Natural Resources committee  Actually, my response is going to be that the project lies under the responsibility of CEAA, which is responsible for the environmental assessment in terms of the determination. So we're not even, in this particular one, a responsible authority, which we would be, for example, if the project were directly on a reserve site.

Natural Resources committee  Our responsibility is to work in supporting other federal government departments with respect to their consultation duties to make sure they're aware of them; however, we're not the police, so to speak. We're more of a resource for them in terms of their responsibilities. They, with their own policies and procedures, respond to the needs and the situation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We're not involved in the settlement aspect of the department; that's a different part of the department.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Do you want us to get further information?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not aware of that. No, I don't believe so.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The additions to reserves process is based upon land that is selected by first nations; it's not us who picks the lands to be added to reserves. Within my area, have we done a study on that? No, I don't believe we have.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The issue of whether there have been specific results for specific lands added is a much smaller question than the bigger issue of what is necessary to increase economic development results across the spectrum in terms of aboriginal populations, in our case, south of 60°. Have we focused on the specific issue of economic benefits because of specific lands?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not sure I quite understand what you mean by tools. We're really at the stage of developing a method of analysis and planning with respect to how we can best support economic development. In this case, because we're talking about ATRs on reserves but also for the rest of the aboriginal population, there are a number of tools or levers, many of which are not under the control of the federal government.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I hate to be a broken record, but one of the reasons for the importance of the system of NATS for us is that we are going to have a better information database so we can report appropriately, so then people can help us in terms of bringing good insights to the process --where the blockages are, where they're not, what's working, and what's not.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a difficult question. I wasn't around at the time they were written, but what I can say is that ever since the first report, we have been working on putting in place a number of solutions to try to solve the problems you so rightly identified with the many other parties who are also part of the solution.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That would be under treaties and aboriginal government. If there's a particular piece of information you're looking for, we'd be delighted to get you the answer.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We'd be happy to get the answer from the department for you. Again, as you indicated before, we'd rather not guess at an answer; we'd much prefer to get the correct answer for you from the department.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's correct.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Again, I'm thinking with an economic development lens. So that's really what's more important. There are other reasons for additions to reserve, such as just to increase because of housing needs, because of space needs and growth needs, but certainly with the economic development lens, it really depends upon the nature of the land.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In terms of economic development, I think we've seen a number of success stories. In general, again, if you think of the work, for example, that Harvard University has done with the Harvard project, they're talking significantly about the importance of governance structures. They talk about the importance of citizenry having ownership of the activities and the proceeds from, for example, what they call own-source revenues, which comes from economic development, which can result in a whole different way.