Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  First of all, I would make the point, Mr. Chairman, that the shortcomings I referred to should not be taken as a criticism on what we were able to achieve here. I mean, we understood going into the process that we wouldn't be able to achieve perfection in this collaborative under

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We want to express our thanks to the committee for extending an invitation to the Assembly of First Nations to speak to this committee on a very important matter. Before I proceed with my formal presentation I would like to extend a very warm welcome t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's an interesting idea. I must admit that we haven't given it much thought. I thought we had run a pretty comprehensive undertaking here. We could think about that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you for your time and consideration. You've been very patient with us.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The only thing I would point to is...it's not the same kind of issue as with the settlement agreement for residential schools. In the residential school settlement agreement there's an opt-out period. It runs out August 20. It's up to each individual survivor to decide for themse

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One point I would make here is that we would be cast, as I said earlier, in a very unfair position. We would be treated differently. Our governments would be treated differently in terms of ensuring that there's appropriate time to ready our governments to be able to deal with th

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, one of the areas where there's obvious consensus is with respect to consultation. So if we haven't been able to reach a consensus view or position on the proposed amendments, it's incumbent upon the committee to undertake appropriate and full consultations with all of the i

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Our proposition is based on some notion of fairness. You would have to assess that against what was considered fair in terms of the other governments with respect to the charter. That was a three-year process. Of course, preceding that, there had been full consultations with all

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll call on Candice to provide you the highlights.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  If there is due consideration of all of the amendments that we've advanced, then of course we would support that work, provided it proceeds with the consensus of the committee.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In fact, every decision taken by government that has an impact on first nations we see as a matter that is consistent with the duty to consult. The government casts a wide net over everything first nations governments do, and every decision that's taken has an impact or an effect

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We'd certainly be happier than we are with what we have now. That's for certain.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We would certainly be much happier. Thank you.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We made those arguments. We expressed those concerns right from when this thing was first introduced. What is particularly difficult for us to accept, and an unfair characterization that we've had to shoulder, is that somehow this problem we were dealing with was caused by chiefs

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I will very quickly on one point, and then I'm going to call on Candice Metallic here to speak to the more technical aspects of your question. Remember Bill C-31. We were told when Bill C-31 was introduced that no first nation community would be worse off as a result of the bill