Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sorry, but that was a thumbnail sketch.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Could you just repeat your question on the elections?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Things that are in negotiation with respect to a designation for commercial leasing, for example, depend on a band council resolution. That resolution is needed. So if a new band and council come in, the direction can shift 360 degrees. It can shift entirely, so that they might say that they don't want that designation any more or aren't interested in that commercial development, and it can stop completely.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I can speak to that question. There are two major programs south of 60. You heard our colleagues from the north speak about the regimes that exist in the north, but it's quite different south of 60. We have two major programs. The first is the lands and environmental action fund, which assists us and first nations in complying with our environmental requirements on reserve and in improving the health and safety of first nations communities.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, and even in the registry, land management, first nations have electronic registration. They can register their documents instantaneously. Within a day it's in the registry. Under the Indian Act it has to go through the regional office. The documents are mailed to headquarters.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  As I mentioned, we have 200 who just do the lands piece, not even the environment piece, on reserve in the department. We have quite a number of people doing it. It's the systems they're administrating that we're examining very carefully to look for efficiencies.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's a real need for capacity for land managers on reserve, for example. You heard me say that in NALMA, there are 106 first nations members. That's one-sixth of all first nations. They have to go to the University of Saskatchewan to be educated, and that means they're coming from the Atlantic provinces to B.C.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's a proposal for changing the way that education is administered to expand it to beyond just that one particular centre. We're taking a look at that possibility. I must say there's definitely a need for it among first nations, as you've identified. There are lots of first nations who don't have land managers.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For getting into the programs or for the land transaction?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the wait times that we've observed is, for example, for a community to designate lands for commercial leasing. It is very important, as Andrew was just saying, to match the economic development opportunities with the land issues, that is, having the land ready for that economic development and having it start at the same time.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It can be a year for a designation. Again, it's like the ATRs in that a piece has to go on at the first nation level first. One of the key challenges for a first nation in a designation is to get community acceptance through a vote. It usually always has to go to a second vote because of the number of people who live off reserve and don't participate in the vote.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Just to give you a very quick flavour—and we'll provide you with the statistics—in the last five years, the department has negotiated about 44,000 leases. We do about 10 designations a year. We've had almost 40,000 legal land transactions registered in the last five years, or about 8,000 a year.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's an officially incorporated not-for-profit, non-political organization. It has had an elected regional board of directors since 2000, and it includes 106 first nations nationally. There's also a B.C. group that represents many of the B.C. first nations. It's joined with NALMA now, and is called first nations for land management.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's a little bit different, because it has no treaties, but it's just something they've decided to do in their own land management world. They work closely together. Our partnership with NALMA resulted in the development of a national capacity-building program for reserve land management.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sure: both the Squamish and the Musqueam in Vancouver have quite extensive residential areas that are inhabited both by band members and by non-band members. It has quite a good success rate. If you're in Vancouver and drive along South West Marine Drive, there are big, big houses on the reserve in the Musqueam area and, as I say, inhabited by both band and non-band members.