complaint being launched and the tribunal, for example, if it goes that far, ordering a different set of behaviours, obviously it will.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What I would say is that we have a constant look—not just legally but in terms of policy objectives—at where we're not achieving the objectives we want. Sometimes those things are bound by the charter, sometimes they're bound by other pieces of legislation—environmental, for example—and sometimes they're bound by policy directions that don't sort of have their basis in any particular legislative requirement.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, what I would say is that the ongoing attempt to make sure we meet the spirit and letter of the law in Canada will continue. But part of the law of Canada would change in that people who currently do not have the opportunity to bring certain complaints against us will. To the extent that we take a different position at that point in time, for example, but are perhaps required to respond through a tribunal process and are found not to have been acting consistently with the act, absolutely, there will be a change on that front too.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No. The first part of my comment was that today we do an active review to make sure we are consistent with the spirit and intent of the law—any number of laws, not, obviously, just the Indian Act or the charter, but any number of directives and pieces of legislation. So that's a critical part of it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's a long history of the department working very hard to change its programs to get better results, because we recognize that there's a need to have better results, long before there's litigation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We consider all Canadian law.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We are currently in the process of doing that. We continue to work with Aboriginal groups to ascertain the areas in which they would like to receive assistance. It is mainly employment that is the source of many complaints. We expect it will be necessary to work with Aboriginal groups to determine, among other things, what the source of those complaints is and how they can be resolved.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It is currently six months. However, the Minister has expressed a desire to receive advice in that regard. We note that a timeframe of 18 to 30 months has often been mentioned in the testimony.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. I would just like to come back to the testimony of the Canadian Human Rights Commission last week. They spoke at length of the implementation process and the need to work with Aboriginal communities to determine how the legislation could be implemented. In some cases, the communities may want to develop their own procedure for resolving conflicts in the community before going any further within the system.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll ask my colleague, Daniel Ricard, to speak in a moment about the carriage of litigation, because that's part of how we think through this. We are aware that there will be complaints that come up. Those complaints will be spec-specific, they will be circumstance-specific, and they will be arguing specific points of law.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It won't only be on the basis of information that we have. People will base their complaints—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We haven't gone out and tried to figure out what the pleadings might be by a specific plaintiff who might launch a complaint. We know there are areas in which we are trying to do better to avoid the need for complaints in the first place. For example, recently in child and family services in Alberta, we launched an initiative that will take a very different look at trying to deal with the way child and family service issues are dealt with by first nations there.