Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. It is interesting that those who are in self-government have a completely different fiscal relationship than do those who are not. Typically you're talking about a 10-year agreement whereby you're providing a government transfer that funds the bulk of the operations o

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We have to be clear about two things. We have launched a national dialogue. We met with representatives of 11 Yukon first nations earlier this week. We are looking toward launching a national dialogue with all 27 on how to move forward and develop together a new approach with reg

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sorry. I'll be very quick about this. The policy does not override what's in any treaty. The treaties continue to apply. The policy was meant to enunciate the basis on which we were calculating our mandate. It was never meant to take away from the negotiation that has to happ

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The only thing I would add is that it is important that all Canadians be educated with respect to our history and the role of indigenous peoples within Canada. That probably would be the number one thing that would make all of our jobs easier.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Generally speaking there are no direct impacts on private land ownership, in that land claims are settled through three main tools. The first is the provision of crown land, either federal or provincial, if it's available; the second is the provision of cash in substitution for p

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's a complex answer.

Public Accounts committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the invitation to appear today. I'm the senior assistant deputy minister for treaties and aboriginal government. I'm responsible for the specific claims process. With me is Stephen Gagnon, the director general of the branch in my sector resp

Public Accounts committee  I didn't have a discussion with the deputy minister as to whether or not there were issues vis-à-vis her availability. My assumption would be that there was a scheduling conflict that she couldn't address in order to be here.

Public Accounts committee  No, I can't. I don't know.

Public Accounts committee  Each is case-specific, of course—

Public Accounts committee  It is. It speaks to the fact that the way in which “lawful obligation” is being assessed and interpreted is too narrow and too conservative. I think that's what we're learning from the tribunal decisions. The best example I can think of would be the decision in Beardy's & O

Public Accounts committee  Given that the tribunal is an independent tribunal, we're not involved in the decision-making around the number of appointments or the appointments themselves, so I actually don't have a comment that I can make on whether or not there are a sufficient number of judges at the trib

Public Accounts committee  I don't have an explanation as to why mediation wasn't used more frequently. I can put forward, I guess, a host of different issues that I think were there. It fundamentally comes down to whether or not the government at the time saw that as a viable tool for resolving claims, ju

Public Accounts committee  I'm not saying necessarily that there was a political decision; I'm saying that I think there has been.... I'm not trying to promote this as an excuse—I want to be clear about that—but I'm not sure that the culture of the government was ready for what it would mean to go down t

Public Accounts committee  We are committed to the process that we've been jointly designing with the Assembly of First Nations and other first nations organizations to work together to ameliorate the process. We know there are problems. We know there are a lot of problems. I don't think it was ill-intenti