Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I guess there's a professional and a personal opinion about some of these things. I think the Indian Act has two things that are striking. The first part is it's an anachronism in paternalism, and I think some of the efforts to remove some of those things is very welcome. The second part is technical.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I am going to say something very quickly. It's about the bond regime and the First Nations Fiscal Management Act. Back in 2012 there was a legislative review of the regime. It proposed a number of changes to improve it. It was a kind of normal course of events; after about eight years we looked at the regime to see if we could improve it and make it work better.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, that's what I was referring to in my last remarks. There has been work going on with the institutions and the department, as well as first nations, capital markets, institutional lenders, to look at the legislative review and the results of that and to come up with some recommendations to government for how to improve and enhance the regime.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It relates to the First Nations Fiscal Management Act regime. I mentioned the three institutions that support that regime. Essentially what that regime does is it affirms jurisdiction for first nations around such matters as taxation and fiscal management and creates a vehicle akin to what exists in provincial jurisdictions so that communities can take advantage of pooled borrowing.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's huge. Depending on how you count it, first nations are earning revenue through taxation and other sources of revenues. There are a bunch of different pieces that have to connect together here. But if you look at various sources of information, there is not quite $1 billion of revenue in the consolidated revenue fund that is basically first nations money sitting there waiting to be approved for use.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Perhaps I could start with the answer. Thanks for the question. I think Andrew's comments in the presentation are clear around some of the key impediments. The Indian Act is the major impediment to business on reserve, unquestionably. I think that where we have been successful either by sectoral or self-government agreements is we have gotten people out of the Indian Act through things like self-government agreements themselves, or through things like the First Nations Fiscal Management Act or the First Nations Land Management Act.