Canadian Heritage committee  Well, part of the discussion relating to the commissioner's office was mostly with respect to the mandate. What's its purpose? How do you ensure that the purpose of the office is actually going to be realized? At times we talked about business lines as being important in ensuring that the office was going to be effective.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's an important business line. Then you get into the area of promotion. Then you get into the area of complaints investigation. Some of that, I believe, is reflected in the potential organization, but that's not the be-all and end-all at this point. It says “up to”.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can only speak to the AFN's experience on this. We were instructed to seek inclusion in the legislation—these essential 11 principles that I know were shared with you last week by the national chief—so the objective for us was to try to get them into the main body. Often the response was, well, we could put that in the preamble.

Canadian Heritage committee  You will note that in the definitions section perhaps the definition of “Indigenous government” isn't broad enough for people's liking. I'm sure they would prefer to see that reflected in the legislation as well, the recognition of traditional governments as they exist.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Clarity is always useful, which is what I spoke to in implementation. We would prefer clarity to the extent it can be produced in the bill.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, and I can totally affirm that this was a cause for concern expressed by our people.

Canadian Heritage committee  In the course of our engagements, people expressed concern about this kind of activity and measure being lodged outside their own communities. I believe it stems from the fact that people believe the languages are theirs, and if there's going to be recording, archiving and preservation it should be done by them.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the clause comes from the fact that if there are indigenous parties or indigenous groups or communities out there who would like the support from external entities that perhaps they can ask them to help, which is really a capacity-building measure, as I would understand it.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, we did encounter in the engagements the views that, for instance, traditional governments may not be reflected in the language. We heard that view, that the legislation should be expansive in terms of contemplating with whom governments should engage, let's say with respect to matters of funding.

Canadian Heritage committee  We worked in a codevelopment context that perhaps benefited from some earlier work that has taken place between governments. Whether those were elected as Liberal governments or Conservative governments, there have been instances of some joint work and variations on that. In my view, because I have been involved in other initiatives, this effort was probably my best experience in terms of working in a joint process, but I can only speak for myself and my experience with it.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Meegwetch. [Witness spoke in Anishinabek] [English] Thank you for the invitation to come and speak to the committee. I can speak primarily to the codevelopment process, which I was involved in, and I do want to point out that I am here on an independent basis.