Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The short answer to your question is that—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The short answer to the question is that this decision to proceed with repeal of section 67 was made on the basis of principle. It was made on the principle that you've had the situation going on for 30 years, and the time to repeal it is long overdue. If there are consequences a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We expect that there will be challenges. We've talked about that. When those challenges come forward we will review the merit of those arguments. As Monsieur Watson indicated, we have more than 1,000 litigations against the Crown, ranging from the Indian Act to whatever else. A

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  History shows that attempts to amend the Indian Act have been difficult at least.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I will repeat what my colleague said. You cannot look at potential issues in a vacuum and say that by definition they're going to lead to the striking out of a provision of the Indian Act.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Repeat that, please.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, in fact I'm not necessarily an expert in this area, but if I understand the BCTC process, we're not saying that in the context of the BCTC process we are challenging the existence of aboriginal rights. We do recognize that some rights possibly exist. But as you know, the sp

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for that. With respect to the reasons why there are no provisions in the bill with respect to resources, it's simply because we don't believe this is something that necessarily belongs in the bill. The minister did speak to that when he came. We are looking to this com

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I'll just say that I think that is a fair assumption. In fact, as the representatives from the commission mentioned when they came, they have created an aboriginal subgroup within the commission's internal structure with a view precisely to work on that front. I think

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Just on that point, it is difficult to predict exactly how much there will be or how long that will last. It is not inconceivable, for instance, that in the first year or two there may be more, simply because you will have had sort of 30 years of denying. It's not inconceivable t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right, and my understanding is that those numbers have also been fairly stable. I guess that's what we know, but as for the rest, it's a lot of speculation.