A/HRC/27/52/Add.2 91. In consultation with indigenous authorities, the Government should take measures to streamline reporting procedures under contribution agreements to alleviate unnecessary or overlapping reporting requirements. 92. New laws, policies and programmes that affect indigenous peoples should be developed in consultation and true partnership with them. The federal and provincial/territorial governments should not push forward with laws, policies or programmes where significant opposition by indigenous governments and leadership still exists. 93. With respect to legislation recently passed—including the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act, the Family Homes on Reserves and Matrimonial Interests or Rights Act, and the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity omnibus legislation— Canada should ensure that these laws are only implemented following meaningful consultation, with a view to obtaining the consent of the indigenous peoples to which they will apply, and with accommodation of their concerns. 94. Concerted efforts should be taken to address outstanding concerns related to gender discrimination in determining eligibility for registration under the Indian Act, and to adopt where possible a more flexible approach that takes into account indigenous peoples’ own criteria for membership. 95. The federal Government should work with indigenous peoples in international border areas, in particular the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne, to remove barriers to their free movement within their traditional territories. 5. Treaty negotiation and claims processes 96. Concerted measures should be adopted to deal with the outstanding problems that have impeded progress with the treaty negotiation and claims processes. Moreover, within these processes the Government should take a less adversarial, position-based approach than the one in which it typically seeks the most restrictive interpretation of aboriginal and treaty rights possible. In this regard, the Government should instead acknowledge that the public interest is not opposed to, but rather includes, aboriginal concerns. 97. Canada should take active measures to develop a procedure for addressing outstanding Métis land claims, to avoid having to litigate cases individually, and enter into negotiations with Métis representatives to reach agreements towards this end. 6. Resource development 98. In accordance with the Canadian Constitution and relevant international human rights standards, as a general rule resource extraction should not occur on lands subject to aboriginal claims without adequate consultations with and the free, prior and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned. Also, Canada should endeavour to put in place a policy framework for implementing the duty to consult that allows for indigenous peoples’ genuine input and involvement at the earliest stages of project development. 99. Resource development projects, where they occur, should be fully consistent with aboriginal and treaty rights, and should in no case be prejudicial to unsettled claims. The federal and provincial governments should strive to maximize the control of indigenous peoples themselves over extractive operations on their lands and the development of benefits derived therefrom. 22