Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are a series of decision points within the existing regulations that we'll be bringing over to new regulations. An example would be the suspension of operations. Right now there is the ability for the executive director of Indian Oil and Gas Canada to suspend operations. That isn't done with the consultation of a first nation because of the implications to a first nation if they were involved in that suspension order--liabilities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That was an area that was talked about. Certainly first nations are involved at a very high level in the oil and gas operations right now on their lands, but we've had no requests from first nations for such an addition, not even in the area of prior notice.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll answer that one. There are many decision points right now in the Indian Oil and Gas regulations at which there is first nation consultation; there is first nation notice that goes out. But there are also a handful of areas where the government itself makes an arbitrary decision, one example being in the area of pooling.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That was talked about on Tuesday as well by Mr. Crowfoot. The lease cancellation process is something that is used as a last resort for the government. We have a lot of mechanisms in place through which we deal with companies or deal with first nations to try to resolve an issue.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We don't have a formal dispute resolution process in place. That's part of the concern we have and part of the modernization of the regime. In addition to legislative and regulatory change, we're looking at a series of policy changes, such as an alternative dispute resolution process that would be brought in to address those types of issues.