Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's exactly what I'm saying. As I have put it, if you create the monster, if you give that tribunal the authority to make binding decisions, people take a step back and they'll go to the precipice and say, look, can we resolve this by agreement? There's always a better way. No

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Fair enough. I think there will be some resource issues there about how the tribunal manages that workload. We may be creating a new problem by shifting the backlog. Like an elephant swallowing a basketball, it won't go over to the tribunal; it will be locked up there. I hope t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I want to make another point about clause 25, the interplay between intervenor and party. If a province, for example, were to opt in and to say it had an interest and would like to participate and be bound by the decision, then I think that's fair game. I would say it should also

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sure. I'd like to address the point about mediation and the backlog and ask one of the other panel participants if they'd like to speak to a very unique and positive recommendation that a panel of elders could perhaps even assist in this process. First of all, on the mediation a

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Okay, I'll see if I can do this justice within the limited time. First of all, let me address the binding decisions. My understanding is that the Indian Claims Commission's inquiry function will be dissolved. They might focus more on dispute resolution, providing facilitation or

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Maybe I'll start with the point on consultation first. First of all, on substance, usually there's never enough time to fully and adequately engage every community on these issues. What we see here is really a balancing act in terms of the efforts to pass the legislation, to get

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. Jim referred to me as “my friend”. It sounds like we're in court. I want to preface my comments by saying that I have been a student of process, this process in particular, for about 17 years. Prior to going into private practice in Calgary, I was with the Indian Com