Electoral Reform committee  Before Mr. Arreak responds, I would note that there are Inuit living in northern Quebec and in Newfoundland and Labrador as well. In relation to that question, it's important to remember that any system like that might have to be open to an Inuit vote that would include Inuit liv

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you, sir. I think you're interpreting NTI's outlook correctly. I think there's a perception at NTI that the public expectation in Canada is that we would not have the current House of Commons reform an electoral system on its own without the Canadian public having some fur

Electoral Reform committee  Our organization hasn't given that issue a great deal of attention, so I think anything we say here wouldn't be based on any conversations sufficient to give assurance, except as a completely impromptu remark. I guess it's one of those things we'll take away from this presentatio

Electoral Reform committee  Do you mean a referendum in a general sense, not the referendum that took place in the early—

Electoral Reform committee  As I understand it, what Mr. Arreak said is that NTI is mindful that a referendum can be a very divisive exercise in any democratic circumstances, and in Canada we've seen some fairly unhappy referendum exercises. I think Mr. Arreak recited some of the examples. The Charlottetown

Electoral Reform committee  I would reinforce the general proposition that if one introduced a mixed member electoral model and made no other adjustments, it's possible that representation in a Parliament would actually go down. That's because if you add to the current complement of MPs—if you add another 6

Electoral Reform committee  I would just make one observation, sir. We've made reference to the New Zealand system, but we're aware that when it was first introduced in New Zealand, the Maoris were approximately half the population. This was not introduced as a generous gesture; this was essentially giving

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you, sir. I would make the observation that I think the principle of the equality of every voter is not an absolute. Certainly we haven't followed that in Canada from 1867 on. We do, I think, in the design of Parliament, the House of Commons, treat the equality of voters a

Electoral Reform committee  I take your point about there being a constitutional basis for P.E.I.'s particular case. In our brief, of course, we said that section 35—recognizing the existence in Canada of the aboriginal peoples—of course is a constitutional foundation as to why that reality of Canada should

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you, Chair. When we were developing our brief, we were mindful that there's a great potential for any reforms to become too complicated for Canadians to track and be comfortable with. There's an advantage in trying to make reforms as simple as possible. When it came to th

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Is the question, does this bill improve the land use process?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  NTI believes it does improve the land use process, yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If you look at articles 11 and 12 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, you get limited text. Land claims agreements, by definition, don't get into the detail that is required in order to implement a complex land use planning environmental assessment scheme. The bill, of course,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The bill doesn't actually focus on local land use planning. Local land use planning is governed by territorial legislation in relation to municipalities. I think it clarifies a little bit of the world that unfolds when local plans and the broader Nunavut and regional plans intera

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Correct.