Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, we do communicate. Most of our communications are with other nations around British Columbia. We go and meet and present and talk about treaties with nations that invite us to come and talk about our treaty. It's lesser among our group, but there are noticeable differences between how we do business.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We started talking about treaty negotiations in about 1992, as B.C. presented this morning, in an organization called the First Nations Summit, but it started previously in the congress. Then we started in Nuu-chah-nulth later on in the 1990s, and we went so far with 14 nations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For Maa-nulth, our total loan exceeded $20 million to conclude the treaty. Looking at some of the court cases on single issues today, they can reach $20 million and more. We negotiated 26 chapters of individual things to come to an agreement, so I think we used our funding really wisely to cover a broad base of things over which we have jurisdiction, partial jurisdiction or complete jurisdiction.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We dealt with them as best we could. We've had a challenge, and it's since been resolved in one of our nations. It didn't alter anything for Maa-nulth. The treaty had profound impacts when we went from the big table to the small table. I don't know if you're interested in the detail, but in families you have intermarriages between nations and there was fighting in the homes, there were impacts on the schools and all those things when our nations separated and we started our own treaty tables.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I mentioned one of them and it had to do with the pooled borrowing. As well, we were having problems accessing certain categories of capital that Canada made available to other nations. I think one of the things that we need to have in place is a relationship with Canada where if we have issues with Canada, then we should have a government-to-government process that circumvents the long lineup of waiting time or the expense of....

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. It's every 15 years.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right. That's what's in the treaty at this point. We have issues that have come up from day one and have continued to this year. It was 2012 or 2013 when we started preparing for the 15-year review. We have a set of criteria that was developed, and it tracks all the relevant things that we should be tracking in regard to the treaty.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Every time I read the treaty it seems to get better and better. I have to say that about a lot of the treaties, and I don't say it about many documents. This has liberated us from the colonial type of imposed government we had with the Indian Act, and it allows us to make our own laws.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What the treaty made us able to do was to make our own decisions and act on them immediately. We made a decision to build an administration office. All our nations are doing something economically right now that's huge for them and that would not have been possible prior to the treaty.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In 2011.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I feel it should be an ongoing process, meeting with the ministers to discuss some of the areas we're having difficulty implementing. When we're negotiating a treaty, there are intentions around the table with all three sets of negotiators from the province, the federal government, and our first nations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm going to ask my colleague, Gary, to respond.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, I want to thank the Tsawwassen people for allowing us to take care of this important business on their traditional lands. The Maa-nulth first nations treaty society represents the five first nations signatories to the Maa-nulth treaty. Specifically, we are the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, the Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k’tles7et’h’ First Nations, the Toquaht Nation, the Uchucklesaht Tribe and Ucluelet First Nation.