NNSL (Aug 25/97) - Jane Stewart says the creation of an independent commission to settle land claims is one of her top priorities as the new minister of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

"We have been working very hard in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations to see if we can't come up with a specific claims commission that would be independent and considerably more neutral that would be accepted as a common body for doing the research on claims," she said during her recent two-day visit to the NWT.

Stewart, appointed to the post in early June, said that such a commission that would do much of the legwork to enable land claims to be settled faster and cheaper.

"Right now the First Nations is doing it, the federal government does it -- in my mind, if we had a neutral body that we both appreciated and respected doing the research, we could save money, save time, and I think move ahead more effectively," she said.

The commission, the Liberal government's first concrete response to a recommendation of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which was released last fall, would take the form of a new independent claim commission.

Ottawa is still talking to the Assembly of First Nations about membership criteria for such a group.

"It would be a commission of people -- Canadians, who would be independent -- who would receive the claims, do the research, and make a determination as to whether it should be negotiated or not," she said.

In an interview with News/North earlier this month, Stewart also said that the readiness of the federal government to initiate a means to settle land claims faster indicates the importance of the whole notion of getting the land claims settled with the aboriginal groups.

"I think one of the things that, more generally, we need to do -- and there seems to be a very strong awareness of it here in the territories -- is just the awareness of the importance of settling land claims and the impact that it has ... on surrounding communities and regions, and the country," she said.

Stewart said that completing land claims gives people a certainty about issues and allows them to move ahead together.

"I think it's building on that awareness and understanding and making sure that it's more fully and generally appreciated by Canadians in terms of the importance of this," she added.