Good afternoon. I thank you all for appearing before the committee. I certainly want to commend you on your presentations.
To the Union of Ontario Indians, with Deputy Grand Chief Hare, I certainly appreciate the fact that you've itemized some of the amendments you would like to see and the rationale behind them. That certainly makes our work very easy in terms of progressing if we as a committee decide to go in that particular direction.
As well, I appreciate the comments of Mr. Hunter and Grand Chief Stonefish.
One of the first questions I raised with the minister when he was before this committee talking about Bill C-30 was the issue of land and the prohibitions within certain phases of the Specific Claims Resolution Act that, once you go to a tribunal, you can only compensate people in a monetary fashion. The minister's response basically was, listen, the federal government doesn't own any land, or what we do own is so minuscule that it really wouldn't have much of an impact, because we can't award it; we have no jurisdiction to award it.
But I still think this is a major issue that's reflected in each of your presentations, and I wonder, with the way the bill is structured and the language that's in it, will first nations themselves be willing to engage in this process with that prohibition in place, the fact that you cannot compensate with lands? They can only compensate from a monetary perspective. Will people be less willing to engage in this process? If the bill goes through as it is, will people be less engaged?
I wonder about section 91.24 of the Constitution, which says that the federal government has responsibility for Indians and lands reserved for Indians. That might not necessarily be the boundaries within which people operate now or have been confined to by the various historical incidents, happenings, laws, people taking the land, that type of thing.
I'm looking for more clarification on this from each of you. What I want to know is, are you going to be willing to engage? If this bill goes through, will people engage? If people don't engage, what's the use of it?
Secondly, how comfortable is anybody with one judge being the final arbiter of any claim that you put forward, if you went to the tribunal? There's only one judge—not three, just one. I'd like to know that.