Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't know that it matters.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's not up to us to accept it or not accept it. The way the process was set up—and it was set up by the first nations themselves—was that first nations would come forward, identify themselves and their statement of intent, and that's when the BC Treaty Commission got into the act with the six stages.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Can you answer that?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you asking if Yale places a higher emphasis on fish than they do on other parts of their treaty?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We expect that there—

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  What I was going to say is that we do expect there is going to continue to have to be a way to resolve the issues. Unfortunately, it may end up having to go to court, and that will cost a tremendous amount of resources, yes, absolutely.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I don't know. Do you have any idea?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The negotiations that Yale has completed include that particular area we're talking about. This is why we were encouraging the parties to come together and have a resolution on that. We understand the real complexity here, and the real difficulty. But if all best efforts have been made, then what?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it sends out a clear message that when you negotiate a treaty and you've actually signed onto a final agreement, it's not a final agreement. Another party can come along and stop that from going ahead.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Clearly we still have much work that needs to be done. We've made the recommendation that land and cash offers need to be made a lot sooner. We just get different positions at different tables about when land and cash are actually put on the table. It's hard to start having real substantive discussion with a neighbouring nation, or if you're all within the same language group and you're looking at carving out a piece of your traditional territory for a particular community, if you don't really know what land you're going to be talking about, because clearly it's not the entire statement of intent.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Right off the bat, when you have “effective date”, then the laws that they have set up, the jurisdictions that Yale has assumed, come into place on the day the agreement comes into effect. That then eliminates the Indian Act and it eliminates the responsibilities that are found under the Indian Act and places them squarely with the Yale government.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There is a lot of work that needs to be done with the different parts of the process. I think what we created in British Columbia in 1992 is a framework that can work. There are parts of it, over the years, that have deteriorated. When I first came on as chief commissioner, I described the process similar to what Grand Chief Doug Kelly just said earlier, that it has become a program.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  We certainly can. We can also provide the clerk with a copy of our latest quarterly report, which has just come out. The very first point is something we've been saying for the last two years that we've been coming to Ottawa. By the way, when I became chief commissioner in 2009, we immediately made it a priority to come to Ottawa.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's what we were describing earlier. A mediator was appointed, and we tried to bring the parties together to help with that process. Many other efforts have been made, from the commissioner responsible for that table as well as from the rest of the commission, to provide opportunities, to provide resources, to provide whatever we could to have the parties come together and resolve this issue.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Unfortunately, no.