Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for your inspiring words, Chief Adamek.
My thanks to you also, Chief Bertrand.
Thanks also to our witness appearing by teleconference.
I live in Lévis, across from Quebec City, where we have a very dynamic maple industry. Bellechasse is considered the home of the world’s maple industry. We have membrane filtration technology, pumping systems, telemetry apparatus, but basically it is all built on indigenous knowledge. We have actually inherited maple sap from the communities that once occupied the territory of Bellechasse. They were probably Malecites.
In your presentation, you spoke of commemorating that. It is important for the people of Bellechasse to remember the origins of a sector that creates a lot of jobs and exports a lot of products to the United States. You talked about celebrating and commemorating that heritage.
Before you, we heard from witnesses who told us about residential schools. Education came out of those discussions a lot.
There is also the principle of recognition, which we of course support. When I was Minister of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Bernard, I had the opportunity to take part in the June 21 ceremonies with indigenous peoples. For me, it was a wonderful gateway through which to recognize the indigenous contribution to modern Canada, and their sacrifices.
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How will we be able to reconcile it all? We do not just want a day off. People love days off, as do I. However, we want a day that has significance. How can we make sure that future generations will be fully aware of indigenous issues?
As Mr. Boissonnault mentioned, we must not simply have commemoration and celebration activities, we must also have education. How can we ensure that education? What tools can help us to achieve the objective of this bill? How can we focus it, so that people do not just have a day off without knowing why?