Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For 10 years it is, but then what do you do after 10 years? Do you have to start over again and renegotiate that? It doesn't make sense. Let's make it part of the treaty.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. I'll tell you, the banks are going to look at Indian reserves a little bit differently when we get that FNFA done.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The four-day agreement was a final agreement, so it had a much bigger impact. That was when the House of Commons dealt with and enacted the Maa-nulth Treaty. It took four days to do that in 2009. They enacted it in 2010 or.... Anyway, it was four days. In that same year, 2010, you have another treaty group come together and they shake hands on something.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Right from the initiation of this process, when the task group report was put out.... There is a recommendation--I believe it's recommendation 16--that speaks specifically to interim measures. That was the whole point, that it was not right that the first nations have to wait until some years down the road when a treaty is signed before they start benefiting from the resources within their traditional territory.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Beyond the supports that are needed for the treaty process, so that we can start recognizing those economic benefits--the study you mentioned about land management--there are other initiatives that are directly related to, if I can put it this way, helping Indian reserves to work.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Absolutely. We'd love to share it.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, certainly, it has a big impact, but it kind of relates back to the question our MP, David, raised with me earlier. What we have done at our own table is take advantage of that. That scenario has not been repeated at very many tables. The majority of the work, the majority of the emphasis, has been on the negotiations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll have my colleague, Commissioner Haggard, who sits at that table, respond to that.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Two or three years into this process, the first economic impact analysis was done, and since then we've been updating it. We had PricewaterhouseCoopers do an update in 2009. At that point, the annual benefit was around $10 billion if we were to have a number of treaties settled.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The way the process is right now, there comes a point when the treaty must move forward. But before it gets to that point, we encourage the process as much as possible and provide as many resources as possible. However, the resources that flow to the first nations come from Indian Affairs, through the treaty and aboriginal government section.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yale isn't getting everything they want.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's definitely a part of our mandate--public education and public information. We take that very seriously. Just last month we were at the Union of B.C. Municipalities specifically for that purpose, to talk about the relationships that need to be built amongst the local governments, municipalities, and first nations.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  “Hostile” might be too strong a word, but maybe not. They certainly have lost faith in the treaty process.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I could add one thing in particular to that. I mentioned how we need to have a firm mandate on negotiating fish. I mentioned we have all these studies that have been going on forever, and that has made it difficult to have a mandate on fish. In January 2010, then Minister Strahl came to the principals' tables--the principals being the province, the first nations, and the federal government--with a position on carving out, and he used that language, “carve out”, the fish so we could finalize agreements and we would carve out fish.