Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's complex, I know. I understand where you're going with that. I as well want the first nations to be able to deal with this on their own. When you have a small reserve with small membership.... You're from Muskeg, right? There are thousands of first nations out there. I'm fr

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm sorry, I don't know how that number came about for Ontario, B.C., or Alberta—B.C., $300,000; Alberta, $150,000; or Ontario, $200,000. I wish I did know, and even then, under the Indian Act, how they came about with a $75,000 number. When it plays out in the community when y

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There's the first cut, which is the $75,000 or whatever the threshold amount is. That goes to the spouse. Then afterwards, it's simply a formula in the Indian Act or the provincial regimes, whichever one you go on. They're all kind of different. My understanding is that it goes s

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If there are no children, it goes to the parents. If there are no parents, then it goes to the brothers and sisters. That's typically how it goes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In my head, the trigger that goes off right away is that under the act as it is, the minister has to approve the will. I don't know if you're thinking of taking the discretion of the minister to do that out and then placing it in a bylaw power for chief and council to make a deci

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sorry, I'm just reviewing my notes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are two avenues by which I see this coming. One involves the clients we have who have to deal with these matters on reserve. I can't breach solicitor-client confidentiality, obviously, but this is the way I see the issue come in. I try to analyze it with the facts and I go

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think you can get input from your own staff on where they see gaps in their process, because they're going to have complaints coming at them on a number of issues. Externally I think you need to talk with first nations, however you devise that process, and figure out where they

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  My comment is you are going to need to engage in some type of a consultation regime just to get an idea from first nations people about what they think is wrong with it externally.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, and when you do that you're going to get some idea of the interest and uptake on whether or not first nations actually want to do anything about it, and if there's enough resources for them to do it, because there is a lot on their plates every day.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In Alberta I was able to call whoever was appointed to deal with the matter relatively quickly and talk with them. I didn't think the conversation was satisfactory in my humble opinion. I was able to have a discussion on what they thought about the issue. I thought that was a lit

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We don't know what first nations want. I can only give you what we think and that's why we're here. The provisions that deal with wills and estates are old and outdated. I think that's what you're getting at. The problem is they're not really current. Like other jurisdictions,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That was a comment that I made. I was actually just referring to the previous evidence from Mr. Gray or Mr. Saranchuk on April 8. What they were saying was that AANDC has a contract with two provincial governments to administer this section of the Indian Act. I didn't even know t