ICC asks for more power

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The Indian Claims Commission (ICC) is seeking an expanded role in the federal land claims settlement process, recommending it be given the power to conduct the initial review of claims, and to make binding decisions regarding those claims.

The ICC is an independent body, established in 1991, mandated to examine land claims that have been rejected by the federal government.

In its 1998/99 annual report, released April 13, the ICC makes three recommendations designed to speed up the settlement of Native land claims. The first of those recommendations, if acted upon by the federal government, would see the commission expand its mandate, giving it the power to accept or reject claims without them first having to be rejected by the federal government, and make commission decisions on claims binding on the parties involved.

Under the current system, claims must first be submitted to the federal government for decision, and only those rejected by Canada are then sent to the ICC for review. This process raises two problems, the report states, the first being that it puts Canada in the position of deciding on a claim against itself, and the second being the amount of time it takes for the Crown to rule on a claim.

This expanded mandate for the ICC, the report explained, would be an interim measure until a permanent independent claims body is created. Creation of a permanent, independent claims body has been something the ICC has been recommending to government in its annual reports for a number of years.

The other two recommendations involve increased funding for the Department of Indian Affairs' Specific Claims Branch and the Department of Justice's Legal Services in order to provide the resources necessary to accelerate the claims process, and the creation of an inventory of outstanding and potential land claims. This inventory, the report explains, would not only increase public awareness regarding land claims, but could also accelerate the settlement process, allowing First Nations with similar claims to work together and submit their claims as a group.

Sheila Purdy is a commissioner with the ICC, appointed in May 1999. Purdy explained the commission is recommending changes to strengthen the role of the ICC in response to continued inaction on creation of a permanent claims body.

Because an independant body has not been established, the commissioners felt that a temporary step would be to enhance some of the mandate of the claims commission, she said.

"You can look at it as an incremental step towards getting an independent claims body, and that would at least take the federal government out of the perceived conflict of interest that it's in. So we thought that it would be one positive step that could be taken. And the other positive step that would be taken is that, whereas now the commission can only make recommendations to the federal government once it reviews a claim that has been rejected - and that could take two or three years as well, and at the end of the day we recommend whether or not the government should now accept the claim - the change under our annual report is that we would have binding authority to make those decisions, so they would no longer just be recommendations. They would be actual decisions," Purdy said.

"And in fact, when the commission was established as a royal commission, it was on the basis that it would be temporary. So there was the anticipation that there would be some kind of permanent body that would be set up, an independent body of some sort. And of course other people have made similar recommendations, going back probably 30, 40 years. So we were just one voice of many. But in the most recent, very persuasive work done by the joint task force between the AFN and the federal government, they actually spelled out what an independent body would look like. And so, there has been an expectation, certainly, that we would move toward establishing an independent claims body, but e haven't seen it yet."

She said there are 450 claims currently within the department of Indian Affairs, or that have not been resolved in the process.

"So there's a bottle neck that is developing right there, and I believe that they are getting in something like 60 new claims each year," Purdy said.

"I don't think we're exaggerating when we say that the system is almost paralyzed or that it's grinding to a halt, because . . .at some point, the people within government cannot deal with the backlog, and our recommendation, I think, reflects that. That if the government isn't prepared to put more people on these files, both within Indian Affairs and the Department of Justice, that we cannot be effective. We simply can't. We cannot deal with the rejected claims in an efficient way."

Nicole Dakin, a spokeswoman with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, provided a response by the federal government to the ICC annual report.

"We appreciate the work of the ICC and its perspective on the efficiency and effectiveness of the specific claims policy and procedures," Dakin said.

"In addition to participating in inquiries over the past year . . . Canada has accepted for negotiation 14 of the claims in the ICC inquiry process and settled one. So we've maintained an ongoing dialogue with the ICC to address issues of mutual concern, and Canada has responded to the ICC's encouragements to create new mechanisms for the resolution of claims by continuing this work on those lines," Dakin said.