Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well there's a right of resumption that the provinces have over lands and they keep that so they can take lands for public purposes. A reversionary interest that bands would have over lands.... You know, that would be akin to a right of expropriation, I would guess.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I hosted a national conference on this in October of 2010. I had Hernando de Soto make a presentation at the conference, and those of you who don't know, he wrote a book called, The Mystery of Capital. He sits on a committee with Madeleine Albright to alleviate poverty for the UN

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well what we're contemplating is that the entire land base would be under FNPO, because otherwise it would lead to the leasing that was mentioned earlier. So it would all be under FNPO. There isn't going to be a choice of bits and pieces.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The whole land base....

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right. Transferred.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. That simply means that the title will always be vested in the first nation, no matter who has an interest in it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right. Another area I talked about was when an individual dies intestate, there's no impetus on the part of the heirs to settle the estate. In my community, we have some very valuable tracts of land. It's now two generations since the individual passed away. But there's n

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The first step must be the passage of federal legislation that sets up the process by which title, which is now vested in the federal government, would be transferred to the first nation. Provincial legislation would also have to be passed to ensure that they respect that process

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's a little bit different. You asked about the Indian Act. Under FNLMA, you can enter into longer term leases on your own. Under the Indian Act you have to have a vote amongst all of the electors who have a 49-year lease. There's a court case...not a court case but an action

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  On the existing Indian reserve?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, if you receive the appropriate approvals. In the case of Kamloops, when I was chief, I had a handshake agreement with the Sun Rivers development. They spent $18 million before a lease was even granted. So then you have to designate land, and now there's discussion about tak

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Just to finalize that area, there has been a lot of concern from individuals who are under FNLMA, and I have no objection to their choice. I think if it works for them—good. What I'm proposing is substantively different. It involves having a Torrens system with fee simple inter

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sure that all the committee members are aware of the St. Catharines Milling case and the Star Chrome case in Quebec. If you're not, those were very important cases right after Canada became a country. They pointed to, and underlined, the fact that if there are lands that are

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  From the onset I knew there had to be a broad public debate over this issue. There was a book released in 2009 that brought it to the forefront. I knew that this was going to be a substantive change from the status quo. All of us in this room recognize that the status quo hasn't