Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thanks for the question, and I will try to be brief. I know the committee is seized with the land issues and the link to economic development, so we're looking forward to any advice the committee has to offer in the months ahead. It's one of the most thorny issues in the “Let's

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The main thing, as the minister said, is the speed of business. It means that a council can actually make decisions very quickly and execute them without going through AANDC regional offices and getting permissions and getting ministers' signatures on documents. The Indian Act s

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Those are the decisions the local council should be making if they want to decide this is for housing, that is for protected areas, that is a cultural space, and so on. That is exactly the kind of decision the local council should be making in cooperation with its own community.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll correct this if I get it wrong, Mr. Bevington, but it's an NRCan program that we were able to tap into. It will affect us, and we can use the first nations infrastructure fund for clean energy projects on reserve if that's what the community wants to make a priority.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Perhaps I can help the member, just very quickly. The operating vote of the department includes the cheques to people who have come out of the residential schools agreement. It includes the remediation of contaminated sites. It includes the cheques that go to people under court

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We haven't changed the program, so I'm not sure what the question is.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll get you the number. It's a small amount that is used to reimburse Emergency Measures Ontario, which was in over the winter. These are always reimbursements to the service delivery organizations. They're usually provincial emergency measures organizations that go in as first

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  This was the first instance that I am aware of. I'll tell you what I'm aware of, and we may uncover more things over the next little while. There is an emergency management plan. Each first nation has its own plan and they're responsible for developing and implementing it. There

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I appreciate the question. Certainly we've talked about it at this committee many times. The new program came into effect on April 1 and replaces the old food mail program, which, just as it sounds, paid Canada Post to deliver parcels of food to communities. There was very litt

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's difficult to judge from Ottawa. The people who are unhappy are the ones who get the media attention, and the squeaky wheel gets the grease, etc. There are people who are unhappy in some cases about the rate structure or the choice of commodities, and they've made that very c

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  One of the other reasons you can invoke third-party management is for health and safety issues, and that was the recommendation I gave to the minister earlier today. Our people came back and said there was an urgent health and safety issue, and that's certainly the consensus in t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Community infrastructure is around $1 billion all-in.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Sorry, the CEAP would have been on top of that. As the minister said, in the CEAP we got a two-year injection—one-time only spending, that is, use it or lose it—for projects that were shovel-ready, which amounted to about $1.3 billion or $1.4 billion. Those projects are all essen

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I appreciate the question. I think this committee will get ample opportunity to discuss this when the bill arrives for your consideration shortly. This will be the fourth attempt, I think, to pass matrimonial property legislation. The situation was created by court decisions

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would commend to the committee, if you want somebody's independent view on this, the spring report of the Auditor General, Chapter 4. Madam Fraser talks about this quite extensively and comes down very clearly on the need for a legislative basis and standards. I certainly agree