Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Perhaps the easier question is, why does it show up in the supplementaries? We are constantly being sued. There's a lot of litigation against the crown. It's cheap and easy to file a statement of claim in court. It costs virtually nothing to file a statement of claim against th

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, I think the minister spoke to it a fair bit. We're trying to be of assistance to him in this. It's essentially a political process. There are 44 aboriginal political organizations. They have different views on this initiative. There are 79 tribal councils and there are 630

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It will be in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, more or less halfway across the Northwest Passage. It was chosen because a short airplane ride in a circle from that station reaches the largest number of ecosystems and geological areas. It's ideal for fieldwork.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The project, as I'm sure members are familiar with, was announced some time ago. We've gone through the issues of its mandate, science priorities, location, which community it should be in, and even what site within the community it should be in—all in very close consultation wit

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's a very good question. This is an example, like other areas—education, post-secondary, housing and others—where there are pockets of real excellence out there in first nations communities. Strong communities, strong leaders are doing all kinds of things and delivering great s

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll have to provide you with the active list as a follow-up. The projects that are under way right now are at different stages, and it's going to take many years to complete all of them. There has been 200 years of development across the country using practices that wouldn't be

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The program is part of the overall settlement agreement reached in 2006-07. The main features, as you know, are the common experience payment, the adjudication of serious claims, the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and so on. Part of it was the funding for co

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We've been operating with a capped operating vote for some time. That was announced in one of the previous budgets, so we've been very frugal about travel for quite some time. We've been trying to limit travel to the important things like meeting community—for example, setting up

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We go back from time to time for a renewal of funding for both north of 60° and south of 60°, so we have provisioning many years in advance. I'm happy to table it with you. We also have on the Internet—it's a recurrent theme—the current inventory of projects we're working on. We'

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Part of the problem the reform addressed was that claims had been languishing for many years. They were basically driven by the lawyers and there wasn't a really big incentive to settle. The actual, let's call them, alleged breaches.... A specific claim is a breach of a lawful du

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think, as the minister said, notice was given on the ways and means, and you'll be seeing the bill within a matter of days or certainly before Christmas. That's up to the House leaders, of course. You'll have ample opportunity to debate that bill. We are crafting it to respond

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, it's a bill that deals with the issues we have in the Northwest Territories. The two are so inextricably related that it makes more sense to deal with the change in the Northwest Territories with one study by Parliament.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think you as a committee and Parliament will have an opportunity to see all of the changes affecting the Northwest Territories at one time, and you can make a judgment as a committee on how to handle the legislation.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What we have on first nations reserves is passive welfare of a 1970s model—cheque writing by band councils. There is no case management. There are no diversion services in which people are assessed for what they need in order to be job-ready. There's no real partnership with post

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The short answer is that the numbers change virtually every day—which drove my staff crazy in trying to get ready for questions at today's appearance. We have 320 in progress, either at legal assessment... I'll come back to that in a second, if you don't mind. We have about 180