Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank each and every one of you for coming before the committee.
I would like to be able to say that I had some confidence that the committee would be able to amend the bill, but I have to say that my experience over the last two years has been that, almost without exception, any attempts to amend legislation that comes before here has not been voted on by all members of the committee. The opposition has attempted to change these bills, and we've had very little success.
We've been hearing consistently about issues around jurisdiction, the non-derogation clause, liability, consultation, and resources. That's been a consistent message around what's wrong with this bill.
Chief Twinn talked about ending up in court. I have a recent article here that says by 2012, the total legal fees for Aboriginal Affairs will exceed $110 million. So the government is prepared to put money into fighting these cases instead of making sure the legislation is correct.
I think Chief Weaselhead asked a very important question, that given everything we've heard, how can we pass this legislation?
I only have five minutes, and that includes your response time, so I'll ask my question. In the preamble, it says that the Minister of Health and the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs “have committed to working with First Nations to develop proposals for regulations”.
I think you're all aware that regulations are developed outside of the scope of oversight from Parliament and from this committee. What would you like to see in terms of a process? How would you define a process that says “working with First Nations to develop proposals for regulations”? What would that look like?
Chief Twinn.